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!”
Easter Creativity - God is at Work! March 31, 2008
Posted by Steve in : The City, Sunday Services, Church, Powerful Passages, Methods & Strategies, Missional, The Cultural Conversation, The Arts in the City, DifferenceMakers, Culture and Faith, Entrepreneuring , 1 comment so farIt’s now a week after Easter and I am checking out the blogs and news to see how God used people this Easter weekend and what drew people in to hear the Word of God on Easter. Wow! There is lots of creativity out there and that affirms that God is working His plan with the churches here in the United States and new creative thinkers are bringing the Gospel to the folks. I love God’s verse on creativity in the church — in Luke 14:23 (NASB) it says:
23“And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.
“COMPEL THEM TO COME IN” –
Here are my “Sweet Sixteen” creative teams who I found that did a lot of brainstorming, planning, hard work and execution with excellent creative ideas to COMPEL PEOPLE TO COME IN this Easter — To God be the Glory!:
1. The Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina that is just over two years old celebrated as 4,800 people showed up for services for an excellent start to a series called “Breakout” and over 500 people gave their lives to Christ! Check it out here.
2. Oak Leaf Church, less than 19 months old, did a message on TATTOO and left their mark by giving tattoos live on stage for all three services. The point of the message was that external marks are meant to point to internal life change. The point isn’t the mark, it’s the story and the meaning. In the same way, external behavior modification is never enough…what makes us Christians are our changed hearts. They were praying for 1,000 people but had 1,350 with 60 people accepting Christ (read about it here)
3. Craig Groeschel and the folks at multi-site Lifechurch.tv Started a new series on Easter and handed out fortune cookies with a note inside of them inviting people to the series entitled “The Warrior.” They placed huge barrels of fortune cookies outside and asked people to give them to their friends. More than a grand total of 31,000 people attended all 13 LifeChurch.tv campuses this Easter weekend with 479 hands raised during altar calls.
4. Scott Hodge and his team from Orchard Church in Aurora, Illinois dropped Easter eggs from a helicopter. 20,000 eggs and thousands of people (see pictures here)
5. National Community Church in DC also celebrated with 20,000 eggs and a baptism service on Saturday (read about it here)
6. Gary Lamb and the folks at Revolution Church in Canton Georgia also dropped Easter eggs from a helicopter. I love this idea from all three of these churches! Check out the story and pictures.
7. Eric Bramlett and his team in Naperville IL at Community Christian in Naperville have a really funny video as they debuted their series called “Losing My Religion” which started Easter Weekend. Check it out HERE.
8. High Desert Church in CA continued their series called “The Most Spectacular Show on Earth” and had more than 6,000 attend and over 100 people come to Christ after battling spiritual warfare with everything going wrong on their sound systems at their various locations.
9. Travis Johnson and the crew at Life Point Church in Homestead FL held a Moonlight Easter Egg Hunt (7-9pm) and had 7,000+ people show up. How creative is that idea? A moonlight Easter Egg Hunt!? They had a great turnout on Sunday with many coming from the community who attended that Easter Egg hunt.
10. Cross Point Church in Nashville had an amazing Easter at their two campuses locally (read a great letter from someone who was greatly impacted here) and at their new church start-up in the Dominican Republic. A team of 20 from Cross Point spent their week working on the church building and while the building was far from being completed, the pastor led their first service in the new church on Easter Sunday. How cool is that?
11. Check out the things Granger Community Church had people hold in their hands during the service. HERE are the pics. Read about it here and here.
12. NewSpring Church saw 12,000 people attend their services and over 120 people receive Christ (read here) and held a great service in their Man Series called “Ultimate Fighter”
13. The team at Seacoast Church launched a new campus on Easter in one of the most crime-ridden areas of the country. HERE is the story.
14. Connexus had more than 1,300 at their two compuses with some moving stories.
15. Jordan Creek Church played the Upside Down Video.
16. A worship leader in Atlanta experienced what true worship is really all about (read this moving story here)
PS…BONUS COVERAGE I just found out that Saddleback Church opened two new sites on Easter and their San Clemente site celebrated its one year anniversary! The first service of Saddleback Corona gathered 490 attenders and 43 accepted Christ. That’s almost 10 % of those who attended! The first service at Saddleback Irvine gathered 1,826 attenders and 34 accepted Christ! The service at Saddleback San Clemente (open one year) gathered 1,550 attenders and 39 accepted Christ!
Jesus Time on Earth: 0-33 A.D. March 21, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Sunday Services, Church, DifferenceMakers , add a commentWith Abby Jill Brauhn’s passing last week, I was reminded by someone about the story of the dash that separates your birth date and the date of your death on your gravestone and it really stuck with me as I reflected on Jesus’ time on earth –
so short but so impactful and world-changing.
The story was about a man who had a revelation while sitting in a cemetery where a loved one was buried.
He looked around at all the tomb stones and he noticed how each one was very similar. Each marker told a story. It told the person’s name, their date of birth and their date of death. Some even had a brief sentence such as “A loving husband and father” which inadequately tried to describe the life of that person. The man began to think of all the untold stories contained in each tomb stone. They each told of the beginning (date of birth) followed by a dash and then the end for that person on earth; However, what happened in between? The man thought, what was in that “dash” for each of these people? Then it hit him. We all are living in our “dash” right now! That little line, that seemingly insignificant hyphen is our very significant life. Jesus came to earth for 33 years to sacrifice His life for all of our sins, yet that amount of time is so inconsequential… just 33 years.
Yet the amount of teaching, mentoring, living and loving that Jesus did during His “dash” and His dying on the cross and His Sunday resurrection changed the world forever. He lived His “dash” , His time on earth, to the fullest. Here is what Philippians 2 says Jesus did with His dash:
6Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
So, how is your dash looking? Are you truly living a life worth living in that little line between your birth date and your date of death? Remember – it is your choice! Check out this link to a moving visual poem about the ‘dash”. Click here.
If you are in Chicago, join us tonight at 7pm for our Good Friday service at Torrey-Grey Ausitorium at 840 N LaSalle Street on the Moody Bible Institute campus.
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 commentI 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?
Join us for TRANSFORMED January 10, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Chicago, Sunday Services, Church, Inside Park, Urban Church , add a commentThis weekend we kick off a new series at Park called TRANSFORMED, that explores one of the most important books of the Bible for believers, the book of Romans. Through our study of the book of Romans, we’ll be answering some difficult questions and dealing with issues that are important to our Christian faith.
Romans 12:1 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Through this series, we hope to see our hearts transformed as we grow in our knowledge of Christ! Come ready to be challenged and inspired.
PLEASE INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO THIS LIFE-CHANGING SERIES and join us at 10 am or 5:30 pm each Sunday at Torry-Gray Auditorium at Moody Bible Insititute (840 N LaSalle) or at 11 am at Francis Parker School (2233 N Clark St)
Vision Sunday January 9, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Chicago, Sunday Services, Church, Inside Park, Methods & Strategies, Missional , add a commentWow –what a great vision for a city center church!
On Sunday, Jackson Crum, lead pastor at our church, Park Community Church, gave an incredible message of what God has called us to and where Park is going as it marshalls its resources and people to effect change and renewal in the city of Chicago. Check out the excellent vision video created by our own Mark Walczak below:
A Reminder: New Year, Same King December 31, 2007
Posted by Steve in : The City, Sunday Services, Church, Inside Park, Urban Church, Missional, DifferenceMakers , add a commentThis Sunday, Park Community Church was honored to have Victor Rodriguez,
Senior Pastor of La Villita Community Church here in Chicago give the last message of the year. Victor is a differencemaker in Chicago and leads a congregation in the “Little Village ” area of Chicago located around 26th street and Kedzie.
Little Village is the retail, residential and cultural capital of the Mexican community in the Midwest—a neighborhood alive with Mexican arts and culture, and a great place to live for both longtime residents and new immigrants. Over the past 30 years, Little Village has become a major port of entry for Mexican immigrants, and more than half of its residents are under the age of 25.
As we begin to think about our new year’s resolutions, Victor implored us to get to know the King better in his message. His message was a strong reminder of the King we serve and this video he played is a great reminder of all that Jesus is, qwhat he does and what He will always be:
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 commentPark 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.
Differencemakers: Golf to God July 7, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Sunday Services, Methods & Strategies, Missional, The Cultural Conversation, DifferenceMakers , add a comment
I love golf and am excited about a successful ministry founded by a professional golfer that is using golf to help others find Jesus on the fairways. This ministry is called “In His Grip” Golf Association, a ministry that teaches churches how to use golf as a way to share the Gospel. Founder Scott Lehman said he got the idea for In His Grip from driving by golf courses on Sunday mornings and seeing men teeing off instead of going to church.
“A lot of Sundays, you go by the golf course and they’re really packed,” Lehman said. “We felt like there was an opportunity to take our faith to the fairways and just meet them (golfers) where they’re at and introduce them to the church and ultimately to Jesus Christ.”
In His Grip holds training workshops for churches and shows them how to host golf tournaments to reach out to men who aren’t active church-goers. Scott said “Golf courses are ideal places to share the Gospel because it takes hours to play a round, and it’s easy to talk while walking along fairways and riding in golf carts”. In His Grip held its first tournament nearly 10 years ago and has hosted about 150 tournaments across the country. Lehman, 46, a golf teaching professional, holds training sessions for churches in different regions of the country. “Our vision is to reach every golfer in every nation,” Lehman said. “Right now we’re seeing a big trend of churches looking to meet people outside the four walls of the church, and this is a strategy to help them do that.”
I love this ministry that is going out to reach those who would not otherwise attend church! They even have a Golfer’s Bible printed that intersperses throughout the biblical text thirty-two full-color pages of inspirational messages teed up to reach the golfer’s heart, plus thirty-two more pages of devotions at the back of this special edition. Check it out!
Being Missional: Do Church and Bars Mix? May 30, 2007
Posted by Steve in : The City, Sunday Services, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies, Missional, The Cultural Conversation , 1 comment so farWhat do you think about churches reaching out to those who won’t come to a church and having their worship services in bars and pubs? Read the following stories and let me know your thoughts.
Hal and Mal’s in Jackson Mississippi is famous for a beer after work, but on Sunday nights at 6 — when the alcohol is locked up — the back room of the bar is transformed into a different sort of watering hole, where members of The Journey Church said they meet to quench their thirst for Jesus Christ.
Steve’s Cape Cod, a seafood restaurant and bar outside Tampa Bay FL, known for all-you-can-eat snow crab on Monday and ladies-drink-free night on Wednesday, is reborn each Sunday morning as the Salvation Saloon. Worshippers who go by names like Curly Joe and Wild Bill file in by the dozen — many holding plastic foam cups of coffee, some biting at doughnuts — for a service they say is unlike any other.”This is not your parents’ church,” Paul White, who created the service and serves as the pastor, tells those gathered. “This is going to bless your socks off.”
A Cardiff (Wales UK) nightclub is the chosen venue for a church minister to address his congregation in an attempt to engage with young parishioners. The Reverend James Karran, 26, from Cardiff’s Ararat Baptist Church will hold “services” at Clwb Ifor Bach in the city centre. And his flock will be able to buy alcohol at the bar and listen to live bands as part of the experience. The ‘Solace - church in a bar’ nights will be held every Sunday from April. According to the Ararat Baptist church website, the idea of the services, which is being run by the Baptist Union church branch Solace, is to “make church relevant and accessible to a 21st Century, post-Christendom society”.
On March 4, 2007, NBC’s “Today” show looked at this issue which separates and confuses many.. In their report, “Beer and Bibles: New Churches Lure Young Members,” they interviewed an Southern Baptist pastor, Darrin Patrick, founder and senior pastor of The Journey in St. Louis. Although Patrick said that his church does not condone the use of alcohol, they do sponsor a discussion group, “Theology at the Bottleworks,” that meets in a bar where alcohol is available to participants. In a back room at Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood, about 50 people gathered on a recent Wednesday night to talk rock ’n’ roll. Why are Bob Marley and Kurt Cobain considered by some to be messiahs? When did rock music lose its edge and become another product manufactured and marketed by huge conglomerates such as Viacom?
It was a conversation perfectly suited to the setting. Beer-stained wooden tables and the smell of hops complemented a free-flowing, spirited debate among hip young people in scruffy beards and T-shirts. Theology at the Bottleworks is run by a wildly successful congregation of young St. Louisans called The Journey. The program is part of the church’s outreach ministry. And it works.
Every month, dozens show up at the brewpub to drink beer and talk about issues ranging from racism in St. Louis to modern-art controversies to the debate about embryonic stem cell research. First-timers are invited to check out the church on Sunday, and Journey leaders say many have. Theology at the Bottleworks is just one of The Journey’s ministries, but it has helped the church grow from 30 members in late 2002 to 1,300 today.
Christians have long sought to bring their faith to places outside the traditional church, from the rapid growth of skateboarding ministries to smaller-scale outreach to circus and carnival workers. Roman Catholics have also organized spiritual discussions called “Theology on Tap” in bars across the country.
Randall Balmer, a professor of American religious history at Columbia University, said churches in bars and pubs are one of countless endeavors seeking to attract congregants who otherwise might not be reached. “It strikes me as a fairly good illustration of the ability of evangelicals to speak the idiom of the culture no matter where they find themselves,” he said. “I see this kind of thing as the successor to the megachurch, which is trying to be all things to all people.”
What do you think?
Only 20 Minutes to Live March 27, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Sunday Services, Church , add a commentOn Sunday, Ron May spoke about his harrowing experience in the Crash of Flight 232 on July 19, 1989 in Sioux City Iowa. Click here for his audio message. Click here for the Wikipedia page. Click here for the Google video.
One of his statements which I have reflected on for the last few days is that the pilot came on with about 20 minutes to go and said to the passengers “Folks, the damage to Engine number 2 is more extreme than we thought….We are going to make an emergency landing in Sioux City in about 20 minutes. I’m not going to kid you, it going to be a rough landing…I don’t want to fool you…it’s going to be really rough. I will come back on and give you several warnings about the time, then finally I will come back and tell you when to brace.”
What would you do if you were told you potentially have 20 minutes to live?
Since Sunday, I have tried to look at my watch and say to myself — Steve, you’ve got 20 minutes to live — then I wonder what and who would I think about, and how would I reflect on my life. I want to love Jesus with all my heart and don’t feel like I have done that yet — that would be a major regret right now if I had 20 minutes. I want to love my wife and kids better. I wnat all of my kids to come to accpet Jesus as their Savior. I want to see many come to know the salvation I have experienced in my own life…..try this exercise and see what you do as a result……
SUNDAY: Why Me? Why Did I Survive? March 24, 2007
Posted by Steve in : Chicago, Sunday Services, Church , add a commentUnited 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.
What are YOU Expecting this Easter? March 16, 2007
Posted by Steve in : The City, Church, Inside Park , add a commentWe are getting ready for a Big Easter in the city as we do a three part series on Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter on “What Are YOU Expecting?” where we will explore expectations: what people expected of Jesus, what God expected of Him and why Jesus came, died and rose from the dead. Here is the Easter graphic this year and the questions we are asking of people as they think about the resurrection at Easter:
What are you expecting? People come to the city and have many expectations for their lives: job opportunities, a spouse or meaningful relationship, great friends, happiness, comfort, good times, excitement, spiritual growth, fulfillment. What are you expecting?
Many years ago, the people of Israel were looking for a king, a political leader who would lead them out of the bondage and oppression of the Romans. They welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday with fanfare, yet less than a week later, he was hung on a cross to die a lonely death. What were they expecting?
Then on Sunday morning, several of Jesus followers went to the tomb but it was empty. What were they expecting?
We’d love to have you come to Chicago and join us this Easter season:
Park Community Church — Easter Season Services - April 6 and 8
Good Friday Services, Apr 6 — 5:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m.
Francis Parker School - Map
Easter Sunday Services, Apr 8 — 8:30 a.m. 10:00 a.m. 11:30 a.m.
Francis Parker School - Map
You’re All Invited November 21, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Inside Park, Technology, Methods & Strategies , add a commentEach month, we review our website functionality and our website statistics, looking to see if we believe our site is being used as much as it can be, and if it is meeting the needs of our elders, staff, leaders and congregation. So far, so good this year as we add, tweak and redo different parts of the website.
One of the latest changes we have added is a link allowing our congregation to “Invite a Friend” right from the Park home page. It’s located to the right of the main Message Series graphic. In only its first three days, our folks have clicked and sent more than 50 invitations to friends, co-workers to attend Sunday services!
Go ahead and click here and send an electronic invitation!
Here is the current invitation:
The Great Investment - Investing in Our Future September 27, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Breaking News, Sunday Services, Urban Church , add a commentThis week we talked about generosity from Matthew 6:19-24 and also provided an update on the building.
The Great Investment - God’s Investment in Us September 17, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog, The City, Sunday Services , add a commentAs we continue our series, Jackson spoke about God’s investment in us, looking at four seasons in Jackson’s life — he turned 50 on Sunday —