So I got an email from Jennifer Kranz, an editor at the Lakeview Booster, asking for some info to be used in a feature called "Faith in Our Town."
Here's what I wrote back:
Religious affiliation: non-denominational
Neighborhood: Lakeview
Size & character: This summer, 320 adults and 60 children average in our English celebrations; 50 adults and 10 children in our Spanish celebration. We are a mix of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds and a mix of neighborhood and near neighborhood residents.
Spiritual leader: Mark Jobe--lead pastor; Kevin Bruursema; location pastor
Schedule of services: 9am and 10:45am Sundays in English; 12:45pm Sundays en Espanol.
Biggest turnout: Easter, 546
Instead of answering the remaining questions, let me just talk a little bit. First, we are a multi-site church. Simply put that means we are one church in many locations. We currently have 8 locations in and around Chicago. Our lead pastor, Mark Jobe, leads our entire church and I am responsible to lead our Lakeview location. Pastor Mark and I both speak at our Lakeview location. There are 11 other pastors on our team besides Mark and myself.
We're big fans of other churches and spend a lot of time connecting with and seeking to bless and help other churches. We're not for everybody so we like to help people find a place they belong. There are a lot of great churches in Chicago and we want them all to be good at being life-giving groups that are reaching out effectively to people. We do what we can to give and receive from them.
Okay, back to our story a little bit... Our Lakeview location was begun in September of 2000 so we are just about 6 years old. Galilee Baptist Church, the name of the church for 100+ years prior to us being there, just handed over their building and parsonage to us to "restart" the church and reach more of the community residents. About half of the people from Galilee stayed with us after the transition and are just awesome people. I think this kind of selflessness and humility is rare and it was a great way to birth a new work.
We're pretty informal as a church community. We joke that if you don't like organized religion, you'll like us because we are disorganized religion. What we really mean is that we're very relational in our approach to church. We have a core conviction--that God designed us to be in powerful, life-changing relationship with Him and with other people. So we are big on honesty, the Bible, receiving people as they are and watching God do cool things to transform and grow people in that context.
This summer we've had a big emphasis on sending out short term mission teams from our congregation. Right now, 10 of our members are in Mozambique, Africa. They are holding AIDS orphans, working with children in day camps, helping a children's home with care of kids and building upkeep, visiting people with members of a local church and pretty much anything else they can do to be a help and a blessing to the people of Mozambique. On Sunday we had a live phone call with our team during each of our morning celebrations. We want what they are experiencing in Africa to impact us back here in Chicago.
A team of our youth had just arrived back in Chicago on Sunday as well, just in time for our 10:45 celebration. They were in Red Lake, MN on an Indian reservation connecting with youth. This was the reservation where about one year ago a young man took the lives of 7 people in a shooting rampage. We went to offer practical acts of love in Jesus name.
A physician in our congregation was also preparing to leave for Guatemala with Christian Medical Missions this past Sunday (all of this was on the busy side). She'll spend a week there with a team of doctors providing care for about 1000 patients. We had her share and then prayed for her as she prepares to go.
All that to say that we are big on getting out of our comfort zone to live out our Christianity.
We're big on small groups at New Life. We believe that people grow best in relationship and that a crowd can't accomplish relationship very effectively. Our desire is always to help the crowd disperse into small groups where relationships are deepened and life happens more naturally.
This week we are having a kids' Fiesta party every day. A team of volunteers put on a program of music, teaching, games and snacks for children from the church and the community. We have a tremendous team of people who have pitched in to serve. As I walked out of the building with one of our volunteers tonight she was sweating from the heat but her comment was, "I'm having a ball!" That's cool.
Challenges? How can we be more real and authentic with God and each other? How can we get more tangibly involved in the needs of the different segments of people in our community? What would it look like for us to make Africa an everyday aspect of our mission and work as a church? How can we engage people's doubts and confusion about Jesus and Christianity in a safe environment for a broader number of people who would never visit our church? What is the square root of pi? How do we provide meaningful spiritual connection for the part of our church and neighborhood community that tends to be transient--here for a year, 2 years, maybe 3 and then moves on?
Jesus, observably present in peoples' lives is what I think makes New Life special. IWe think its what matters--its why we do church.
Jennifer, thanks for your email and I hope that this gives you something to work with. I know I skipped some of your questions but I tried to answer what I could and express a little of who we are.
Blessings,
Kevin Bruursema
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