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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

What Are Characteristics of a Missional Church?

May 5, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Our church, Park Commmunity Church, is in the middle of a key series called “Missional Living in the City” and we are learning what it means to be ‘on mission’ in the city. Here’s another take on it from Tim Keller, Senior Pastor of Reedeemer Presebyterian Church, who gives a 5 minute summary of the characteristics of a missional church.

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Filed Under: Methods & Strategies, Missional, The City, The Cultural Conversation

Bob Lupton at Park on Sunday

April 27, 2007 By Leave a Comment

We are so excited to have Bob Lupton speaking at all three of Park’s church services this Sunday, April 29, 2007 on “Seeking Shalom in the City”, addressing the issue of our response to gentrification in the city, as we continue our series “Missional Living”.

As Park continues to expand, and looks at reaching more and more people as part of our goal to reach one percent of Chicago (30,000 people) in the years to come, we need to come to grips with gentrification and its impact on the well-being of the city of Chicago. Bob speaks from 34 years of experience as a Christian real estate developer and an active member of the CCDA.

Invite a Friend via E-vite here.

Bob Lupton is a Christian community developer and an entrepreneur who brings together communities of resource with communities of need, and has invested more than 34 years of his life in inner-city Atlanta.   [Read more...]

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

Exponential Conference: Driscoll

April 26, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Mark Driscoll gave a message via video to all the 1,800 church planters in attendance at the 2007 National New Church Conference. The video was done all outside, in a cemetery with hundreds of identical grave markers (looked like a WW1 graveyard — anyone know where?). The visual helped everyone see the uphill battle that a church planter faces as he begins to build a vision and a team. He was clear and concise (8 min), and focused on three main things needed for a successful church planter — the man, the mission and the message:

  1. The Church Planter Man, needs to be:
    1. Called to Plant
    2. Strong
    3. Competent
    4. Have a good theology
    5. Be able to articulate a clear message
    6. Have a clear God-given mission
  2. The Mission – to get the men
    1. Has to be able to gather the right team
    2. A clear role is to disciple men
    3. Given the 60/40 women/men ratio Barna speaks about, you have to get men to win in the long term
    4. Men who make the step to go to church want to know how to be a man
  3. The Message of the Gospel
    1. Planters will only succeed to the extent that they proclaim the Gospel message.
    2. The Gospel message is really what it is all about.

    Here is his video (see my Hybels entry above about the content of this video, then watch it)

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Filed Under: Church, Methods & Strategies, Missional

An Audience of One

April 22, 2007 By 1 Comment

As we continue our series at Park Community Church on Missional Living in the city, I was reminded in Jackson Crum’s message today that in everything I do and am, I only have an audience of one. Not to fear man, or others, I need to fear and worship the God of the Universe. We are all called to missional living for an audience of One. Now we know that to non-Christians, an audience of one may sound absurd. Even to modern day Christians, this is not something truly practiced or emphasized. Christ wants our undivided attention. He wants us to be captivated only to him. Maybe you wonder why we do we need to focus on an audience of one? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Missional, Powerful Passages, The Cultural Conversation

2007 National New Church Conference

April 18, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Several of us have been graciously been given the opportunity to attend the 2007 National New Church Conference next week and it is going to be a great one. The National New Church Conference is a cross-denominational gathering designed to connect, inspire, equip and challenge church planting leaders to the next level of collaboration. Speakers will include Bill Hybels, Wayne Cordeiro, Ed Stetzer, Dave Ferguson, Bob Roberts, Bil Cornelius, Mark Batterson, Jim Putman, Rick Rusaw, Matt Chandler, Darrin Patrick, Shawn Lovejoy, Vince Antonucci, Bob Logan, David Putman, and more. and several others. As Park looks to make a bigger impact in Chicago through multisite and church planting, the sheer energy that will come out of this conference will give us all a great emotional boost!Check out this interview by Ed Stetzer of Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Its part of the 2007 National New Church Conference podcast which is available at http://exponentialconference.org/podcasting/. In addition to this interview there are a bunch of great messages available from Dave Ferguson, Ron Sylvia, Dan Smith, Bob Roberts, John Burke and many more.

Filed Under: Chicago, Church, Methods & Strategies, Missional, The City, The Cultural Conversation, Urban Church

The Logic of Believing

April 17, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Caught this today about trash can lid logic and God, and it made perfect sense as I thought about the last paragraph…

““Now, I’m a gambler, you know?” He smiled. We both smiled. He was, we both knew — everybody knew — the best at all betting games in the neighborhood. “And suppose I had to decide between putting down a bet on two teams. And if the first team won, I might lose everything I had, forever, or I might break even. But if I bet on the second team, I would either break even, or I would win everything — everything that any man could ever want. Now, who am I going to bet on?”

The second team, I said. “Smart kid,” said Pasquale.

Filed Under: Missional, The City

Jeremy Camp Says It All

March 27, 2007 By Leave a Comment


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My Desire
Jeremy Camp

These last few months have been hard ones for me. We are running flat out and everyone is tired, yet God is at work among us. In these times, I search for songs where others have put into words and music the feeling and desire of my heart. Jeremy Camp says it all in this song MY DESIRE. We want to get rid of all the false pretensions in our life and have a flourishing and vibrant relationship with our Abba Father, and to be used by Him in a mighty way to further the Kingdom. Just close your eyes and take a listen:

You want to be real, you want to be empty inside
You want to be someone laying down your pride
You want to be someone someday
Then lay it all down before the king

You want to be whole, you want to have purpose inside
You want to have virtue and purify your mind

You want to be set free today
Then lay it all down before the King

This is my desire, this is my return
This is my desire to be used by You

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Missional, Music That Moves, The City

Are You Missional?

December 27, 2006 By Leave a Comment

“A missional church is not about programs, but rather is a distinct church culture. Churches, like any organism, adopt and are influenced by culture. Culture can be identified by observing behaviors. In fact, culture is the set of underlying values that drive our behavior. We act like we do, because we believe what we do. The only way to evaluate culture is through analyzing actions. The following assessment gauges responses to statements about the behaviors of a church in order to provide a framework for dialogue concerning the compatibility of the church with a missional culture.”

With all this talk of missional churches, do you onder where you are on the missional curve? You can take a short assessment here at xpastor.org to see where you fall on the missional scale. This assessment is based on Milfred Minatrea’s book Shaped By God’s Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches. Some of the terms used in the assessment are technical and defined in the book. You can order the book here from Amazon. Your answers will be charted and sent to you.

In my role as an executive pastor, I am always on the hunt for good resources, and have found this site, XPastor.org, a site run by David Fletcher, an Exec Pastor in Austion, Texas, to be a good one for executive pastors. Check it out!

Filed Under: Methods & Strategies, Missional

Joseph: The High Cost of Righteousness

November 28, 2006 By Leave a Comment

From LeadershipJournal.net:

As the film “The Nativity Story” (see the trailer) arrives this Friday to theaters to great fanfare, John Ortberg has a great article this week looking at Joseph, and the high cost of righteousness in Joseph’s life. Typically Joseph is a bit player in the Christmas story, and is relegated to a supporting role during most of our Christian Christmas pageantry. However, Ortberg really gives us an insight into the cost of righteousness. I love this article and shared this with our leaders this week — it is a powerful reminder that there is a cost to following Christ.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Missional, Powerful Passages

Missional Worship – Nov 27

November 16, 2006 By Leave a Comment

At Park Community Church, we are committed to the Arts in the city.  We draw a wide range of folks in our body, from world-class painters to Lyric Opera musicians.  Our Worship team is committed to taking Jesus to the streets and one way we do this is through playing gigs at open mic nights. Last month we had an awesome time at the Abbey up on Elston and Irving Park and now we turn to the Grafton for our third Music Ministry Open Mic night at The Grafton Pub, on Nov 27 starting at 9pm. This month we will be featuring:

Jim Dougherty
Rob Toal
Brian Ralph
BeckyJohnson
Luke Quantsrom

Come and bring a friend or two and join the team at:

The Grafton Pub 9PM, 11/27/2006
4530. N. Lincoln, Chicago IL 60625,

773.271.9000

Let’s support these folks but more importantly, let’s be missional and keep it going strong.
You can work off some of that holiday weight by comin’ out and supporting our aspiring rock stars! This is also a great opportunity to bring a friend along who has not been exposed to a real Godly community.

P.S. We’re always looking for more acts. If you would like to be on the bill, let Mike Lee know. Our next event will be in a month or so.

Filed Under: Chicago, Church, Missional, The City, Weblog
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