Archive for October, 2008

God (in the Bustle and Noise)

by Tim Schraeder on 10/28/2008 in Books, Chicago, Inspiration, Personal with 1 Comment

A friend and I are reading through AW Tozer’s The Pursuit of God right now and get together once a week to talk about it. It’s been great so far and I’m definitely being challenged and kicked in the butt by it!

One thing I didn’t know about Tozer was that he did most of his ministry right here in Chicago.

In the preface of the book there’s a section called Tozer’s legacy where it says:

He came upon a closer walk with God in the bustle and noise of the city of Chicago.

Something about reading that line got me really excited. My life has been incredibly busy since moving here over a year and half ago. I was back home this weekend and was struck by how the place of life is so different here than there.

Amidst the chaos that is city living, I’ve definitely felt this longing and desire to know God more, and to know His peace and presence in my everyday life. Reading that line encouraged me so much. Tozer was a spiritual hero… a man whose words have inspired so many people… and he lived life, did ministry, and came upon a closer walk with God in the bustle and noise of the city of Chicago.

How cool.

I pray that I can follow suit…

Screwtape Letters

by Tim Schraeder on 10/27/2008 in Chicago with No comments

Last Wednesday some friends and I went to see a theatrical version of CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters.

I wasn’t sure how it would play out (no pun intended), but after hearing a lot of people rave about it, I was excited to see it.

It was fantastic.

It’s playing in Chicago at the Mercury Theater through November 23 (it was held over)… and if you are in or near Chicago, it’s well worth the price of admission ($30) to check it out.

It’s a 2-man show, well, only 1 person speaks (Screwtape)… and the staging and everything about it are creative and engaging.

Read more and watch clips here.

Daylight Savings Reminder?

by Tim Schraeder on 10/22/2008 in Church Communications, Examples, Just For Fun with 18 Comments

We need some feedback…

Carlos introduced us to Purple Bunny and when Jason, our media dude, was thinking of ways we could communicate a reminder about Daylight Savings…

Well, let us know what you think. Right? Wrong? Should we? Shouldn’t we?

THIS IS AN UPDATED VERSION! Click here to download the los-res version. High res coming soon!

Text Polling in Service

by Tim Schraeder on 10/21/2008 in Church Communications, Park, Social Media with 2 Comments

Well, we tried something new this weekend at Park… we did a text poll live in service!

We put our ‘Shiny Happy People’ series on hold this weekend to take some time to talk about the economy. Many people in our church are feeling the affects of what’s happening on Wall Street. People are losing their jobs, being threatened to be laid off, and others are fearful about their retirement funds. With Chicago being a big banking city, it’s a big issue for our people.

Our lead pastor Jackson preached an incredible message… I normally wouldn’t do this, but if you have some spare time, I really encourage you to listen to the message. Preaching out of Matthew 6, Jackson challenged us to take stock of what we are putting our faith in, and reminded us that in this time of uncertainty we need to put our faith and trust in God.

We asked our church to help us out and let us know how they were feeling about the current situation and asked them:

Does the current economic crisis cause you to worry about your financial condition either now or for your future?”

Between the three services we had over 750 people respond — 61% said that they were worried and 39% were not.

It was pretty cool to watch the stats go live on our screens and to engage our audience in that conversation.

Our pastor placed the poll in the middle of his message and after the results were revealed spent the remainder of his message talking about how to deal with worry and fear.

It was a great morning and a great opportunity to once again lower the barrier between the platform and the chairs and allow people the opportunity to engage with us!

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