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A Reminder: New Year, Same King

December 31, 2007 By Leave a Comment

This Sunday, Park Community Church was honored to have Victor Rodriguez,
Senior Pastor of La Villita Community Church here in Chicago give the last message of the year. Victor is a differencemaker in Chicago and leads a congregation in the “Little Village ” area of Chicago located around 26th street and Kedzie.

Little Village is the retail, residential and cultural capital of the Mexican community in the Midwest—a neighborhood alive with Mexican arts and culture, and a great place to live for both longtime residents and new immigrants. Over the past 30 years, Little Village has become a major port of entry for Mexican immigrants, and more than half of its residents are under the age of 25.

As we begin to think about our new year’s resolutions, Victor implored us to get to know the King better in his message. His message was a strong reminder of the King we serve and this video he played is a great reminder of all that Jesus is, qwhat he does and what He will always be:

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Filed Under: Church, DifferenceMakers, Inside Park, Missional, Sunday Services, The City, Urban Church

Coaching Legend Bill Walsh Dead at 75

July 30, 2007 By Leave a Comment

One of my heroes died today. I am sad to see that Bill Walsh, the groundbreaking football coach who won three Super Bowls and perfected “the West Coast offense” during a Hall of Fame career with the San Francisco 49ers, has died. He was 75. Walsh died early Monday following a long battle with leukemia, according to Stanford University, where he served as coach and athletic director. This was a man of high integrity who used his position to develop players and coaches. As Walsh overhauled the 49ers from 2-14 in ’79 into a Super Bowl champion in only three seasons, a remarkable succession of young coaches was spawned from the 49ers’ burgeoning dynasty. Listen to the names. Mike Holmgren. Mike White. Ray Rhodes. Sam Wyche. Bruce Coslet. George Seifert. Dennis Green. All of them were direct hires of Walsh and all of them became NFL head coaches. Most of them went on to develop another generation of coaches. Today, 14 of the NFL’s 32 head coaches are either direct descendants, or second- and-third generation disciples, of Walsh’s investment of time, talent and resources into his coaches.

He will be missed.

Filed Under: Breaking News, DifferenceMakers

Check out our First YouTube Video: Baptism 2007

July 26, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Park is now officially a YouTube broadcaster! Check out the musical slideshow of the awesome baptisms of 71 people on the beaches of Lake Michigan in the shadow the the awesome Chicago skyline from Sunday, July 22nd.

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Filed Under: Chicago, Church, DifferenceMakers, Inside Park, Missional, Sunday Services

Cheney is President!

July 21, 2007 By Leave a Comment

CheneyAt this very moment, Dick Cheney is the President of the United States of America!

Sound a little crazy? It isn’t. For only the third time in modern history, the Vice President has assumed presidential powers as President Bush invoked the Constitution’s presidential disability clause. will have a colonoscopy Saturday and temporarily hand Presidential powers to Vice President Dick Cheney, the White House said. Press secretary Tony Snow told reporters Friday that Bush will have a colonoscopy procedure looking for signs of cancer at his Camp David, Md., mountaintop retreat. In transferring power while under anesthesia, Bush is electing to implement Section 3 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, making Cheney acting president until Bush indicates he is prepared to reassume his authority.

President Reagan was the first to invoke the Constitution’s 25th Amendment since its adoption in 1967 as a means of dealing with presidential disability and succession, and President Bush invoked it in 2002 for a colonoscopy where he was sedated for a 1/2 hour.

Isn’t the working of our constitution really cool?

Filed Under: Breaking News, DifferenceMakers

Differencemakers: Golf to God

July 7, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Scott LehmanI love golf and am excited about a successful ministry founded by a professional golfer that is using golf to help others find Jesus on the fairways. This ministry is called “In His Grip” Golf Association, a ministry that teaches churches how to use golf as a way to share the Gospel. Founder Scott Lehman said he got the idea for In His Grip from driving by golf courses on Sunday mornings and seeing men teeing off instead of going to church.

“A lot of Sundays, you go by the golf course and they’re really packed,” Lehman said. “We felt like there was an opportunity to take our faith to the fairways and just meet them (golfers) where they’re at and introduce them to the church and ultimately to Jesus Christ.”

In His Grip holds training workshops for churches and shows them how to host golf tournaments to reach out to men who aren’t active church-goers. Scott said “Golf courses are ideal places to share the Gospel because it takes hours to play a round, and it’s easy to talk while walking along fairways and riding in golf carts”. In His Grip held its first tournament nearly 10 years ago and has hosted about 150 tournaments across the country.  Lehman, 46, a golf teaching professional, holds training sessions for churches in different regions of the country. “Our vision is to reach every golfer in every nation,” Lehman said. “Right now we’re seeing a big trend of churches looking to meet people outside the four walls of the church, and this is a strategy to help them do that.”

I love this ministry that is going out to reach those who would not otherwise attend church!   They even have a Golfer’s Bible printed that intersperses throughout the biblical text thirty-two full-color pages of inspirational messages teed up to reach the golfer’s heart, plus thirty-two more pages of devotions at the back of this special edition. Check it out!

Filed Under: DifferenceMakers, Methods & Strategies, Missional, Sunday Services, The Cultural Conversation

Mothers Day tidbits

May 13, 2007 By Leave a Comment

What is a Mom worth? A lot if you ask me!

On this weekend when much of America takes time out to salute the Mothers out there, this is a timely questions to ponder……..A recent study by Salary.com pegs Mom’s annual financial worth at $134,121 annually. For moms that also work out of the house, they deserve an additional $85,876 annual compensation for their additional “mom jobs” preformed outside of their normal working hours on their regular paying job. The top ten primary duties of American moms are housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, CEO and psychologist. Adding to the list of job titles, on average, stay-at-home moms are working 91.6 hours at being a mom while working mothers add an additional 44 hours of mommy work to their already overloaded regular job.

HISTORY:

The first Mother’s Day observance was a church service in 1908 requested by Anna Jarvis, of Philadelphia, to honor her deceased mother. Jarvis, at an early age, had heard her mother express hope that a day to commemorate all mothers would be established.                    [Read more...]

Filed Under: DifferenceMakers

Chicago DifferenceMakers – Pacific Garden

May 6, 2007 By Leave a Comment

The Pacific Garden mission is close to moving in their new home and they have been a Chicago DifferenceMaker for more than 130 years, as untold thousands have come to know the love of Christ through this national institution. Yea PGM– Congrats on the new digs!

America’s Largest Continuously Operating Rescue Mission Prepares for Move to New State-of-The-Art-Facility

New building digital rendering

CHICAGO, IL (Assist News Service) – After being located at 646 South State Street since 1923, Chicago’s Pacific Garden Mission (PGM) is a few short months away from moving into a new 150,000 square foot state-of-the-art rescue mission. In addition to the benefit of bringing all its ministry services under one roof, the functional, three-story facility has been planned with Green environmentally friendly design principles and renewable energy technologies in mind.

At the building’s 2005 groundbreaking ceremony, PGM President David McCarrell traced the history and longevity of the mission. He stated, “For 128 years, Pacific Garden Mission has served the spiritual and social needs of the less fortunate citizens of Chicago. This new state-of-the-art facility will enable us to address the spiritual and physical needs more effectively in a building that is LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] certified and environmentally friendly.”

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Adaptive Reuse, Chicago, Church, DifferenceMakers, Methods & Strategies, Missional, The City, Urban Church
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