This past Saturday our Lakeview and Lincoln Park locations had about 35 people serve with the Lakeview Food Pantry.  This was just one of the many opportunities we’ve had to serve together as a church.  After the event two of the volunteers approached me and talked to me about how wonderful an opportunity it was to be able to bag groceries and then deliver them to the people.  They were touched emotionally through the experience and want to do it on a more regular basis.  Other people’s eyes were opened for the first time to the needs in our community that they didn’t know about.  Lakeview and Lincoln Park’s communities are very wealthy and sometimes it’s easy to not see the need. 

I think it’s good to get out into the community and to see that even though we live in a very wealthy area there are still people here that are in deep need.  As Christ followers we’re called to serve those in need and as we serve we have the opportunity to show the love of Christ to others.  Sometimes it can be in a tangible way serving at a food pantry.  Other times it is intangibly praying for someone you’ve met while delivering food for them and learning about their specific needs.  As we serve in the community we are given the opportunity both tangibly and intangibly to make a difference.

This past year we have been developing how we organize opportunities to serve.  At the beginning of the year we started to experiment with a concept called Second Week Serve.  The experiment involved consistently presenting opportunities the second week of each month to help create a rhythm that people in the church got used to in plugging in to serve.  Every second week of the month we provided new and ongoing opportunities for New Lifer’s to get involved.  We also developed a logo to help promote it:

Over the first six months of implementing this concept we saw many New Lifers desiring more opportunities to serve throughout the entire month.  At this same time we as a church were preparing for our all church serving project on Saturday June 6 called Serve our City.  This project involved organizing about 600 volunteers to serve in various ways throughout the city of Chicago.  We also developed a logo to help promote this event:

After the successful all church outreach we decided that it was time to put Second Week Serve to rest and since June we now have been promoting serving opportunities throughout the month with the Serve Our City logo.  Lincoln Park and Lakeview people have continually jumped in to serve in tangible ways when opportunities have presented themselves.  It’s a joy to see people serve with Christ’s love and desire to be out in their communities serving others.  What I’ve seen in my own life as I’ve served in the community is that I’ve grown more compassionate towards others and have grown in my relationship with Christ while serving others.  I have also seen people come to know Christ through our outreaches and even some people that signed up to serve were drawn to a relationship with Christ through it. 

We’re currently in the next phase of our outreach planning and we’ll be recruiting teams of people from Lakeview and Lincoln Park to help plan and promote various outreach opportunities to the church.  What we’ve seen is that there are a number of people that are plugging in and desiring to serve but there are also many people in the church that have passions for various ministries in the community and would be willing to help organize and lead teams of people out into the community throughout the year.

I’m excited for this next season of outreach at New Life.  I believe that God has brought us to the point where we’re ready to move forward with the next phase.  The church has consistently rallied together to help people in the community and as more and more people have the opportunity to serve more and more people have experienced what it means to Serve Our City.

Easter is approaching quickly and on April 12 we’ll be celebrating as a church Jesus Christ’s resurrection.  This is a great opportunity to take a big step outside your comfort zone and invite a friend to church.  As the Outreach Director for our Lakeview and Lincoln Park locations I’ve been tracking our information that we receive from guests as they come to visit.  I’ve seen an overwhelming response that many of the guests that we receive on Sunday mornings have been invited by a friend or family member.  They came because they were invited!

The church does a great job of letting people know we’re in their community through different forms of outreach like postcards, newspaper articles, banners, promotional items that are handed out, evangelism and many other ways.  What we’re finding is that even though these forms of outreach can be effective still the most effective form of outreach involves a personal invitation from a friend or family member to come with them to church.  If this is the case, we need to all take the ownership to invite our friends and family members to church.  This is one of the most effective ways to reach people that are far from Christ.

Research backs these claim up too.  Recently there was a survey conducted by Lifeway Research.  Lifeway asked 15,000 people various questions regarding their openness to outreach from churches.  The research indicated that the highest amount of return for someone to visit a church was through a personal invitation from a friend or family member.  In fact, 63% of people that were surveyed said that they were somewhat likely or very likely to visit the church if a friend invited them and that percentage increased to 67% of people being somewhat likely or very likely to visit when a family member invited them.  These were the two largest percentages that the survey revealed.  Lifeway also asked what celebration people would be most open to visiting and considering matters of faith.  Easter came in second behind Christmas as the service that people would most likely attend if invited. 

Here’s my challenge to you.  If over 60% of people would come to church if they were personally invited let’s keep our eyes open for an opportunity to be an inviter.  Research has shown us that people would visit church if they were personally invited and that Easter is the second most likely weekend people would come to church and be open to considering matters of faith.  This Easter, take a big step outside of your comfort zone and reach out to a friend, family member, coworker or even a neighbor and invite them to a place where God is moving and people are growing Spiritually.  Each of us can be an inviter; we just need to take the chance and trust that God can use us to bring others to church.

This week starts a new season for Small Groups.  I get excited around this time because it’s a new opportunity for the church to come together in community and continue to challenge ourselves to grow spiritually.   I’ll be leading a Share Your Faith Workshop over the next 8 weeks.  It’s the second time that I am leading the group and my experience with the first group last session was amazing.  The material comes from Evangelism Explosion and it’s geared towards teaching people in attendance relational evangelism.  I’ve learned that everyone has a story and we can use our testimonies as opportunities to witness to people.  Changed lives through the power of Christ can challenge others.  Our before Christ and after Christ stories can show what the power of God does to bring about change.  When we share our testimonies and talk about how things are now that Christ is in our life it can plant spiritual seeds and challenge the person hearing who only has a before Christ story to want Christ in their life too. 

The material used in the class is unique in that it is all DVD based and teaches people engaging stories that explain Faith, God, Christ, Man, Sin and Grace.  After telling the story the material teaches how to explain what the story meant by using Bible verses and explaining how it relates.  I like how this equips us to be ready for any opportunity that may come our way to share our faith.  I’ve seen that as I’ve shared my faith with friends it’s often through answering questions that they may have.  As I answer questions this material fits very well into a normal conversation and I will sometimes share a story relating to one of the topics and use the material to help answer the question in a more impactful way.  If you’re interested in learning how to share your faith in a new way or want to grow in your confidence and ability to share your faith you can e-mail me at mikeh@newlifechicago.org.  I’d love to have you join us as we start this next Small Group session this week.  I can guarantee you that 8 weeks focusing on this evangelism material can equip you to be prepared to share your faith for the rest of your life.

This last week I’ve spent a lot of my time promoting a singles and couples conference that’s being hosted at our Lakeview location on February 6 and 7.  The singles portion of the conference teaches those attending how to get the relationship that they want.  The couple’s conference helps to enrich marriages and teaches couple’s how to better communicate with their spouse.  It’s been fun mixing up my schedule as I’ve woken up early to hit the Belmont and Fullerton EL tracks at 6:30AM to hand out promotional postcards as morning commuters leave for work.  It’s my hope that this opportunity will be what the community at large may be interested in attending.  The conference is funded by a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Grant so the cost is reduced by a substantial amount.  I get excited when opportunities like this come around because it also gives my wife and I the opportunity to help enrich our marriage.

This conference is going to be one of two couple’s conferences that Rachel and I will be attending together over the next two months.  I’ve learned that communication is a key area that we continually need to develop and these types of conferences have helped us to grow in our friendship and understanding of each other over our last 4 and a half years of marriage.  I want to encourage those of you reading this to come out too.  These types of conferences help in building a healthier marriage and for those of you that are single it can offer key insights into how to find the relationship that you’ve been looking for.  If you are interested in registering for the conference I’ve included the details below.  I hope to see you there!

Last Saturday I had an opportunity to help By the Hand Ministry deliver Thanksgiving meal boxes to many families in need.  There were about 30 people from New Life that came out to help build the meal boxes and deliver them to the families needing meals.  Leaving in teams with our meal boxes we arrived at the Cabrini high-rises a short drive away.  We entered into our first high-rise around 11:30 AM and found many people still inside either sleeping or hiding from the cold.  Walking up the stairs to the 10th floor we noticed a lot of graffiti along the way in the stair well and sticky floors from the many spilled bottles of beer.  Arriving at the floor which one of the families receiving a box lived on we knocked on the door and were invited in.  Inside the apartment it was clear that there were large needs but that they were doing the best with what they had.  It was a big family and I counted 5 children.  We presented the father with a meal box, a Bible and prayed for them.  He told us that his son had been sharing verses with him that he was learning with the ministry.  As we were leaving tears were streaming down his face.  He was encouraged by the food box and I imagine meeting people associated with the ministry that are helping his children.  We left encouraged as well.  By the Hand is a ministry making a difference in many lives and it’s not only the children that are blessed by them.  I think all of us were that day as we saw how God can give us an opportunity to help make a difference in someone’s life if we’re willing to step out of our normal routines and join in with what he’s already doing.

If you’re interested in this ministry or want to learn more check out their site at: www.bythehand.org 

After graduating college my wife Rachel and I ended up moving to Chicago in 2002.  Rachel was working in advertising and I was working for a technology company doing sales.  After three years Rachel moved out of the advertising world and found herself working for a ministry in the city called Caris.  I on the other hand, wasn’t looking to move into ministry and was content working in business.  Today I find myself working in ministry.  So what got me here?

 In life you can look back and see God working through different ways in many circumstances.  Often you don’t necessarily know that He’s preparing you for something through all the life experiences He brings you until the opportunity comes to take a step of faith and trust in Him.  For me, there was about 4 years of spiritual growth that took place before it made since to make a transition from sales into ministry.  In my life it ended up being that ministry started to outweigh other things that I was doing and the transition to leave sales in August of 2007 and serve in full time ministry ended up being easy to make.  Looking back I can see how God prepared me to be here at New Life.

 My role on staff is primarily assimilation (connection with guests), mobilization, outreach and at our Lincoln Park location I also function as a Worship Venue Leader.  It’s been an exciting year as we’ve continued to grow as a church and serve in our community.  When Rachel and I first came to New Life we were challenged to grow spiritually.  I still hear people saying that they felt the Sunday messages were made for them.  I want to also invite you to come experience a church that is relevant, real, challenging and Christ centered.  We’re a place where real people with real issues come together to experience a real God that cares about us.  Yup, God cares about you.  We’re a place that believes that.