caffeine, please.

Refreshed

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it  with thanksgiving.

Every Monday our team prays together before we have any meetings.  We started doing this faithfully about a year ago.  It has been a valuable spiritual rhythm for me and I sense for everyone.  I need to pray with others on Mondays especially.  Its always a recovery day so being prayed for and praying for my brothers restores my soul.

This morning our worship time was a little quiet.  I sensed that the team was all feeling a bit "gassed".  We broke up in small groups to pray--John, Ken and I were together.

Sometimes when you pray, you PRAY.  John, Ken and I PRAYED for one another.  It seemed like every prayer was motivated by the Spirit, that it reached into the soul and did work in the spiritual realm.  When we finished John spoke what was on my heart--"thanks. that was a sweet time of prayer, guys."

Principal:  if you have a consistent weekly time where you are prone to be weak, spent and vulnerable, plan to pray with others at that very time. We often want to "veg out" when we're spent.  I find that prayer rejuvenates and restores me when I'm spent, far more than "vegging".

Be a resource provider

I received an email today from a woman who has been ministering to a Jewish woman in her life that is earnestly seeking.  The woman emailing asked for some resources that she could pass along to her friend.  Maybe my response will help you with people you're in conversation with...

I'm excited to hear of the God-opportunity relating to the Jewish woman you've been talking with.  Exciting!  And your approach of being a resource provider is right on.  Bill Hybels emphasizes that approach as the most effective way to help people move toward Jesus.  We can't twist their arm into following Jesus.  Earnest seekers seem always to end up finding an earnestly seeking God when His people are willing to help point the way.

Here are a couple ideas for books and resources for your friend.

If she is a reader and willing for a challenge, there's a relatively new book out that I haven't gotten to read yet but knowing the publisher and the subject would be valuable.  Its called Jewish Believers in Jesus: The Early Centuries.  For a person who may struggle with Christianity and Jewishness as being incompatible, this book would be a help and it looks to be focused on interacting with primary sources from the first 5 centuries.

Another book I read recently and really found valuable is called Lost in Transmission by Nicholas Perrin.  This book focuses on the reliability of the Gospels in communicating the life of Jesus to the modern reader.  It weaves in the author's testimony and responds to some modern criticism of the reliability of the Gospels as well.  It's academic without being dry or disconnected from life.  Its not particularly targeted toward Jewish people but it deals with the fundamental question of the life of Jesus as revealed in the Gospels.

One more resource--Lon Solomon who is a Jewish believer who pastors in D.C.  You can read his story and get the link to his audio testimony here:  http://www.mcleanbible.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=15964.  He's something else--came to Christ in the early 70's.

Never be afraid to admit you don't know and then point people to resources that will help them move toward Jesus.  You can't save people.  That's the work that Jesus does.  You can simply point to Him, share your story and give resources while praying. 

In the news...

Ben Myers from the Chicago Journal recently interviewed several of our pastors and attenders and did an article on New Life Lincoln Park. 

I thought it was a balanced article on the merge/restart.

A tribute to the fine workers of the Streets and San department

Perhaps you read my Good Friday post which seemingly disparaged the speed of the fine employees of the Chicago Streets and Sanitation Department in responding to the unusual snowfall. 

Well, I ran into alert reader Tom F. on Wednesday night.  Coincidentally, Tom happens to be a fine employee of Streets and San and I would also like to mention that he did excellent work on Good Friday plowing our city's roads.  Now Tom was kind enough to remind me that the Streets and San are responsible for, as he put it, "the underbelly of the city".  Tom shared with me that he'd hate to hear about any unfortunate incidents involving my garbage cans.  Let me just say that I agreed with him and that I appreciated his level of concern for my welfare.  I took his comments to heart.

So as I look out my window and witness yet another March snowfall in the midst of rush hour, one in which Tom and his compatriots are right now dutifully plowing and salting away this wintry mix for our collective safety, I'd like to offer my personal tribute to the heroes of Chicago's Streets and San in the form of a Haiku:

Snow fall in Spring, help
Rush hour, traffic--working hard
Streets & San--Heroes.

Keep em safe, Tom!

Rememberizin' #3

With the kids gone for Spring Break we're just now getting on track with our third set of family memory verses.  This week is appropriately a Resurrection theme:

Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.  (1 Corinthians 15:20-21)

On the way to school this morning I did a quick review with the three older kids.  The verdict:  they were about 85% on Romans 10:9-10 and we were all no where to be found on Romans 3:22-23. 

Bottomline:  we need to review, review, review so that we can retain.

Write these commandments that I've
given you today on your hearts.
Get them inside of you and then
get them inside your children.

ABCD

On April 19th, I will be joining a group of Lakeview/Lincoln Park New Lifers at a training called Asset-Based Community Development.  The training is happening in Evergreen Park all day Saturday. Here's an explanation from the organizers:

In many communities, governments, social service organizations, and churches attempt community change by asking what is wrong, what has to be fixed.  ABCD approaches community change differently by looking at what a community has that it can give/contribute to the desired change.

The church is paying the cost of the registration so the only cost to those who go is lunch.  I'm opening the door to anyone who may be interested to join us in the training.  If you want to be a part of this, email me and we'll put you on our registration list.

What do I hope to see happen from taking part in a training experience like this? A group of New Lifers who form a guiding coalition that seeks to mobilize many New Lifers in local community development for the good of the city, all across the city.  Something that happens grass roots and spins out small groups in different areas where New Lifers live so that they can work together for the good of their neighborhood.

Hope you can join us!

Easter reflections

A couple thoughts and observations from this past Resurrection Sunday and weekend...

• Easter feels a little bit like Super Bowl weekend--lots of buildup/hype/attention, increased pressure and a clear sense that many more people than normal are tuning in.  I always want to keep that sense of pressure in check.  Christianity is not an event.  Its a life.  Events can open the door to a new life but they can't replace it.  My hope is that our Easter gatherings help invite people to exploring the life part more than the event part.
• That being said, it was great to see a second week at the new Lincoln Park location that was full of visitors and had a sense of expectation and celebration.  Thanks to God and the prayers of many, we seem to have good startup momentum.  Now the hard work of leading people toward deeper connections with God and with people is what stands in front of us.  Karen Carpenter is right:  "we've only just begun..."  (On second thought, maybe that's not what she meant...)
• My Easter highlight?  Our neighbor, Alice, spent the day with us.  (Alice lost her husband of 30+ years about 18 months ago.)  She attended worship in the morning (for the first time), had Easter dinner with us, then played Uno Attack! and then stayed the afternoon as Gil and the kids and her watched an episode of Planet Earth and Seventh Heaven.  She practically tucked the kids in.  Good times.
• I really appreciated Alan Attwood's drama presentation.  Funny, thoughtful, engaging with the text without being wooden and stuffy, emotionally connecting.  I hope we can work with him again in the future.  Favorite quotes from the drama:  "Drop your self-absorbed living, shoulder your cross and follow me," and from the Rich Man, "He says there's still something I can't count among my assets."  Great paraphrases of the text--powerful punch!
• Great to see a number of people indicating they trusted Christ on Easter Sunday.  That's a huge blessing on any Sunday.  Publicly expressing faith in Jesus is a big, big step.  Now on toward baptism!
• My favorite quote of the day?  I was talking with a first-time visitor (invited by his co-worker who's part of the church) from our morning gathering at LP.  He was enthusiastic in his recap of the experience:  "It was great!  I liked the music, the environment, the speech, man everything!"  The speech!  Awesome!  The best moments in ministry are when people are connecting with God and have no idea what the "Christian words" are for what they've experienced.  Hopefully he comes back for more "speeches", worship and transformation--the kind Jesus brings.

Email dialog

I really value dialog--particularly with people who haven't embraced Jesus as "my Lord and my God" yet.  I think the greatest privilege of a follower of Jesus is to help people move toward Jesus through life and words. 

I thought I'd pass along some email dialog I had recently with a friend who is not yet a Christian and who occasionally/sporadically attends our worship gatherings.  The only thing I edited out was his name.

Finally!

So, yeah, I have been quite absent from the blogosphere the last week. 

Between the launch of New Life Lincoln Park and Easter Sunday on the 23rd, its been a little crazy but I'm anxious to get back to writing.  (I start to feel a little "bound up" when I go without writing for so many days.) 

So as Gene Autry sings, "I'll be back in the saddle again..."  (That one's for you, Brett.  And hey, be careful what you shoot brother--those really big black and white things eating grass are cows, not deer.)

Snowing on Good Friday

Is it me or has the entire Streets and Sanitation department decided that the streets don't need to be plowed today?  I almost slid into someone earlier today and I saw a car literally run into a building about an hour ago.

Snow on Good Friday.  That's a new one. 

Praise God for the Cross.  Redeeming life, even on a snowy Friday.

Grand Opening

We had a great Grand Opening at Lincoln Park this past Sunday!  About 60 people who were there for the first time and just under 200 people total in attendance.  That represents a 10-fold increase in Sunday attendance since last Fall.  That is a God-thing. 

What was especially cool was that the visitors were people from the community, not so much "well wishers" from other New Life locations. 

I'm really proud of our team--both volunteer and staff--for all the work they did in Jesus name to bring this Grand Opening together.  Mike, EJ, Dave P., Kelli, Alyson, Eric, Nate, Brian, Erin, Gary & Anne, Confesor, Dave K., Mario, Oscar, Jose & Shanda, Leo & Nilsa, Jeff, Debbie, Mike & Leigh, Jose, Chris, Darren, Andy, Jordan, Olivia, Roger, Jeanne, Stephanie, Melissa, Brian P., Janet, Shayna, Mark & Heather, and a host of others who served, worked, prayed toiled and gave to make this happen.

And here's the reality--the real work is only just beginning.  Its like having a baby.  Pregnancy feels like work but once that baby is delivered, the work of raising kids is a whole other level of work.  This Restart was a ton of work (fun work, for sure) but now comes the real work of raising up a real faith community in the midst of secular Chicago. 

So here we go to put our passion to work in cooperating with God to see a life-giving church that blesses Lincoln Park by bringing Lincoln Park Jesus.  Excited about that next step this Resurrection Sunday!

KISS FM radio spots

The ad spots for KISS FM will begin running tomorrow morning.  There are two different spots--one is 15 seconds and the other is 30 seconds.  We are really excited about this new way to connect with secular Chicago. 

Sun Times article

Here's the link to the Sunday Sun Times article:
http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/religion/844977,CST-NWS-newlife16.article

Lincoln Park Restart Happenings...

A reporter from the Skyline Journal called today to interview about the Lincoln Park Restart and the Dechurchification/Rechurchification trend happening in the Lakeview, North Center and Lincoln Park communities.  Sounds like an article will be forthcoming.  I'll keep you posted.  Not sure where he heard about things but glad to get some coverage on both items.

Also the Sunday Sun Times should have an article from an interview that Mike Thomas did last week with Pastor Mark Jobe about the Lincoln Park Restart. 

Lots of details to finish up before Sunday.  We'll be over at Lincoln Park tonight as a family helping get things organized.  Tomorrow we plan to visit with neighbors.  Praying for God appointments.

Lunch date with art

Gil and I stopped by Sacred Art after having a rare lunch date together in Roscoe Village.  Sacred Art has great local artists with a lot of Chicago-themed art--I love going in there!  What particularly caught my eye and my bank card was a very cool poster of Chicago neighborhoods.  Check it out:

You can pick one up at Sacred Art for $25.  I think that's pretty cheap.  These posters are awesome!  As we were walking out, someone else was walking in to and asking about "that Chicago map poster..."  Good stuff.

Jesus for President, adendum

I need to say a couple things that I'm not on board with from Jesus for President...

#1--I don't believe business and corporate enterprise is the enemy.  I don't support the corporate activism that Claiborne and others pursue.  Same goes for the military activism.  I don't see any precedent in Scripture for wrecking corporate and military equipment in the name of Jesus.  To do so seems like another way to get preoccupied with "the empire" rather than being preoccupied with the kingdom.

#2--Claiborne and Haw recommend some writers/authors that are pretty far outside the scope of historic Christian orthodoxy.  One example:  John Dominic Crossan founded the Jesus Seminar which has sought to strip much of the supernatural and incarnational truth from Jesus and the Gospels.  In Crossan's work, Jesus is reduced to little more than a political revolutionary and counter-culture figure.  If you have a very low view of Scripture than your picture of Jesus is distorted which means the outworking of your faith will be distorted too.  Not saying Claiborne and Haw agree in every point with Crossan but their recommendations of his books (as well as other authors) without qualification is not wise.

#3--On some gut level, I'm a little turned off by the self-righteous attitude of Claiborne and Haw.  There's this subtle undertone throughout the book that "us and our buddies are right--we've figured it out--and everyone else is way off."  We can agree that there are many things about Western Christianity that are off.  But I've traveled as well and I have seen firsthand that being poor and Christian does not make you faithful and right.  You can be just as obsessed with money and off course with Jesus as an impoverished Christian as you can a wealthy one.  The developing world is not faithful simply by virtue of being not American.  And an American church is not apostate just because it is located in the U.S.

Poverty, by itself, is not spiritual.  Wealth, all by itself, is not wicked.  We need to go beyond these overly-simplistic categories of judging if we're going to get to the heart of Jesus.

I'll say again, Jesus for President is a great and challenging read but it also doesn't have everything "right".  And that's okay.  I don't either.  Not even close.  But I'm not going to let some things that I view as glaring weaknesses slip by without mentioning them.  I don't think Claiborne and Haw would either if the shoe were on the other foot.

KISS FM update

We've got a signed contract and I just sent over content for the commercial spots that will be airing on KISS FM starting next week.  We should have a production sample from the station to listen to and edit later today.  Really excited to be entering this new territory!  Pray for divine appointments via the airwaves for people all across the city of Chicago!

Jesus for President

I'm on the home stretch of reading Jesus for President.  I'm in a pretty good-sized tangle from reading this book.  I've been close to tears many times, I've dog-eared a ton of pages, I've found myself arguing and disagreeing with big sections of the book and I've also found myself speechless and deeply affected at other sections.  There is no question that I've been challenged by this book. 

I'll summarize a few thoughts and then give a few of my favorite lines and quotes:

Guest Blogger, Pastor Mike Berry

I got an email from my friend Mike Berry today and I thought, "hey, this is blog worthy!"  Mike is a pastor at our New Life Midway location.  His comments are on the spiritual lessons that can be learned from politics and particularly, Hillary Clinton's campaign...

Restart Video now online

Hey team--we've got our Restart video available online now.  The link is:

http://sundaytown.com/media/restart/

New parenting ideas

I came up with a new concept in parenting today.  The concept came to me like a flash--like a vision.  I tried it out right away and I was very happy with the results.

Let me preface my revolutionary parenting concept.  Every parent--every parent--has the challenge of children who sometimes don't listen and do what they say.  Gil and I have discovered that we are part of "every parent" and our kids our part of "every kid".  So sometimes I will say something and it will be ignored, "not heard", forgotten, blatantly disregarded, not understood, given to a brother or sister--frankly the creativity of children would not allow me to list all the ways that parental instructions left unaccomplished.

Now clearly, sometimes, occasionally, even, dare-I-say often, our children do what we say.  Its wonderful.  We like it.  We try to reward it. 

But sometimes.  Oh sometimes.  Sometimes, you just need to tip the ratios a bit.  You need to get your kids to find themselves obeying a larger number of instructions than they are not obeying.  My theory here is that a higher ratio of obeyed instructions improves parental sanity and at the same time increases a child's sense of accomplishment.  "Hey, I've done a lot of things that my dad said today.  I'm on a roll."

So what, do you ask, is this revolutionary concept in parenting that can single-handedly increase your child's Obedience to Parental Instructions Index (OPII)?  Simple and powerful. 

Give instructions that are literally impossible to ignore, forget, pass on, etc.  Need some examples? 

We made it...

...through our first Sunday back in the chapel at New Life Lincoln Park.  A lot of work and a lot of great volunteers who jumped in on Saturday to help get the building from havoc to hospitable.  Sunday morning, DST weekend (my least favorite weekend of the year) we were fully functional with seating, sound system, freshly painted children's ministry, coffee (muy importante), welcome center and almost zero dust. 

This week will be a busy time finalizing lots of little construction details, doing street handouts and door-to-door visitation and making sure we're ready to accommodate guests, hopefully many guests, at 9am on the 16th.

Can we pray together a minute?

Jesus, thank you for the open door in Lincoln Park.  We've worked, we've prayed, we've prepared, we've announced, we've hoped and now we wait.  This is your deal.  Bring the people you are already preparing.  Bring the people who's lives you are already actively working in.  Bring the people who haven't found themselves in a church since the last wedding they attended.  Most importantly, Jesus, please be there with us.  Minister to people, make worship open the hearts of people, go where we can't go to do what we can't do to glorify your name.  Its yours Jesus.

Methods

I've been reading through the book of Acts the last few days--felt God calling me back to Church roots.  One thing stuck out to me today.

Paul used a lot of different methods and venues to communicate Jesus to people.  I started doing a short inventory in my head and I realized he was constantly "innovating" in his communication approach and the places where people would gather to listen to him. 

A short list of some of the Jesus venues:

• down by the river in Philippi (was Lydia Matt Foley's great-great...grandma?)
• in synagogues
• in a philosophy debate center in Athens
• in a school (of Tyrannus)
• at the gates of Lystra  (the city hall of the ancient world)
• in jail
• in the marketplace of Athens
• in the temple courts of Jerusalem
• on a sinking ship
• at the dinner table of governmental leaders
• almost in a sports and theater stadium

Impressive.  And a reminder that innovation is old school.  Being flexible, following God's leading, taking opportunities and running with them, never letting "we never did it that way before" be in charge of decision-making, always looking for a "best fit" environment that will help people hear and respond to Jesus--that seemed to be Paul's M.O. 

I'm pretty challenged by that.  I'm afraid we're not innovative and flexible enough in our effort reach and connect with people to communicate Jesus.  I feel like I often get stuck in what "we already do" rather than throwing out the play book and trying things that God seems to be working through.  I need  to pray through this to understand what it means but it makes Paul my hero all over again.

Funny break

I needed a mental break and this was just the ticket for a big laugh at the expense of white people.  Very funny blog.  Good humor has a base of truth that makes you say to yourself, "he noticed that too!  I can't believe it!" 

Thanks to Jelani Greenidge for the tip...

Remeberizin' wk. 2

Last week Tuesday we kicked off a new family tradition rememberizin' Scripture together.  Our first set of verses were Romans 10:9-10.  Last night at the dinner table was our check in time.  Each person said the verses starting with me.  Everyone but Olivia had memorized them (Lena needed a little help with the second verse).  I rewarded each of the older kids with a $1 for having memorized the verses. 

At the end we each wrote down next week's verses on our index cards:  Romans 3:22-23.  I'm liking this new and simple family spiritual practice.  Wanting to live out the command from Deuteronomy:

Write these commandments that I've
given you today on your hearts.
Get them inside of you and then
get them inside your children.

New Billboard

The billboard for our LP location just went up on Fullerton yesterday.  Big thanks to Cortland at Chicago Costume Shop for donating the space to put this sign up.  We're getting it for free!

KISS FM

We met with Corey S. this morning.  Corey is an account executive with KISS FM who also lives near our new Lincoln Park location and received some of our mailers.  When she received our postcard she thought, "I need to think about going to a church and I'd consider going to this church."   She figured KISS listeners would also be interested in a church like New Life so she gave us a call about advertising on their radio station.

I'm excited about the possibility of getting ad spots on secular radio in Chicago.  We want to connect with people who aren't already in a church, aren't already tuned in to Jesus--not people who are already churched.  And KISS is the #1 listened to music station in Chicago.

And the ads that we would hope to run are not "churchy" ads.  We want to see ads that are a little unlikely, non-churchy, funny and self-effacing.  I'll keep you posted but our hope would be to run ads leading up to Easter Sunday and the week following. 

So here's my question--what do you think about advertising on KISS?  Let's hear your comments.

Easter Mailer

This mailer is going out to 20,000 homes next week--10,000 surrounding our Lakeview location and 10,000 surrounding our Lincoln Park location.  (Nate C. created this card from scratch--I think its the best Easter card we've ever done.)

Feel free to email images to your friends, family and co-workers.  Easter is a time when people are looking for a church and you can help them find one. 

Front:

Back:

Final Preview for Shift

Last night was our final Shift preview worship gathering at New Life Lincoln Park.  This was the biggest gathering of the 3 and the gathering feels like its gaining some momentum.  April 6 we'll kick into gear with weekly evening worship gatherings--7:30pm.

Big ups to Chris Groenendal who is the leader at Shift and has done an incredible job pulling things together.  Also to Eric Marquez and the band who really bring a powerful worship presence with their leadership.  Big ups also the Christina, the Masa's, Jordan, Olivia, Jan, and a bunch of other awesome volunteers. 

I encourage you to join the Facebook group for Shift to stay informed...