Burma Disaster Relief: Park To Send a 10,000 gallon/day Water Purifier May 9, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Volunteers, Church, Urban Church, The Cultural Conversation, DifferenceMakers, Entrepreneuring, Faith at Work , add a commentAs many of you are already aware, last weekend Tropical cyclone Nargis claimed thousands of lives in Myanmar early Saturday morning 2:30am. By daylight, the full effect of the storm was obvious. Homes were destroyed, giant trees crashed through buildings, and were lying uprooted, blocking roads. Blackouts, water shortages and rapidly rising prices were reported in Rangoon, a city of 5 million people. The cost of gasoline has tripled since Saturday.
International news organizations are not allowed to report from Myanmar, but the news that is trickling out is horrifying. The death toll is estimated to be at least 100,000 and another 41,000 are missing.
Jackson and the elders would like to invite you to pray right now for the people of Myanmar, especially those who have lost husbands, wives and children - and those whose loved ones are still missing. And as you sit down for your lunches and dinners this week, continue to pray for this country which is in terrific need.
We will be taking a special offering during our services the next two weeks which will go directly to relief efforts in this devastated country. Hundreds of thousands of people in Myanmar are suffering in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. They need your help, and quickly.We will provide envelopes for you to put your donations in, so please come prepared to give.
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Here is a quick update to all our readers about where Park will be redirecting its special offerings this week for relief efforts in Myanmar. There have been many questions about how relief is going to get there with the military junta not allowing aid relief workers in and seizing aid shipments. We have been working to find a relief agency that is onsite and able to get our donations and use them in a way that will get aid to the people in Myanmar as quickly as possible.
We will be collecting donations for Water Missions International based in South Carolina. They are working with World Vision, which has had a national office in Myanmar for 40 years,and Samaritan’s Purse to provide water purification units.
Our goal is to raise $15,000 to buy a water purification unit which will provide at minimum 10,000 gallons of fresh water daily to help meet immediate needs in this devastated area. Also, this unit will be part of an ongoing community development program which will continue to help provide clean water for years to come.
Water Mission International has already deployed 12 units to Myanmar as of this morning (details here) that they knew would get through. They want to be good stewards of the donated resources and ensure that needs are being met, so units will not be sent until it is confirmed that the resources will reach the people in need. World Vision is aware of the situation and will let Water Missions know when shipments can begin.
Volunteer help will be needed upon assurance that the resources will be received, so Park will be sending a team to South Carolina to help assemble the unit we provide before it is shipped to Myanmar. Details will follow.
Continue to pray for this horrific situation, for those affected, and those working to provide aid. And please come prepared to give this weekend.
If you have additional questions about Park’s response, please email Scott Clifton.
Reminder: We are in the Hope Business February 25, 2008
Posted by Steve in : The City, Chicago, Volunteers, Church, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies, The Cultural Conversation, Culture and Faith , add a commentAs we see more and more people step over the line of faith each week at Park Community Church, I was reminded this week in an article by John Ortberg, Senior Pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church that as Christians, we are in the hope business. And as a leader, the one task a leader can never delegate, especially in the church, is hope.
As leaders, we need to be hope leaders, not forgetting our sins and failures but coming to the cross, confessing, learning from it and continually reminding ourselves that we live with hope, under grace. As a leader, we need to surround ourselves in ministry with those who can breathe hope and energy into our lives so we can do the same with those we lead. This may be outsiders or may be your ministry team.
When people see a leader with this kind of vital optimism, who radiates a sense that together we can do what needs to be done, then people tend to decide not to waste their energy wondering about “if” but focus their energy going after “how.”
Check out the article.
Park’s 1st Leader Zone Meeting a Success! February 18, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Volunteers, Family, Church, Inside Park, Leader Zone , add a comment
In 2007, we are striving to be more intentional about growing and developing our leadership community at Park Community Church. One of the ways we are going to invest in our leaders is through quarterly meetings, where we will bring the entire leadership community together for a dinner, here about what God is doing through us and amongst us, provide in-depth communication about what is happening at Park and where we are going, and hear from Jackson.
We had our first Quarterly “Leader Zone” leader meeting last Thursday night and it got good reviews. More than 150 of our leaders met at the Kitsch’n restaurant and got a chance to have dinner together, hear some great testimonies from folks at Park, and hear Jackson talk about our 2007 goal of having every leader reproduce themselves as we grow. We got a chance to get an update on the building construction (check out our ParkCAM), the Imagine More campaign, and leadership updates.
Leaders, thanks for your commitment to coming alongside the work that God is doing here in Chicago - we have lots more to do but there is a strong energy and enthusiasm among the leadership core and it contagious! The elder and staff love doing ministry with you folks!
Be sure to mark your calendars for the next meeting on May 10th! A mp3 of the message will be posted here next week for those who missed it!
Volunteers in America July 5, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Volunteers , add a commentJUNE 25 — Last week, a study released by the Corporation for National and Community Service found that between 2003 and 2005, the greatest percentage of volunteers, 34.8 percent, do so primarily through religious organizations. The CNCS study listed Utah as having the highest rate of volunteerism at 48 percent. Nebraska followed next with 42.8 percent. Alabama was ranked 32nd overall, with a rate of 28.6 percent. Our own Illinois finished 28th out of 50 states.The study also found that women in every state volunteered at a higher rate than men. In Illinois, 33.6 percent of women volunteered, compared to 26.7 percent of men.
Regionally, the Midwest topped the rankings, where 33.3 percent of residents volunteered, while the South’s rate of volunteering, at 27.4 percent, was lower than the Midwest and West, where 29.2 percent volunteered. The Northeast was lowest, with 25.8 percent of residents volunteering.
Even China is getting in on the volunteer bandwagon. China is encouraging volunteer service in its communities and expecting to have a participation rate of 8 percent in 2008, up from currently 3 percent, an official in charge of community work said.
This is good information to help us look at our own results and to allow us to benchmark ourselves. We did a detailed survey of our church family in February 2006 during our Sunday services and found that we too, have about 1/3 of our people involved in volunteering.
As we look at the information within our body , I guess I expected it to be much higher than the community at large. Why is this not 75%-80%? Why are we as a body not willing to look at the immense grace we have received from God through Jesus Christ, then know and feel the call to serve others out of that grace?
In our church family survey, we asked some heart questions, including “Serving others in our city is one of the most important things I can do” – more than 70 percent of the people strongly agreed with that statement. The paradox is that people know in their heart that they are made to love and serve their neighbor yet, taking that first step seems to be a huge issue. At Park, we have tried to break down that step with the formation of our OneServe ministry, led by Jen Cousino, who has done a fabulous job in creating an one-time exposure to serving for folks that will allow them to sample the various opportunities without the worry of being “sucked into” something for a year or two that may not be what you want to do. More thoughts to follow
Importance of Volunteers June 16, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Volunteers , add a commentJust got home from our volunteer appreciation dinner for our top-notch communications team, and I was struck by the investment these folks make in using their talents for the Kingdom. Each is well-regarded in their part of the communications marketplace, yet are willing to invest countless hours to help us at the church take concepts and ideas and put them into words and graphics on our stewardship campaign and our weekly Sunday graphics that are able to help others engage with God. We thank them for their willingness to partner with God on this great journey!
