Steve Lavey | 20 Million Minutes

Are you part of an Expeditionary Force? April 20, 2008

Posted by Steve in : The City, Breaking News, Church, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies, Missional, The Cultural Conversation, DifferenceMakers, Culture and Faith, Faith at Work , add a comment

The Missional Challenge has an excellent article about the local church becoming a Expeditionary Force in the city — take a read…..

Dr. Ray Bakke describes the church as an expeditionary force in The Urban Christian (1987). He views Christians as ministers to their worlds of relationships. For example, a banker who is a Christian doesn’t simply serve at his church by teaching Sunday School or being on the Finance Committee. Instead, he would “identify a mission within the bank, perhaps running a Bible Study with his colleagues or even planning resources to help build up neglected neighborhoods.” (p 132)

Bakke sees several advantages to an urban church which sees itself as an Expeditionary Force, emphasizing its role to “go” on mission into the city:

It legitimizes the call to lay mission

It reaches more widely and follows the urban twenty-four-hour clock

It fulfills the need of specialized urban people to affirm their personal vocations as their ministry

“In this model the pastoral task is to help these members identify, plan for and equip themselves for their diverse ministry opportunities.” (p 132)

Where are you in your vocation as a missionary force?

Can you imagine the missionary force that could be released in every town and neighborhood in America if local churches would begin to see themselves as an expeditionary force? <MORE>

Willow To Eliminate Mid-Week Service April 17, 2008

Posted by Steve in : Chicago, Breaking News, Sunday Services, Church, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies, The Cultural Conversation, Culture and Faith , add a comment

(Christianity Today.com) For three decades Willow has been focused on making the church appealing to seekers. But its detailed and thorough research (summarized in their new book REVEAL) shows that it’s the mature believers that drive everything in the church—including evangelism. Greg Hawkins, the Executive Pastor says, “We used to think you can’t upset a seeker. But while focusing on that we’ve really upset the Christ-centered people.” He spoke about the high levels of dissatisfaction mature believer have with churches. Drawing from the 200 churches and the 57,000 people that have taken the survey, he said that most people are leaving the church because they’re not being challenged enough. Because it’s the mature Christians who drive evangelism in the church Hawkins says, “Our strategy to reach seekers is now about focusing on the mature believers. This is a huge shift for Willow.”

One major implementation of this shift will occur in June when Willow ends their mid-week worship services that had been geared toward believers. Instead the church will morph these mid-week events into classes for people at different stages of growth. There will be theological and bible classes full of “hard-hitting stuff.” Hawkins said most people are very enthusiastic about the change.

On the seeker end of the spectrum, Willow is also changing how they produce their weekend services. For years the value people appreciated most about the seeker-oriented weekend services was anonymity. This is what all their research showed. People didn’t want to be identified, approached, confronted, or asked to do anything. But those days are over. “Anonymity is not the driving value for seeker services anymore,” says Hawkins. “We’ve taken anonymity and shot it in the head. It’s dead. Gone.” In the past Willow believed that seekers didn’t want large doses of the Bible or deep worship music. They didn’t want to be challenged. Now their seeker-sensitive services are loaded with worship music, prayer, Scripture readings, and more challenging teaching from the Bible.

Willow has been wrestling with the research from REVEAL since 2004. Hawkins said, “We’ve tried incremental changes for four years, but now we know we have to overhaul our whole strategy.” Small steps are no longer the method; Willow is revamping everything. “It would be malpractice for us to not do something with what we’re learning.”

In the larger REVEAL survey taken by 200 churches, people were asked what they want most from their church. Three of the top four responses were:

1. Help me understand the Bible in greater depth
2. Help me develop a closer personal relationship with Christ
3. Challenge me to grow and take the next step in my faith

Hawkins said that sometimes Willow gets accused of managing the church based on market research; of simply giving people what they want. “Look at what they want!” he said while pointing to the screen. “They want the Bible, they want to be close to Christ, they want to be challenged. Yes, we will give them what they want!”

Convictions About Worship - What are Yours? February 18, 2008

Posted by Steve in : Chicago, Sunday Services, Methods & Strategies, The Arts in the City, Music That Moves , add a comment

I recently came across this list of Saddleback Church’s 12 Convictions about Worship and have been thinking a lot about worship in the Park Community Church context as we get ready to move into a new building and begin to explore potential how multi-site locations might further the work that God is doing in our midst.

Here is what Rick Warren says about their worship convictions:

Jesus’ ministry attracted enormous crowds. The Bible tells us that crowds followed him wherever he went. I believe that a Christ-like ministry still attracts crowds today. You don’t need gimmicks. You don’t need to compromise your convictions. You don’t need to water down your message. If you minister to people the way Jesus did, they’ll want to be around your ministry like they did his.

But how do you develop a worship service that’ll minister to those crowds each weekend? It’s important that you figure out why you do what you do before you figure out what your worship service will include. At Saddleback, 12 convictions determine how we minister to the crowds on the weekends. Here’s why we do what we do in our worship services.

1. Only believers can truly worship God.

2. You don’t need a building to worship God.

3. There is no correct style of worship.

4. While unbelievers can’t worship, they can watch believers worship.

5. Worship is a powerful witness to unbelievers if God’s presence is felt and the message is understandable.

6. God expects us to be sensitive to the fears, hang-ups, and the needs of unbelievers when they are present in our worship services.

7. Worship services do not have to be shallow to be evangelistic, and the message does not have to be compromised. It just has to be understandable.

8. The needs of believers and unbelievers often overlap.

9. It’s best to specialize your services according to purpose.

10. A service geared toward non-believers is meant to supplement personal evangelism, not replace it.

11. There is no standard way to design an evangelistic worship service.

12. It takes unselfish mature believers to offer an evangelistic worship service. This is the most important of all.

Here are the original posts with supporting thoughts by Rick Warren at pastors.com here and here. He goes more in-depth into each of his points in the articles, which are well worth reading. What do you think? What are your convictions about worship as we seek to introduce the God of the universe to all people in Chicago?

Chicago Photo of the Week January 12, 2008

Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a comment

As we enjoyed the warm weather last week, here is a shot of the Chicago River with the Trump Tower prominent in the shot. Don’t we live in the best city in the world?

Source: Riva

Children’s Christmas Play December 6, 2007

Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a comment

All the kids from are hard at work on their Christmas play and today they spent the day building the manger in Al and Deanna Wilson’s garage. Look at these proud future construction managers! (Click on photo for bigger version).

Mat Barber Kennedy: A Gift to Park December 4, 2007

Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a comment

For the last few years, I have had the privilege of hanging out and getting to know Mat Barber Kennedy, a gifted artist in the Park body, who has made a living as a watercolorist both in the US and across the pond in England. Mat is an accomplished painter, a professor of arts, a excellent guitarist, a loving husband to Sherry and a cool dad.

As we have completed the PREPARING FOR MORE seaason, Mat has graciously painted a watercolor of the new building and its strategic position in the shadow of the skyline and has donated it to the church so that they could make it available to the body and generate funds for the new ministry center.

If you are interested in getting a copy, either in a signed limited edition print or a poster, please contact Tim Schraeder at tschraeder@parkcommunitychurch.org or 312.361.0519. If you would like to check out his other excellent work, please go to his website at matbarberkennedy.com

Reminder Time: God’s Continuing Faithfulness August 26, 2007

Posted by Steve in : The City, Chicago, Inside Park, Urban Church, Powerful Passages, Church Construction , add a comment

Wow! I am continually reminded that God has a plan for the redemption of Chicago and Park is going to be a part of that. As we have moved through this summer, there has been a lot of uncertainty about where we would have our offices come September and where we would hold our services. As the project manager for the new Crosby campus building among my responsibilities, I have been frustrated by the massive rise in the price for steel and copper (causing us to exceed our budget), construction delays, unforeseen expenditures (we have to replace the entire outside brick skin of the building), the rainy weather, the lack of progress on getting more parking at our new building, and the likelihood that we would not be able to get into our offices at the Crosby campus in September and that we would need to find short-term solution for our offices.

But there was no uncertainty or frustration in God’s eyes.

Having orchestrated the creation of the world, I am reminded that God can do ANYTHING He wants, and getting us office space for starters is no big deal. Through a great friend of the church, God provided space for us at minimal cost in the John Hancock Tower for 4-6 months. We moved out of Germania Thursday night after an 11 year run (in the 13-hour rain-and- massive-wind, hurricane-plagued ordeal that ended at 1:00 am) and now find ourselves getting settled into great office space in the midst of the bustling Michigan Avenue avenue with offices and stores. (Many thanks to two of our awesome staff, Emily Luikart and Meghan Kosar, who organized the move and made it go so well! — you are the best!)

As I have sat at home and whined to my wife about all my frustrations, I am reminded and can now see that God is moving in Chicago, and He will not be thwarted. He has all the tools of the world at His disposal and in this case, He chose to use someone from another great church to help us because He is going to use Park as he continues His plan of redemption here in Chicago. Each person in Chicago matters to God, and he will use churches like Park and Christians like Park people to reach those people.

This situation has caused me to look back and see God’s hand of faithfulness since the beginning of our church almost 20 years ago. Even without a building for 20 years, God has grown Park, transforming thousands of people with His Gospel and the elders, staff and leaders have continued to build a Biblical community where the Gospel of Jesus Christ transforms lives, renews the city and impacts the world.

As I read the Bible, I am reminded by the verses below about God’s unswerving faithfulness:

Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

Psalm 105:8 He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,

Isaiah 46:8-11 “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors,
9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ 11 calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.

As an exercise, look back on the last two years in your life. Where were you 2 years ago and what was your life like. Can you see God’s hand growing you and changing you? What Has God reminded you about lately?

Check out our First YouTube Video: Baptism 2007 July 26, 2007

Posted by Steve in : Chicago, Sunday Services, Church, Inside Park, Missional, DifferenceMakers , add 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.

Family Nights Rock Out! June 7, 2007

Posted by Steve in : The City, Chicago, Family, Games, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies , add a comment

We had more than 65 adults and kids out for our first family fun night! It was a great time of community, games, pizaa and friends. Big thanks to Jeff and Angela Koch, who ran the games and to Sarah Chambers, our in-house resident AWANA games expert….Next week on Wednesday, we are plannnig to separate out the 1-4 year olds from the larger kids which should make it a better experience for all kids……It is GOOD to be a family in this world-class city. IF you have any comments or suggestions, please email me here.

Ministry Travel: Ensure the Lowest Fares May 29, 2007

Posted by Steve in : Technology, Methods & Strategies, Tech Tips , add a comment

(Yahoo) Have you ever bought an airline ticket from ministry travel only to see the price fall in the enusing weeks and your frustration rise as you try to manage costs? Now there is something you can do about it.

Few customers realize it, but many airlines will give refunds if they cut the price after you have bought a ticket. Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest, United and US Airways all offer vouchers for the full price difference — if the price drops $200, you can get a $200 coupon towards a future trip. Others offer vouchers, or cash, after deducting change fees (which can run up to $100). In industry jargon, it is called a “rollover,” and in most cases it only works if you bought the ticket directly from the airline. (It generally won’t work if you bought them via a Web site such as Expedia.com or Orbitz.com, unless the price drops in the first 24 hours.)

The rollover policies have been in place for decades, but, until recently, it has been tough for consumers to figure out when their flight’s price has changed. The catch is you have to call while the lower price is in effect to get your rollover. That is where a new Web site, Yapta.com, has come up with a clever way to take some of the anxiety out of buying airline tickets.

Yapta, a company run by a former Alaska Airgroup Inc. pricing vice president, was launched May 22. It tracks fares on specific flights you select before or after you buy a ticket. That is an improvement over Web sites that just track markets, but don’t allow you to specify which flights you really want. You can use Yapta before you buy to alert you by email to pricing changes on a particular trip, or let you know if the price drops after you’ve bought a ticket and you’re eligible for a refund. In order to obtain the voucher, you need to phone the airline directly. (You usually can’t snare one online.) So as you are planning on attending that future multi-site conference, input your preferred flights and when they get to your budgeted level, it will notify you and you can then purchase the tickets.

One woman, who signed up with Yapta to test the site before its launch, paid $800 each for four tickets from San Francisco to Kona, Hawaii. A few days later, she got notification from Yapta that the price had dropped to about $400 per ticket. She called United Airlines and got tickets reissued at the lower price plus four $400 vouchers. “There’s no way I would have been checking sites to see if the price went down,” she said.

Check it out now here.

Leader Zone Tonight May 10, 2007

Posted by Steve in : The City, Chicago, Inside Park, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies, Leader Zone , add a comment

Tonight, we gather our 200 leaders at the Kitsch’n Restaurant by our new warehouse building (restaurant is at 800 N Larrabee St at 6:30 p.m.) and get a chance to interact, to inspire, to spend time together and plan for the summer. In 2007, we are striving to be more intentional about growing and developing our leadership community at Park Community Church, as we begin to think about reproducing, adding a fourth service, adding a location and growing to reach many more people in Chicago this summer who do not know the life-changing message of the Gospel. If you are a leader at Park (small groups, ministry leader or team leader), please join us for our second Leader Zone Meeting of 2007, tonight. God is up to something BIG here in the city and we are excited to come alongside that work.

Old vs. New — Take a Look! April 7, 2007

Posted by Steve in : The City, Powerful Passages , add a comment

As we approach Easter tomorrow here in Chicago, it is worth taking a read of ISAIAH 53 in the Old Testament — This amazing passage from one of the Hebrew Prophets was written more than 700 years before the birth of Jesus, and contains writings that clearly identify and prophesy the coming life and mission of Jesus of Nazareth. This chapter is often cited by Jews and Gentiles as prophecy that must be fulfilled by the Messiah. Franz Delitzsch made an extraordinary but true comment about the 53rd chapter of Isaiah when he said that this chapter is “the most central, the deepest, and the loftiest thing that the Old Testament prophecy, outstripping itself, has ever achieved.”

If you have never done so, take ten minutes and investigate this Jesus. He is the Truth, Check out the claims of Jesus here.

No other person has arisen to lay claim to being a Messiah who would suffer for mankind. Isaiah 53 is found in the the Jewish Tanakh today, though it is generally left out of the weekly synagogue readings, as are many other texts of the Bible. When people read Isaiah 53 without knowing which part of the Bible it comes from, many often assume is from the New Testament. Though many modern rabbis describe the sufferings as (more…)

SUNDAY: Why Me? Why Did I Survive? March 24, 2007

Posted by Steve in : Chicago, Sunday Services, Church , add a comment

United Airlines Flight 232 was a scheduled flight operated by United Airlines between Denver and Philadelphia via Chicago. On July 19, 1989, the Douglas DC-10 operating this flight suffered an uncontained failure of its number 2 engine (mounted in the tail), which destroyed all three of the aircraft’s hydraulic systems. With no controls working except the power levers for the two remaining engines, it broke up during an emergency landing on the runway at Sioux City, Iowa killing 110 of its 285 passengers and one of the 11 crew members. See the video. Owing to the skill of the crew and a DC-10 instructor pilot, 175 passengers and 10 crew members survived.

Why me? Why did I survive? Why did I receive life why others died? These are some of the questions survivors were asking after surviving the crash. Our own Teaching Pastor, Ron May, was among those who survived the harrowing experience, while traveling at the time to take a deposition in a legal case, and will talk about God’s grace among the wreckage. This is an awesome opportunity for you to invite your non-churched friends to answer some of life’s real questions. Join us at Park Community Church this Sunday —we meet at Francis Parker School at 2233 N Clark Street at 9:00 am, 11:00 am and 5:30 pm.

The Word is Out: Chicago Attracts the Young and Educated March 24, 2007

Posted by Steve in : The City, Chicago, Breaking News , add a comment

The Chicago Trib ran an article this month looking at the changing demographics of Chicago and the surge of post-college 20Somethings who are flocking to this great city of Chicago. People are finally beginning to see what an awesome place Chicago is to live and be missional!

The article starts off, “ As thousands of Chicagoans leave the city each year, a countervailing force is moving in: twentysomethings, whose growing presence in and near the city’s center is attracting companies to start or expand operations downtown. Kenneth Johnson, a demographer and sociology professor at Loyola University Chicago who has studied the trend, estimates Chicago’s twentysomething population at 450,000, surpassed only by New York and Los Angeles, which also are experiencing influxes of new college grads. The young newcomers, Johnson said, hail from the suburbs as well as cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit and Cleveland.

“Companies are finding that the key asset is no longer the highway interchange, coal vein or port,” said Richard Florida, a professor of urban policy at George Mason University. “Now, it’s this educated, skilled, innovative talent. Companies are moving to be near the kind of people that Chicago is attracting in droves.” (more…)

Opening for Toby Mac! March 12, 2007

Posted by Steve in : The Cultural Conversation, The Arts in the City , add a comment

Tonight, Park Community Church’s own Becky Johnson was opening for Toby Mac, former lead singer of DC Talk, at the Chicago House of Blues! Toby has a new album out and is revving up his new tour.

Becky is a certified talent– check out all her info and her latest songs at www.beckyjohnsonmusic.com and her MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/beckyjohnson. We are expecting a full house so if you get this in time, go check her out performance! You know, at Park, we have this One Percent vision to reach Chicago for Christ, and Becky’s personal 1% vision is to take her music to the people of Chicago in bars, pubs and other performance spots — using the gifts and talents that God has given her for the Kingdom. This will definitely be her biggest venue to date. You can purchase tickets here…. http://www.hob.com/tickets/eventdetail.asp?eventid=43821

Warehouse Church in Chicago! March 3, 2007

Posted by Steve in : The City, Church Construction , add a comment

Park Community Church is building the country’s coolest church in a dry goods warehouse on the near northside of Chicago. With more than 90,000 sq ft, this first permanent home for the church allows them to stop renting after 19 years in the city.

Check out the photos and building renderings at www.preparingformore.org. Check our our “PARKCam” webcam here.

Future Design February 27, 2007

Posted by Steve in : Adaptive Reuse, Church Construction , add a comment

In the city of Chicago, it is very hard to own your own building but after 18 years, Park COmmunity Church is renovating a warehouse into the coolest church in the land. As we glean ideas from other architectural creations, I came across this Helios futuristic gas station in California and thought I would share it with you. Also check out photo2 and photo3. I call it “Exxon meets the Jetsons”.

Oh, How Generations Have Changed — Generation Next February 21, 2007

Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Methods & Strategies, The Cultural Conversation , add a comment

As we continually think about reaching new generations at Park with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the city, it is interesting to read this national survey of 18-25 year olds and their views on life, liberty, religion, politics and the pursuit of happiness. Take a read, let me know what you think of the report.

The Pew Research Center, in their report “Generation Next: How Young People View Their Lives, Futures and Politics“, examines the lifestyles and views of 18-25 year olds, a generation raised amidst an unprecedented revolution in technology and dramatic events both at home and abroad. This report takes stock of this new generation, and explores their outlook, their lifestyle and their politics. Pew calls them Generation Next, the cohort of young adults who have grown up with personal computers, cell phones and the internet and are now taking their place in a world where the only constant is rapid change.

Key findings include that they are generally happy with their lives and optimistic about their futures. Moreover, Gen Nexters feel that (more…)