caffeine, please.

I'm not a 'math guy'. I'm more of a 'miracle guy'.

New rule:  only Christians who can appropriately laugh at themselves are allowed to speak to reporters.  If you're too uptight to 'get it' then you don't get to talk to CNN.  We'll call it the Mike Huckabee Law. 

Jesus for President

Alert reader Eric recommended this book by Shane Claiborne.  Already ordered it!  By the looks of it, Claiborne's angle on voting for Jesus is along the same lines as I'm thinking.  Probably not a good thing for him, but cool to see that there may be a God-swell behind this thing.

Along these same lines, an old high school friend who I recently reconnected with on Facebook (and happens to be a self-described Atheist) sent me a song called Christ for President.  It was written by Arlo Guthrie (love the Motorcycle Song) and performed by Billy Bragg and Wilco.

So we've got a book and a song, now all we need is a t shirt.  I'll have to grab that later today.

Unexpected

Every now and then my Google quote-of-the-day widget has an offering that really hits me.  Today:

Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.
  - Marilyn Monroe

This quote reminds me that I should never underestimate people--they often have far more depth than what might appear.

Rememberizin'

Love God, your God, with your whole heart:
    love him with all that's in you,
    love him with all you've got! 
Write these commandments that I've
given you today on your hearts.
Get them inside of you and then
get them inside your children.
    Talk about them wherever you are,
    sitting at home or walking in the street;
    talk about them from the time you get up in the morning
    to when you fall into bed at night.

A friend with older kids told Gil the other night that their biggest regret in parenting was not having their kids memorize more Scripture.  We took that to heart.  We've found it challenging to get our young children reading the Bible on their own so we've adjusted our approach... 

Peter Pan is alive and well...

Sunday night at Shift we're having our final preview service @ 7:30pm.  (We begin weekly gatherings the first Sunday in April.)  During the preview services we've been doing a series called Straight Talk on Singleness, Sex and Marriage.

To finish this series I'll be talking about facing singleness and marriage without wimping out.  I have a growing conviction that much of what underlies our generations mishandling of singleness, sex and marriage is an unwillingness or fear of growing up--particularly boys growing up into men.

Peter Pan is alive and well--he just forgot to wear his green tights...

Edward Simiyu's update from Kenya...

Here is an email I received on 2.18.08 from Pastor Edward Simiyu...

Kevin,

Thanks brother for your prayers and thoughts. The tension has cooled and all attention is now on the Koffi Annan talks. We are praying that a political settlement is reached otherwise there  may be very little hope for Kenya. It seems like the daggers are waiting for the final word on the mediation. I have been unable to go out of Nairobi since the last Caravan of Hope trip. I was to go to pokot this week but moved the trip to next week. All my contacts there are  intemittently on phone due to cut off from the rest of Kenya after the chaos. I have been assured though by the Chief government administrator of the area is safe and that I should visit to continue with our work there. Their concern is that they dont want arms to filter through from the region to the rest of the country as that would make the conflict unmanageable.

Megaregions

My sister left a copy of the March 2008 Harvard Business Review behind after staying with us this weekend.  (BTW, we had a great time--definitely wish we could see her more.  She lives in New Jersey.)   I definitely need to get a subscription to HBR.  As you would expect, very in depth research and real world information--like a book in magazine format published monthly.

The feature called Forethought really caught my attention.  It was written by Richard Florida, forthcoming author of Who's Your City?  (I pre-ordered--yes, I am a nerd.)

The article talks about the concept of Megaregions.  What's a megaregion?  "Cities and suburbs in powerful conurbations, at times spanning national borders, forming vast swaths of trade, transport, innovation, and talent." 

The research is from Tim Gulden of the University of Maryland.  Gulden says there are about 40 megaregions in the world, home to 1.2 billion people and 66% of the world's economic activity.   As a sidenote, the research method Gulden employed is fascinating.  His core tool was night satellite imagery of earth. 

Video clip from Sunday

Thank you to ThinkChristian.net for posting this clip to their blog.  It was valuable to be able to use it on Sunday in my message during both celebrations at Lakeview.

Vote for Jesus

I just started a group on Facebook.  Its called "I'm Voting for Jesus in 2008".  Feel free to join.  Feel free to tell all your friends.  Or feel free to laugh at me if you like.  I'm just happy to have a candidate that I'm both passionate about and confident in at the same time.   

I expect I'll hear from some of my friends who are passionate about "their candidate" at some point.  They'll tell me I'm wasting my vote.  They'll tell me I'm being silly. 

I'm not. 

I'm voting my conscience and I think that is what the electoral process was designed for. 

And if an election is not supposed to be a popularity contest (yeah, right!) then I should vote for the person I'd actually most want to be the leader of the free world, right?  Well, for me, that guy is Jesus.

(I just reread this post so far--sounds pretty combative doesn't it?  Anyway...)  And if on election night, my candidate is not celebrating victory, I'll wake up the next day and do the following:

1. Kiss my wife.
2. Drink a cup of coffee.
3. Read some Scripture and begin praying into the day, including praying for the new President.
4. Obey most of the laws as I drive to the office (turns out I'm not a big STOP sign guy).
5. Serve in the Jesus Movement on that Wednesday like any other day.
6. Sleep well the following night.

Will I enjoy watching the political horse race in the meantime?  You bet.

The power of the Garden Weasel?

Back in January our leadership and staff teams from our Lincoln Park and Lakeview locations took a few days to get away together, connect, plan, pray, worship and have fun.  We had a really great time together.

One of the fruits of this retreat was a plan for more consistent connection for this group.  We call it our CORE team.  Whereas before our staff and leadership teams were not spending a lot of time together, now we gather every other Monday for a few hours to eat together and then to have an activity which is at the discretion of that week's host.

It has turned out to be a great tool for deepening our connection and team identity.  It really functions as the core small group of the church. 

This past Monday we gathered at our Lincoln Park location for a dinner of Mr. Sub, had a brief group time for catch up and encouragement and then split up into smaller teams and prayer-walked through New Life Lincoln Park's building.  It was powerful to hear people praying together that evening.  I sensed that God was moving in each prayer group.  No one seemed in too big a hurry to stop and go home.

I feel like I am in a constant learning process about how to build and maintain healthy teams.  I believe it is probably my most important and challenging responsibility as a pastor.  A team is a little bit like a garden.  If you ignore it, it will become overrun with weeds and will be robbed by little furry varmints.  But if you tend to it regularly, it can yield incredible fruit.

Here's what I'm wondering--garden's have the "Garden Weasel".  Is there an equivalent for leading teams?  Hmmm.

I wish I'd thought of it

Ever see an idea out there and wish you'd thought of it?  Well here's one on my list:

That's right--a church is promoting its married members to have sex every day for the next 30 days and its single members to have no sex for the next 30 days.  Wow!  This is the most radical and creative approach to reclaiming a biblical view of sex that I've ever encountered. It was so "out there" that CNN covered it.

Seriously.  This church is being super-blunt with it's people--

• If you're married, you're probably devaluing sex in your relationship and having far less sex than you should.  Its hurting your marriage.  We want you to make time for sex again. 
• If you're not married, we know that many of you are having sex and you simply shouldn't be.  We want you to try stopping for 30 days and see what God does.

In our over-sexed world, this is the kind of idea that competes for the attention of people and points them to Jesus.  I believe that saying old things in new ways so that people put their attention on Jesus is the core job of every believer and every church.  Way to go Relevant Church!

Exponential

The story behind this presentation is typical of the web 2.0 world--accidentally viral.  The original debuted in August, 2006 at a teacher faculty meeting and has been updated to the version I am sharing with you.  What is it, you ask?  Its a powerful visual presentation on the exponential nature of knowledge and technology in our world. 

Take a look...

Great date

I've got a lot to learn as a father.  I'm constantly wanting to grow.  I do not have it altogether.  But I still think that sharing "best practices" in the area of fathering kids is important.  When I hear stories of good fathering it spurs me to be a better dad.  So I hope that by sharing some of my experiences as a father it will do the same for the dads who read this blog.  To wit...

Tuesday the kids were off from school.  I picked Tyce up about 3pm and took him back to the office with me for a date.  He had some homework to complete so we put a fire in the fireplace (he got to light the fire) and got him to work on his "What is Great about Being a Chicagoan Essay".  The fire helped him focus and he made some good progress on his essay while I finished up some things I needed to do.

Around 4:30 we packed up our stuff.  It was time.  Time for our Nerf dart gun battle.  3 guns, 25 assorted nerf darts, an empty room and lots of male energy.  I don't think I've had that much fun in a long time!  We were pegging each other left and right, rolling around the room, hiding, shooting, and laughing.  Tyce didn't want to stop but I was gassed after about a half hour. 

We looked outside and saw about 4 inches of light snow.  Found two lightweight shovels and went to work.  We started out just shoveling around the door but it was so much fun that we just kept shoveling all the way around the building.  Along the way I was able to share some spiritual truth--Ecclesiastes--two are better than one for they have a good return on their labor.  I got a laugh watching Tyce try to keep pace with me, shoveling as fast as he could to be just like dad. 

Shoveling done.  Time for dinner.  Tyce's choice--Jewel-bought sushi.  We grabbed that and a couple pops and went over to the new Lincoln Park location for phase two of our date.  Sat on the partially completed stage in the middle of the construction zone and munched our sushi in the half-light.  Chatted.  Enjoyed our soy sauce and California rolls.

Soon the volunteer laborers arrived and it was time to work on the building.  I teamed Tyce up with a volunteer named Mark, putting in Styrofoam insulation panels in the ceiling.  He got to mark the foam and then cut it with a razor knife and a hand saw.  Pretty much boy heaven.  I shoveled snow.  I like to shovel.  Seriously.

We left late--8:15pm--and my phone rang.  Wife.  Thought she was going to be concerned about Tyce's bedtime.  Nope.  Just wanted us to pick her up a treat on the way home.  No problem.  We stopped at Baskin Robbins and grabbed her a Heath sundae.  And then, in the midst of a snowstorm, we grabbed ice cream cones and headed for the door.

We get outside and Tyce says, "people are driving by and they're saying, 'hey, don't be those guys'--eating ice cream in a snow storm."  We crack up the whole way home about our ridiculous snack. 

Price of date:  $15
Effort level:  Low
Return on Relationship Investment:  Huge

Podcast note

Just a quick note for podcast subscribers.  We've had some issues with the podcast feed lately and it may have given you the impression it's no longer being maintained.  That's not the case.  Tim Dearborn, our ace web dbase programmer worked out some bugs with the feed and the podcast is up and running again as of about a week ago.  Just an FYI...

Fired up about what's been torn down

I added two more churches to my non-comprehensive list of churches that have closed since 1995 in the Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Logan Square, Wicker Park, North Center and Humboldt Park community areas of Chicago. 

One closed church came up in a conversation with Chuck McWherter, a long-time leader at our Lakeview/North Center church location (he's been ministering there since 1946!).  Chuck was sharing with me about the founding of an organization to reach the emerging Spanish-speaking residents of Chicago back in 1976.  The meeting involved Ray Bakke and bunch of other Chicago pastors.  It was held at Fairfield Community Church on Cortland in the Humboldt Park community.  Chuck told me the church closed "about 5 years ago".  Don't know how accurate his estimate is and I can't find data on the church on the internet yet.

When he mentioned this church it reminded me of another Humboldt Park church that was torn down in the late 90's--Westtown Baptist.  The church was located at the corner of Washtenaw and Cortland if I remember right.  A good friend grew up in that church and had been really saddened the demolition.  It was replaced by condos. 

My non-comprehensive total of closed churches in these areas now stands at 14. 

Just fires me up again to see this city and the North side in particular Rechurchified: 

• Re-introduced to Jesus
• Re-introduced to the missional community of Jesus' disciples called the church
• Re-introduced to living faith. 
• Re-consecrating sacred space for the Jesus Movement.

S(n)o(w) quiet

Needed to let off some steam last night so I went out back and shoveled the hardened snow on the path to the garbage cans in the backyard.  It was a good workout (stop laughing) and afterward, I grabbed one of our giant plastic lawn chairs and sat down in it.  (All that was missing was the Countrytime lemonade.)

Honestly, I think that is the quietest I have ever heard the city.  It was about 10:30 and cold.  Very little car noise, no dogs barking, no people walking, nothing much moving around.  In the quiet, I felt refreshed.  Felt like God said to me, "Kevin, you need to pay more attention to the little things.  Get rid of some of the blur in your life." 

It was a holy moment.  Lasted for about 30 minutes until my legs started to get a bit cold.  Glad for the unintended God-appointment.

Lincoln Park Grand Opening in 33 days!

Hardly seems possible, but we will be celebrating the Grand Opening of our 10th location, New Life Lincoln Park in only 33 days!   Much work has been done and much yet to do.  I took some pictures this morning of the auditorium and the welcome area/foyer that are currently under construction. 

You'll see from the auditorium photos that the tech balcony is framed, the back door openings are cut in and the frame for the platform has been completed.  The gym floor was buffed and recoated yesterday and as I was leaving, the flooring company was coming in to refinish the floors in the foyer. 

If you'd like to help with construction, come on out tonight, 7pm to 9pm or Thursday at 6:30 or Saturday at 9am.  We'll be having a lot of fun each of those days and we'd love to have you there!

Out in the community we are just about ready to get a billboard size banner up on Fullerton Avenue, we've just sent out our second mailing to 30,000 homes and we'll be doing a number of street outreaches in the coming weeks to invite the community to visit.  The core in our preview services has expanded to over 70 people and our hope is to have a core of over 100 before the Grand Opening on March 16th.

We'll also be meeting with leaders of civic and community organizations over the next couple months to understand the perceived needs in the community so that we can plan and implement services that benefit the Lincoln Park community.  We want to live up to the statement, "A Church for the Community".

In all of this I am amazed at the goodness of God.  It seems that He keeps putting His hand upon the work and giving us favor.  I'm excited about our next prayer meeting on February 28 as we pray for this new location.

Ignite photos

Mike Vasquez did a great job of capturing moments from Ignite.  Here are some of my favorites...

Hillside Hero leads us in worship in our final session.

Ummm.  Ow.

"It's just 'technique..."  Right. 

A challenge to align Power and Mission.

Shots from some of the Lab sessions:

(Thanks for sharing, Mike!)

Ignite

Saturday's all-church Ignite Summit was a really fun day!  Feedback I gathered from people was that it was an energizing, encouraging day--that is what we were hoping for. 

One quote that Pastor Mark threw out at the end of the day that really stuck in my head:

We are missionaries to the tribal groups of urban America.

That's a powerful and clear statement about who the church is, particularly to us here in the city of Chicago right now in this generation.  Every follower of Jesus is called to reach into a tribal group of urban Chicago and introduce that tribal group to Jesus.  The church as an urban missionary force--right on!

Multi-site Exposed site is live

I've mentioned that New Life will be one of the hosts for Multi-Site Exposed coming up in September.  Today the conference site went live for registration.  Check it out...

Lost in Transmission?

I picked up a book by "accident" Friday at Barnes and Noble.  Lost in Transmission? by Nicholas Perrin a prof out at Wheaton.  A timely and valuable read since we'll be preaching on the trustworthiness of Scripture from 2 Peter this Sunday.  (BTW, this is why brick-and-mortar will not be entirely taken over by internet shopping--browsing a bookstore is a valuable discipline that has often led me to books I needed to read.)

This book is largely an alternative to the story of the Bible's transmission presented by Bart Ehrman in Misquoting Jesus.  Anyone wrestling with reliability of the New Testament, particularly the Gospels, in communicating the life and words of Jesus, ought to read this book.

And Perrin is no sterile scholar.  He weaves his own journey of encountering Jesus through the words of the Bible in his college years as he writes.  The book is not what you would expect.  Far from dry, it is an engaging presentation of the historical reliability of the Gospel writers and those who preserved the text through the ages of church history. 

Its the kind of book that reminds you what a treasure the Bible is without employing the tactic of truthiness.  Its meaty without being pedantic or sanctimonious.

Here's a great summary statement from Perrin:

I have been arguing that historically speaking, we can have a fair deal of confidence that the Gospels give us the words--not to mention the life--of Jesus.  But this confidence does not mean that we have fully grasped Jesus, that we have intellectually mastered him, that he is in our back pocket. (p. 127)

This book is worth the $15 or $20 you'll spend--it will increase your confidence in the words of the New Testament with a fully engaged mind and heart.

Ignite 2008 in 4 days

I'm really excited about our Ignite Summit this coming Saturday, hosted by our Midway location.  Last year was incredible and this year we've raised the bar.  It may snow outside on Saturday but it will be a environment of spiritual heat inside New Life Midway.

Register Here!

You should come be a part of Ignite if any of the following statements apply to you:

• have a pulse
• love Jesus (even a little bit)
• serve in ministry somewhere at New Life
• need a spiritual recharge
• like to see large men break bricks
• get excited about worship
• want free snacks
• like the movies/tv show Mission Impossible
• want to see a bunch of goofy pastors dressed like a SWAT team
• enjoy the scenic southwest side of Chicago
• don't want to feel like a dork on Sunday, February 10
• want tools and training to be a more effective servant of God
• like free coffee
• need a chance to catch up with old friends from other New Life locations
• get excited about glow sticks
• need to relieve stress by squeezing a hand grenade
• want a reason to get up a little earlier this Saturday
• believe that this city needs Jesus!

If you've managed to escape this list unscathed, you probably need immediate medical attention.  If you didn't, register right now at www.newlifechicago.org/ignite2008!

See you Saturday!

The power of 'being there'

Today for our weekly Monday morning pastoral team meetings, we gathered at New Life Cicero's new building on 36th Street and 61st Avenue.  We had our prayer meeting in one of the building's auditoriums (it will have 2!) and then met for our message prep meeting in a classroom.  The Cicero team put out quite a spread of food--good times.  It was great to gather in the building as it enters the construction phase.

Now I've heard about the purchase of this building.  I've been happy for the settling of our wandering New Life West location which has rented facilities in Cicero and Berwyn for the last 10 years.  And I was  genuinely happy for Pastor Tony and his wife Linda that they will no longer have to manage the challenges of a wandering congregation.

But today, what I 'knew' became real to me.  And it happened simply by 'being there'.

There's something about 'being there' that does something for us humans.  I had the same experience when I went to Africa.  Showing up changed me; it changes how I experience all the news from Kenya during this time of crisis.  Showing up does something that hearing about it can't give you.

I think this is pretty powerfully tied into the concept of 'incarnation'.  Jesus harnessed the power of 'being there' on a cosmic level.  His showing up has power to reach people from all times and cultures--that's 'Being There'.  And his incarnation has implications for how we follow Him.  We follow Him incarnationally.  By 'being there'.  By the ministry of presence, as some have called it.

Incidentally, I think teams thrive on the concept of 'being there', together.  The power of showing up together.  Our team showing up together at the Cicero location this morning had power.  (And quite frankly, Jeremy Shockey's not 'being there' while his team was busy winning the Super Bowl certainly says something about him and his relationship to the team.)  Showing up can be a team-building enterprise.

Small group insights from Reveal Study

Greg Hawkins and company have deepened their research since their initial publication of Reveal this past Spring.  Reveal was a landmark church study commissioned by Willow Creek Community Church that sought to figure out how effective churches are at helping people grow spiritually. 

Their latest research piece involved small group ministry.  They are asking how effective small groups are at deepening people's spiritual roots.  Here are a couple graphs from their recent findings that I found helpful.

I'm convinced that small groups are environments that catalyze spiritual friendships and spiritual growth.  I think they are biblical and at the same time, strategic and practical.  I believe there is no better ground for leadership development in the church.  In fact, just about every one of our pastors began their journey at New Life by becoming a fruitful small group leader. 

So we are always searching for tools, ideas and research that will help us increase the flow of people into these critical spiritual environments.

Yes!!

I love this weather--10 inches of snow and still falling!  I think it is the sense of adventure that comes from a huge snowfall.  Just venturing out of the house seems to open up new possibilities in previously all-to-familiar places. 

Tardy for school today?  Under "reason for tardiness" write, "winter wonderland, baby!"  Late for work:  "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"  2.5 hour commute to your home in the suburbs?  Move to the city.  It snows here too but the drive is shorter.

Viva la snow!