jump to navigation

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:

  1. It legitimizes the call to lay mission
  2. It reaches more widely and follows the urban twenty-four-hour clock
  3. 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>

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Keller: Ministry in Major City Centers — Part 1 March 23, 2007

Posted by Steve in : The Cultural Conversation, The Arts in the City , 1 comment so far


I am a big fan of Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC. I came across this excellent article of his entitled Our New Global Culture: Ministry in Major City Centers. He looks at who lives in the major global cities, like Chicago, what are the marks of a city-center culture, and how to be effective in city centers. As Park’s vision is to renew the city, through sharing the Gospel, serving the city, expanding through church planting and multi-site with live teaching, it is helpful to use Keller’s excellent analysis to zero in on who lives among us and the ministry implications. We have learned these truths over the last 20 years and each of these shapes how we do ministry in Chicago.

1) The city-center is a culture of expertise. People who live in city centers are usually highly skilled and highly educated. Ministry implications: a) Artistic quality is very important. Amateurish art and music will not go over well, especially with the high percentage of center-city residents who are themselves artists. And the post-modern “turn” puts more emphasis on the visual, on graphics, and on embodiment. b) Commun- ication needs to be very high in quality and be highly intelligent. There is a surprising amount of anti-intellectualism within the evangelical world. (People have noticed for years that campus fellowships at Ivy League schools are often very anti-intellectual and pietistic.)

2) City-center people are living in their career. Many people work in order to come home and have a life. But city-center people essentially inhabit their careers. It is also so expensive to live in city centers that most have to work hard to make enough money to stay there. Ministry implications: You can’t just disciple people on how to be Christians in their private lives (e.g. prayer, witnessing, Bible study). Centercity people don’t have much in the way of a “private life.” If you are in finance or art or acting or medicine your vocation dominates your life and your time. Discipleship must include how to be distinctively Christian within your job, including how to handle the peculiar temptations and ethical quandaries, and how to produce work in one’s field from a distinctly Christian world-view.

3) City-center people are very sexually active and believe their sexuality is completely private—that is, their business alone. Ministry implications: There must be a lack of prudishness about sex, coupled with strong teaching on the Christian understanding of sex: that it is designed for lifetime commitment and for community-building, not personal gratification. The area of sex and gender is (currently) politically explosive, so it is crucial that teaching in this area be smart, irenic, and nuanced—in other words, carefully co-opting existing cultural narratives (about freedom, identity, and community, for example) while upholding a Biblical viewpoint. Even strong Christians in city-centers will be under great temptation to be sexually active in various ways that can undermine or destroy their spiritual effectiveness.

4) City-center people have consumer identities. Traditional culture had “thick” communities in which identity was experienced through one’s role in the family and society. Modern and post-modern culture thins out community (through mobility), and “frees” individuals to create their own identity. (more…)

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A2 Conference: John Burke, Gateway Community Church November 3, 2006

Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Church, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies , add a comment

Even thought I am far away in Turkey, I wanted to finish my review of the Willow A2 Conference — It also doesn’t hurt that it is 4:00 am and I am wide awake and no place to go…….. “No Perfect People Allowed” is the mantra of a 20’s/to 40’s church in Austin Texas, founded by John and Kathy Burke. I got a chance to hear John again after meeting him a year ago at an RSI conference. He and his team have been very helpful as we exchanged information about capital campaign tactics and managing growth. I found his approach to ministering to this generation compelling. John has pastored a church that has seen God work in marvellous ways — the standard huge growth to several thousand, many coming to Christ, etc — all the typical things you hear from conference speakers.

The compelling story here for me is that John is resolute and laser-focused on reaching people with the Gospel. After the half-hour summary of their ministry approach, John and his right-hand man, Charles Dishinger, took Q&A in “the Bullpen”. Many of the questions dealth with the messy side consequences of evangelism, mainly that if you go out to minister to the types that Jesus would minister to, how do you get these people discipled and grow them to a place to lead others? They key for me was John’s unwillingness to disengage in dialogue with all people all the time about Jesus Christ. He is an evangelist and is unashamed of his focus. What came through to me was the compelling argument that John leads with evangelism and has a team behind him to do discipleship and leadership. IMHO, this is the way it should be! We should be about reaching AS MANY AS POSSIBLE with the Gospel and we can build the right team behind us to ensure donctrinal purity, appropriate training and development, etc. Like Gateway, we at Park Community Church are built of the same cloth and share this kindred spirit. I applaud everything that John and his team are doing and wish them all the best.

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

God Smiles: Candle of Faith September 1, 2006

Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a comment

Park’s vision is to play a part in bringing 1% of Chicago’s population - 29,000 people - across the line of faith. To reflect these lives that are being lit up with the grace and love of Christ, Park sets up a candle stand on stage each Sunday, with one large candle lit to represent the light of Christ that will always be burning in this city.
The other candles will represent the people who have begun a personal relationship with Jesus in the past week, through God using someone who attends Park Community Church. If you led someone to Christ in the past week or know of someone who has crossed the line of faith, please let us know so that the church can celebrate it together! Send an email to redcandle@parkcommunitychurch.org or by calling 312.280.8828.  We want to be a missional church that spreads the good news of Jesus Christ and celebrates when people come to knowe Him as their savior and redeemer. To God be the Glory!
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,