Park Community Church on Comcast March 4, 2008
Posted by Steve in : The City, Chicago, Breaking News, Inside Park, The Cultural Conversation, The Arts in the City, Culture and Faith , add a commentCheck out FAITH TODAY’s preview of a 10 minutes piece on Park Community Church its growing impact on the city that is playing on Comcast On Demand.
DWELL: Driving Urban Church Planters March 2, 2008
Posted by Steve in : The City, Chicago, Church, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies, Missional, The Cultural Conversation, DifferenceMakers, Culture and Faith , add a commentAt Park Community Church, our vision is to be a Biblical community where the Gospel of Jesus Christ transforms lives, renews the city and impacts the world. Being a city center church, we are focused on reaching the city of Chicago and would like to reach 1% (29,000 people) of the city in the years to come. That is why we love conferences that focus on the major global centers like Chicago or New York, and one of those great get-togethers is coming up.

The Dwell Conference is scheduled for April 29-30, 2008 in New York City and involves two of our favorites: Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City will be co-hosting and partnering with Acts 29 Network in a premiere church planting event to create a world-class training for urban church planters. It has a fabulous lineup of some of the most influential church planting leaders as speakers at this event: Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer, CJ Mahaney, and Darrin Patrick.
I also love their anchor verse for this movement of planters (as it has been an anchor for our church about urban living for years):
Jeremiah 29:4-7
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and DWELL in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.”
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.
Multisite Church goes…..Inflatable? April 10, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a commentAs our church begin to look at church planting and multi-site options here in Chicago, I came across this enterprising company out of the UK that offers an inflatable church building. Now, once you have picked out the perfect wedding site, you just turn on the blowers and you are ready to have your wedding. This cracks me up!
From the site: This fantastic air-filled building is 47ft long by 25ft wide & 47ft high. The attention to detail is heavenly complete with plastic “stained glass” windows, airbrush artwork which replicates the traditional church. Inside it has an inflatable organ, altar, pulpit, pews, candles and a gold cross. Even the doors are flanked by air-filled angels. The church can be unloaded, filled with air and operational in three hours and dissassembled in less than two. It costs about $30,000 to own and about $3,000 per day to rent.

