Elements[Chicago] Welcomes Gabe Lyons

If you need a good excuse to get to Chicago, look no further than Elements[Chicago] happening on Thursday, February 18.

For the past year or so, Park has been backing an event called Elements.

The idea behind it is to create conversations about issues that matter: life, community, creativity, hope, etc. and bring together people who are influencing in those areas to come and lead a conversation. Every Elements gathering has been hosted in unique venues outside of the church ranging from art galleries to performance theaters, to a gay bar and a Borders Bookstore. The idea is to use these different events as an opportunity for people to invite their friends to a conversation that’s not necessarily “churchy” or inside of a church. Our hope is that these gatherings serve as a springboard to share about how the Gospel impacts all of these areas.

Previous guests have included:

• David Hodges, songwriter and formerly of the band Evanescence, shared the idea that influence is personal.
• Benjamin Gott & Rick DeVos, founders of TheCommon.org talked about how influence is small.
• Cathleen Falsani, former Chicago Sun-Times columnist and author challenged us on living out our faith and finding God in unlikely places.
• Jamie Tworkowski of To Write Love on Her Arms talked about the beauty of life.
• David Kuo, Presidential Advisor to President Bush, shared about being faithful to your calling.
• Matt Emerzian from Every Monday Matters, reminded us that every day we can make a small choice to make a big difference.
• Andrew Marin, author of Love is an Orientation, challenged us on the divide between the church and the gay community.
• Rusty Pritchard of Flourish, shared about carting for creation.

And now, on February 18, we’re welcoming Gabe Lyons co-author of unChristian, founder of the Fermi Project and the Q Conference – a convergence of thought to share “ideas that create a better world.”

Gabe will engage a conversation around not just creating culture but how he is imagining forth a new reality within which the church exists. His purpose, and the reason behind the name the Fermi Project, is to seek to use small, exponential changes to create a series of large changes in how the church views its mission.

If you’ve been involved in church leadership in the past couple of years you will know what a remarkable challenge Gabe and David Kinnaman brought through their book unChristian, and Gabe will certainly have some important ideas all of us need to hear.

Elements[Chicago] with Gabe Lyons will be held on Thursday, February 18 at 7:30 PM at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, located at 1016 N Dearborn, just west of Michigan Avenue and the Magnificent Mile. More info here.

I would love to see you there… spread the word and hope to see you soon!

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