The Chicago Plan

Sunday, March 25th: I was sick. After driving 6 hours from Milwaukee back to St Louis, eating at a Pastor's house, I got home and a 103˚ fever struck me. I crawled into bed fully clothed and with all the blankets possible by 10:30–very early by my standards. A little after midnight, my fever broke and I fell back asleep praying for those in my cityLife and for Stacey and my future professionally. I felt I heard God say to me, I'll show you some progress for your future call.

Wednesday, March 28th: I had a conversation with a pastor that was looking to hire an assistant pastor. It was a no nonsense discussion that I was not going to be hired for that position. However, he said, if I wanted to talk about church planting in Chicago–my dream–that would be a completely different discussion. Essentially, he said, "I can't promise you anything, but if you come back in 2 months with a plan and people ready to support said plan, we could see what God would do with that."

Immediately, my heart lept and as the past week has unraveled, I've been dreaming and praying and talking about the possibilities of planting in Chicago. I am going to plan as if God is calling me there and see what doors He would open on the way.

There are three neighborhoods that I am looking for potentiality: Logan Square, Ukrainian Village, and Lincoln Square. They all have their positives and negatives. Lincoln Square is the most established of the neighborhoods with long-standing residents, young families and young professionals together. They also have a couple of new church plants happening there already. Logan Square is one of the most up and coming neighborhoods in Chicago. Hipster would describe Logan well. Young professionals dominate, but my initial impressions give a less stable environment to plant in. However, there are a number of churches planting in Logan at this time. Ukrainian Village is where I lived after graduating and is a pretty good balance between the other two neighborhoods and only one other church plant is on the east side of that area.

Fun Fact: There is no Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) presence in the city of Chicago. Why not plant the first?

What's next?

First and foremost: Prayer. Please pray with me where God would lead in this endeavor. I know church planting is a big endeavor and a big task and calling is laid out before me. I want to be open to where God would lead rather than my own desires and wishes. I want to be open to this not happening and be able to yield to God's will in this. I want this to happen desperately. I want join in the endeavor God is already at work doing redeeming and restoring His city called Chicago. Please pray with me about how you or those you know can be involved.

Second: Research. Lots of my hours will be caught up in the exercises listed out in the Redeemer Church Planting Manual. Many of my finds will be listed here. Please continue to check in and read more about the city that God loves.

Second B: Contacts. I'll be calling, grabbing coffee, emailing, drinking beer, eating and any other activity I can find to do to network with pastors and churches around Chicago. If you or anyone you know would be willing to sit down and dream about what God would have for the city of Chicago, please feel free to contact me. I'd love to sit down with you.

In 1909, Daniel Burnham put forth The Chicago Plan together with Edward H. Bennett. It was a three year undertaking to strategically just to plan proposed improvements for the city, including the lakefront, highways, parks system, and civic and cultural centers. Many of those plans can be seen in the modern day Chicago. In honor of what Burnham proposed, I will be referring to this church planting endeavor under the same name, firmly believing that the Gospel is the only way Chicago will ever be fully redeemed.

Who Stands Fast?

From Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, by Eric Metaxas:

"Who stands fast?" he asked. "Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God–the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God."

This was how Bonhoeffer saw what he was doing. He had theologically redefined the Christian life as something active, not reactive. It had nothing to do with avoiding sin or with merely talking or teaching or believing theological notions or principles or rules or tenets. It had everything to do with living one's whole life in obedience to God's call through action. It did not merely require a mind, but a body too. It was God's call to be fully human, to live as human beings obedient to the one who had made us, which was the fulfillment of our destiny. It was not a cramped, comprised, circupsect life, but as life lived in a kind of wild, joyful, full-throated freedom–that was what it was to obey God.

...one must be more zealous to please God that to avoid sin.  (p. 446)

Teamwork

 

My good friend, Brad Edwards, and I have been doing a lot of projects together over the past year. Photos for City Church's website, videos for GreenTree Community Church–that sort of thing. He's really a talented brother and a great guy to work with.

On a recent video shoot, he grabbed this shot of the guy we were interviewing, but left it on my card. So I played around with it a bit. A great B&W preset that I have in Lightroom, a little fill light and pumped up the yellows a touch. I think we make a pretty good team.

Lessons Learned

Over the last few months, Stacey and I have been heading to a small town south of Chicago to do some pastor and preaching. It's been a great experience overall, but after this past weekend we decided to call it quits. It was a pretty hard decision, but one that we feel God led us to, rather than just a knee-jerk reaction when times got hard. The previous Thursday before we went up there, they led a discussion that came to a vote on my presence being there. People that I trusted had been ones leading the charge against me. And after the cold reception that we received on Sunday, we decided that it would be in the best interest of all parties to end the short-term arrangement.

All that said, I have to say that it was one of the most concentrated learning experiences that I have had. I came up with 10 things that I learned through this process. Yes, it's a list. We all like lists, as my favorite streaming music service keeps telling me.

1. Trust my instincts. Even though I am young and without tons of experience, God has gifted me in specific ways to lead his people.
2. Trust that God is doing a great work. Both in the people and in me.
3. Commit myself to prayer. For people, for me, for Stacey. Lean on God at every opportunity.
4. Be in the Word. It is life-giving. It is true and mighty. It speaks today as God has throughout time.
5. Ask Questions. Actively pursue the hard things. Where will this just not work? What is a challenge? What can change? What is a deal breaker?
6. Confront sin. God hates it. So should you. Confront it head on and be gracious.
7. I absolutely married an amazing woman.
8. Know where I am gifted. Don't sell myself short. If any of my gifts are compromised, ask why and think hard about the situation.
9. Pastoring is like marriage. Can you put up with all her (the church's) faults and still love and serve her?
10. Be reflective. Write down your thoughts; talk with others.

And even in the week since I wrote this out, God is still teaching me lessons and I'm sure will be much into the future.

Beyond Eating

Food is central to most of our lives. Whether we have it or not. If we don't have it, we want it and if we do have it, we, or I, typically want more of it. Food has been fairly central to my life as I've worked in one capacity or another at various restaurants, both back in Chicago and here in St Louis. One of the greatest venture that I've been able to be a part of is called Entre. Working with John and all the people of Entre has always been a joy. This video of an Entre event I helped out with, shot by Tangent Mind for The Other Journal, tells why.

Of Salt and Light from The Other Journal on Vimeo.