Chicago, 2010

Posts Tagged ‘Chicago’

Building a church = Becoming the church…

We are amazed at the joyful sacrifice and generosity of our Soul City Starters.  God has lovingly overwhelmed us with an amazing space for our Church in the heart of Chicago’s West Loop.  This is a BIG answer to months and months of BIG prayers.  And now, our team is responding to God goodness with BIG Shoulders.

Every Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday we gather to build this Church together.  We work. We sweat. We eat. We laugh. We pray. And in the process, we are BEcoming the Church.

We would love for you to join us.  You don’t need any previous construction experience to be a part.  All you need is the desire to be a part of this amazing story of our start.  You can LITERALLY build a Church with us.  It’s a crazy adventure that God has us on.  And we’d love for you to be a part!

Tuesdays 4.00p – 8.00p
Saturdays 9.00a – 1.00p
Sundays 2.00p – 7.00p

Our next Work and Worship is Sunday, August 12 from 2.00p – 7.00p.  You can sign up to work and Worship with us below.


Have a Seat, Give a Seat…

We are so honored to partner with Breakthrough Urban Ministries for a truly unique opportunity to make room in the city of Chicago.

Both Soul City and Breakthrough are in the process of Making Space for people to have a Transformational Experience with the life, love, and hope of Jesus.

Soul City is focusing on the Unique Needs and Oppertunites of Chicago’s West Loop, while Breakthrough is focusing on East Garfield Park.

We are privileged to be Partners Together in loving and serving this city as God leads.

And you can tangibly be part of this great partnership and the work that God is doing by Making Space.

For $60 you can purchase two seats: One of those seats goes to Break Through, the other goes to Soul City Church.

Regardless of whether you can make it out to our Celebration on August 15.  Regardless of whether you live in Chicago or not.  Regardless of whether you will actually ever sit in one of these seats.  You have the opportunity to join in something that God is doing, in a city that God, loves, for people you may never meet.  You can give someone a seat.

You may be able to buy more than one.

You may be able to buy an entire row (10 seats)

You may be able to do more.

Whatever God leads you to do, we would ask that you pray for those who will find rest, those who will find hope, those who will find freedom, those who will find Jesus in the seat that you gave.

To purchase your seat(s) please click below

the whole process takes about 57 seconds

To hear more about the Story Behind The Start of Soul City Church, check out this video by Jarrett Stevens

To get a glimpse of how YOU will be making room at Breakthrough Urban Ministries, check out this video from the head of Breakthrough, our friend Arloa Sutter…


How Do You Find a Home in a Day?

Today Jarrett and Jeanne will view over a dozen homes in downtown Chicago in an attempt to lock in where we will be living…in 3 weeks.  This is not how we would have planned for or desired, but it seems like God is more interested in growing our faith than He is coddling to our comfort.

You can follow our adventures through Jarrett’s Twitter Feed.  However, we would ask that every time you see a Tweet, you PRAY BIG that God would continue to provide above and beyond what our Family needs or could possibly imagine.  We are excited to see what God brings….in the next few hours!  Thank you for being a part of this with us.

.

How do you find a HOME in a day?  You don’t.  You find a house and you make it a HOME.


Chicago…A New City

Chicago New CityThe following is pulled from the Front Page of the Chicago’s Pastors Alliance.  Our good friends Alvin Bibbs and Daniel Hill are a part of an amazing movement to see God Transform Chicago into the city He desires for it to be.  I challenge you to read this (like…all of it) and take 5 minutes to dream about and pray for Your City.  Pray that you would be a part of what God and others are doing to help it become the kind of city that is a blessing to this world.

CPA’s prayer is:

That some day, there will be a plethora of prevailing, wholistic, multi-cultural churches and communities that fully represent a City with broad shoulders. Through these churches, the Holy Spirit will empower its Pastors and leaders to eradicate homelessness, unemployment, improper educational structures and systems, unfair housing practices, and the class system as we know it today.

This New City will represent the words found in Matt 5:14: “A City on a hill cannot be hidden.” In our City, Chicago, lights will shine so bright that no one will be able to focus on the texture or the tone of each other’s skin. The barriers that divide different races and ethnic groups will be eliminated. Our City, Chicago, will be salt and light to others who will marvel and wonder “How in the world did they pull that off?”

Our City, Chicago, will no longer lead the way in decaying buildings, churches, communities, and families. And our Father in Heaven’s heart will be filled with joy and gladness and His angels will rejoice and be glad.

A New City, which genuinely believes in the power of the local church as the true instrument of change and hope for the world. A City where all of God’s children, regardless of gender, race, socio-economic status, or position, are welcomed and treated equally under God and under the law. A New City that truly is committed to the fact that God can and will make things right.

…And in the end, all of this came about because a small band of courageous and radical Christian leaders trusted God and each other long enough to try and make a difference!

amen.  and amen.


Church and the Stressed Out City

stressAs we prepare to head to Chicago to launch Soul City Church we know that we will face unique opportunities and unique challenges to live out the Kingdom of God in the City.  We recently came across an article in Forbes that rated Chicago as the Country’s most Stressed Out City…for the Second Year in a row!  Awesome.

Forbes sites that over crowding, poor air quality, a high 11% unemployment rate and free-falling home values have created a cocktail of constant worry affecting many in the Windy City.  Again…awesome.

So, the question is – What can a church do to love and serve the Stressful Realities of people in their city.  We all know that Chicago isn’t the only stressed out place on the planet.  As our lives grow ever complex, Stress seems to be a given.  So what do we do?  How do we live?  How do we serve?  How do we create a City of Peace in the midst of so much Stress?

We’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas…