We had a great weekend celebrating and honoring our mothers! We hope you were able to join us this weekend, and grow more in your pursuit of God. If you weren’t with us, or if you would just like to review some of the teaching you heard checkout the sermon from your campus below.

Near North & Lincoln Park Campuses – One Pursuit, Pt. 31, John 15:1-11 :: Kensen Lam

Watch the video above, download the audio, or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes.

Also follow along with Kensen’s notes while watching or listening to his sermon.

University Village Campus – The Holy Spirit, Pt. 2 :: Brandon Sanchez

Watch the video above, download the audio, or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes.

Also follow along with Brandon’s notes while watching or listening to his sermon.

Forest Glen Campus – The Holy Spirit, Pt. 3 :: Jackson Crum

Watch the video above, download the audio, or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes.

Also follow along with Jackson’s notes while watching or listening to his sermon.

So our Arts community held our fourth Culture Session. We put together a really fun night last night and we called it “Art Immersion”. Basically, we asked local artist and friend Mat Barber Kennedy

to speak to us about art. He had an hour and a half to educate, wow and dazzle us with as much amazing art as he could cram in. It was fantastic!

I have to say, the obvious hit me as he was on stage, “man, we rarely have conversations on art in our churches!” I know, we all know this – yes, yes. But something about seeing these pieces and spending time with them confirmed what churches through the centuries have done with visual art.

He basically walked us through dozens of paintings, clips, podcasts, etc. Our hope for the evening was that in seeing the beauty of creation and creation’s re-creation – our hearts would behold the beauty of our God. We had a sweet time.

What is Art?

Mat stated early on in the evening that we need a working definition for art. Good point. We need to be working off the same canvas, same page, same sheet of music, you get it.

Conclusion? 3 things must be true for something to be considered art:

1. There is intention by the artist. If an artist accidentally knocked his or her cup of coffee off their desk, and the coffee formed a beautiful shape on the ground – it ain’t art! Just because an artist happened to be clumsy and the tilt in the room provided the perfect condition for a beautiful formation for the liquid to take, doesn’t mean it’s art. There must be intention and purpose.
2. There is a platform for the art. There’s some venue and platform where you’re expecting to see and receive art, like a studio. It has a context, could be a street, a gallery, etc.
3. It requires a viewer, or the possibility or intention of a viewer. Meaning, art is a communication tool. If I paint the best painting I’ve ever done and then decide to burn it with no one seeing it – with no intent of it ever being seen – it’s not art. If I film myself burning and destroying the piece, then guess what? Art! Again, art is a communication tool.

So this is helpful for those of us who walk into… say, a local church’s Good Friday gallery and ask the question, “Hmm…is this art?” Forget that question! It’s not helpful. It’s the wrong question. There was intention by the artist, there’s a clear platform and you’re looking at it, get over it, it’s art. Start asking better questions.

Anyway, we looked at dozens of artists like Damien Hirst and his Sawn Cows, WOW – to Munch’s Scream.

One of the most compelling pieces I saw was a painting by Kristina Knowski called Simon. It’s of a Unicorn, yes, a Unicorn. It’s this amazing painting of the inevitability of suffering. When even that which is unreal steps into the real, suffering is ineludible. What a profoundly powerful and beautiful picture of truth!

We’re going to post Mat’s talk soon and hopefully more of the content that we’re actually allowed to post.

My journey in becoming a Christian has been eye opening, heartwarming and very exciting.

I was raised Jewish and have been for 45 years. While not practicing my religion and only going to temple on the holidays, I did not have a grasp on religion in general so to be honest, it was not a big part of my life. I thought I was fulfilled, but I also knew something was missing. When I was just 25, my father passed away suddenly. I was devastated. Needing to understand the whereabouts of my father’s spirit had me searching for meaning of a higher being as his death had left a hole within me that couldn’t be filled.

I have always had faith; I just wasn’t sure where that faith was being directed. It carried me through many relationships in my life and I believed that when one relationship ended there were lessons to be learned and I needed to be patient for the right man to come along. I did not marry until I was 43 years old. I knew I wanted to wait until I met someone who inspired me, taught me things I never knew and would continually challenge me.

Then, God brought me what I needed at the time I needed it most, while not even knowing it.

Just six months after our wedding, in May 2009, I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given a 1-2 year survival diagnosis. We were devastated. How can this be happening? With no time to think about anything else but putting my affairs in order and getting the best medical treatment possible, my husband and I embarked on a difficult journey. I’m a fighter and I had just found the love of my life, I wasn’t about to let anyone take me away from him. I was going to fight and I realized I needed someone other than my husband, family and friends to help me win this battle.

Then entered God.

I remember praying many times in my life, but never really knew whom I was praying to. I did have faith in a “god” although it was just kind of floating around in my head. I always yearned for knowing a god that wanted to help and take care of the things that I could not. I did not take the time to learn and educate myself about who God truly is until now.

My husband, who was also Jewish with no real religious following, had the same yearnings for spirituality and something bigger than himself so he started reading the Bible like a man on a mission (no pun intended)! The day of my surgery my husband and I found ourselves at peace, we felt God was at our side. We believed that there were greater things ahead for us and we would get through this.

Although God had entered both of our lives when I became ill, there was still something missing – a yearning for more.

At the time I didn’t know it, but the Holy Spirit must have been speaking to me because there was a yearning to be attached to something. I reached out to a good friend who attended Park and that was our introduction in taking the next step. We were apprehensive about going to a church because of our upbringing, but found that Park changed our perspective on what church and community is. It was so refreshing to hear about God and Jesus in a way that we understood. After that service, we were then introduced to the Alpha Program.

In Hebrews 11:1 it says, Faith is the confidence that we hope for will actually happen: it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.   After the fourth session of Alpha when we learned about the Holy Spirit, I was very comfortable opening my heart and accepting Jesus Christ into my life.

After that weekend I told my husband that I now had joined him in becoming a Christian and wanted to know if he was ready for us to get baptized. I also asked if he wanted to renew our vows this coming May at Park with Jackson – we have come know, love and respect him. After my husband almost drove the car off the road in amazement, he said “YES!”

As I’ve witnessed throughout the past 3 years, I have had so many blessings in my life and truly believe God is watching over me. There is a plan for me and it’s not time for me to go to heaven just yet as I still have a lot of work to do on this earth. And now with Jesus as my guide – it all takes on new meaning.

It’s been just a few months since we have been coming to Park and since having taken the step of faith and accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. My life is now taking on new meaning and life feels “lighter” and looks much “brighter.”

My husband Scott and I are so excited for the future and this new journey together and to grow with the community at Park – a newfound excitement that is burning within.

Thank you all – God bless,

Diana

I was born and raised in a Jewish home and had a bar mitzvah at age 13. In my teenage years, my father left us and I developed a hardened heart and became an atheist for the next 32 years of my life. I was re-married just 3 years ago to my soul mate, Diana – who was also Jewish. Just 6 months after our wedding, Diana was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. My whole life I had dealt with issues on my own, but this was something that brought me to my knees because I had no control over it. About the same time my 25-year-old son – whom I shamefully say had I no influence on spiritually – informed me he had joined the Catholic Church after exploring Buddhism. I felt very sad in that I could not help him or add anything to that part of his spiritual life. To add salt to my wounds, I had been out of work for several years due to the economy. With no income, my new wife diagnosed with a life threatening disease, a son going down a path I did not understand and a father I didn’t have a relationship with, I didn’t know where to turn.

A friend of mine suggested that I “put my trust in the Lord and turn to prayer and stop worrying.” My only response was, “I have no idea what to do with that or what that means” as I stared off blankly into space. It got me thinking and I realized I had tried everything I know how to do it on my own, and that wasn’t working. Time for change. So… my journey began.

After picking up a Bible for the first time at age 47, I started reading with apprehension. I spent afternoons in the bookstore going up and down Christianity isles trying to understand what I didn’t know, which was just about everything. I then began to feel God’s presence guide and comfort me through the pain I was experiencing. I prayed to God and even did a David fast before my wife’s surgery and God delivered, big time. My wife had a very successful operation and to this day is winning the war against cancer! Around that time I became overwhelmed with the need to reach out to my father whom I had not spoken to in 15 years. Something came to me and told me to forgive him. So we met and I had to do the hardest thing ever; confront him after all this time and forgive him: I said I was wrong. I said I was sorry. I asked if he would forgive me and if we could start new. We embraced and wept. That night I felt the Holy Spirit flood me as I dreamed of a new life ahead.

I then became more and more intrigued with prayer and “this guy named Jesus.” Needless to say, I went from a 30-some year atheist to now believing and praying to God and had a thirst for so much more. I was still missing something though – the feeling of wanting to share my new world with others. I approached my wife (who was still Jewish) and told her what I had been experiencing unsure if she was ready to hear about my journey and the speed at which it was taking place. That couldn’t have been further from the truth! She embraced my newfound spiritual life and wanted to join me. We both started praying before every dinner meal and giving thanks.

Our faith was growing day by day and I felt it was time to find a community that would allow us to grow. So, my next move (I realized God was using me to bring my wife along so I became the trailblazer) was to start trying out different local churches. I went to several in my neighborhood and none of them had the energy, message or congregation I felt comfortable joining given my infancy in the journey. Then one day, just a couple months ago, a good friend of my wife’s said they were going to Park and Diana asked if we could join them for a service. So, God took over as my wife suggested it to me! God was definitely speaking to both of us loud and clear!

Our first service was just this past January. All I can say is…wow. THIS is what I have been looking for and didn’t even know it. Young and vibrant, thirsty for the truth, loaded with historical references (OT and NT) – and the deal closer for my wife – VISUALS with historic facts to back the bible verses! Just after the service we were greeted by Bret, he heads up the Connections Ministry, and he handed me a pamphlet about Park 101. I had a million questions but started with “Do you guys have an adult Sunday school for dummies?” He said we would love the Alpha program. So, we joined that Tuesday.

Alpha has been exactly what we were thirsty for. From the leaders to the wonderful people in our group, the experience has been warm and inviting. We love it and are excited to go every Tuesday and as my wife said to me “I am looking forward to church on Sunday.” Wow! Who are we??! We have become believers. I feel like I am drinking through a fire hose!

During this process we both took a step of faith and accepted Jesus Christ into our lives as Lord and Savior. Afterwards, my life felt much lighter, more positive and I have dropped that angry feeling and heaviness – it’s like I just found out they invented air-conditioning! I now understand what is meant by having Jesus carry my load.

I never in a million years would have guessed that our lives would take us here and we both have so much more we want to learn and experience in Christ. We wanted to be baptized on Easter to celebrate our newfound faith and also renew our wedding vows in our newfound church on our upcoming 3-year anniversary. We thank God for the path He has us on and I just wanted to personally thank all those involved with Park for opening your arms and making a welcoming environment for two new “Christian Jews” and looking forward to our continued journey together.

God Bless You All,
Scott Roth

Lincoln Park & Near North Campuses

If you attend the Near North or Lincoln Park Campuses this past weekend Kensen took you through John 13:1-20 and talked about the love that Jesus has for us. How did Jesus show that love, and what does it mean to wash someone’s feet?

Watch the video above, download the audio, or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes.

University Village Campus

If you attend the University Village Campus, Jackson took you through John 12 as he explains a bit more about Palm Sunday and it’s meaning.

Download the audio, or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes.

Forest Glen Campus

If you attend the Forest Glen Campus, Scott explains what it means to be a people of faith. What does it mean to be in relationship with someone else in community?

Download the audio, or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes.

Staying on the topic of our global efforts, let’s shift our focus to another area of the world where we are investing to see lives transformed for Jesus. We recently sent a team from Park to Kenya to serve with our partner church, Nairobi Baptist. This team worked hard and served well in the tough environments of Kibera and Kwale. Here’s a story from one of the team members on the trip.

Pinky finger?  – Finding my place as a very small and humble member of the body of Christ Medical Report from Kwale Generosity. Resourcefulness.  Complete dependence on the Lord.  These are just a few things that I learned from the Kenyans as I experienced my first medical mission trip with Park and our partners at Nairobi Baptist. Looking back at my expectations for the trip, I anticipated serving the poor in Kenya, practicing medicine in another culture, experiencing God in a new way.  Ok, done.  All of the above and so much more.

I knew that traditional wisdom holds that short term missions typically affect those serving more than those served.  The experience of that wisdom, however, is a completely different beauty (I had written completely different beasts but there is nothing beastly about it, except perhaps the culture shock of returning to the US).

In terms of the medical outreach in Kwale, we had 4 days of medical clinics at 3 different sites.  We were staffed with a wonderful mix of Kenyans and Americans — we had 4-6 nurses, a midwife, a physical therapist, and from 6-8 physicians.  We had limited diagnostic testing (only blood sugar and urine pregnancy), and a decently stocked pharmacy. We cared for over 1,000 patients in those 4 days.  We saw two cases of leprosy, one of measles, and countless cases of malaria, typhoid, fungal skin infections, intestinal worms, and everything in between.   I learned to treat and care without diagnostic testing; I gained a new appreciation for old school medicine relying solely on history and physical exam; and I was humbly reminded of my place in the body of Christ.

The first day of the medical clinic was a frustrating and challenging one for me, and I remember taking lunch at 2 or 3pm feeling exhausted and discouraged.  I look back on it gratefully, though, as I recognize that it was through those challenges that the Lord taught me some of the most valuable lessons of the trip.

Medically speaking, I was disheartened as I realized that the vast majority of what we were doing was entirely temporizing.  I could de-worm and educate about food hygiene, but I couldn¹t change living conditions, accessible food, or water conditions and knew that inevitably the problem would return.  I could diagnose high blood pressure and give a few weeks of medication, but unless the person had access to further care, their hypertension would come right back.  There were very few patients in whom I believed what I did medically would have any sustained or prolonged impact and I was discouraged and frustrated by this at the end of the first day.  What God helped me to understand in all of this, though, was my role as just one member in the body of Christ, and that this outreach was about so much more than treating malaria or intestinal parasites so much more than physical healing.  We were there to show the love of Christ.  To care for these people medically;  to bless them with food, shoes, soccer matches, wheelchairs, and medications; to love and encourage them; to show them that the Lord and His people remember them; and to share the Good News with them.   My role in that process was humble ­ while the doctors and the access to medical care may have been the main draw for many, we were not even close to the most important thing they received.

Personally, I was frustrated on that first morning of clinic in my attempts to communicate with patients.  Translators were scarce and many patients claimed to speak English, so I was largely communicating with people through broken English and gestures ­ frustrating on both sides of the table.  As we struggled to understand each other about a medical complaint there was no way that I was able to make any real connections with patients.  How quickly did God answer that prayer, though!  After lunch one of the local pastors, Pastor Nash, became my translator.  Nash is warm and loving and was able to form connections with patients where I couldn’t.  When I would pause to take notes or write prescriptions he would keep talking with them.  I would look at him questioningly to make sure that there wasn’t anything more to talk about medically, and he would respond “I am just encouraging her, I am just encouraging her.” And as we fell into a pattern and became a team, he became my translator for the rest of the week, and also my very good friend.

One of my favorite moments was when we were taking care of a patient, Josephine.  I had finished and was scribbling some prescriptions for our pharmacy.  She and Pastor Nash kept talking, and I waited a bit while they finished their conversation.  As I looked for his confirmation that he “was just encouraging her” he instead said “she has just accepted Christ as her Lord.”  She lived near his church, they exchanged phone numbers, and he promised to follow up with her.  We told her that we would both be praying for her.

Another very special moment was on the final day of clinic.  I should back up to say, the Kenyans really know how to make tea — I had at least four cups a day and Pastor Nash knew that I loved it.  On the last day of clinic as we were finishing he pulled out a box of tea and said “this is for you.”  Now, this is a man who lives in a one-room house, makes zero income as a pastor (they live off of his wife¹s $150/month secretarial wages), and tells me that at times he doesn’t know where their next meals.

- Kori Sauser

This past weekend Jackson took us through John 12 and gives some preparation for Palm Sunday.

Watch the video above, download the audio, or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes.

Do you have questions about what Jackson is teaching? Leave a comment below, or ask us byclicking here.

This weekend we are lighting a candle for Brent Sonin. Brent attends the University Village Campus and the candle lit at all campuses represents his decision to step across the line of faith. These stories never get old! Here’s his story.

I was raised in a non-Christian family and had never attended a church service for the first 19 years of my life. My conversion was a slow one, taking me five years, and looking back they have been the most arduous yet exhilarating years of my life. I thought I was to going to college for education. Instead I ended up finding the woman of my dreams, who is the person responsible for the greatest discovery of my life: Christ. When I was a non-believer I found myself hungry for something more, I thought to myself, “Is short time all I’ve been given?” Then Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry.” Yet I remained unsatisfied. I saw Jesus as a great moral teacher, but not God. Although the scales were slowly turning towards Jesus I found myself at odds with many teachings in the Bible. I went on a journey with Alpha at Park and slowly began to understand Jesus’ resurrection, and death. Yet I still found myself immersed in sin and a slave to my desires. Yet Jesus says, “ I am the light. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” I prayed a prayer asking Jesus to be my Lord, to be with me forever, for his spirit and for forgiveness. I was not fully aware of the implications of this prayer until a conversation I had with Mike Harvey & Kensen Lam where they informed me that I prayed a prayer that can’t be undone; once I invited Jesus’ spirit in, it resides in me forever (Matt 28:20). Once I found following Jesus an exhausting task, now I follow him with joy. His spirit guides me; he is my Shepherd, my Lord, and my God.

I couldn’t be happier to say that the woman of my dreams is now my fiancé and lately, the Spirit has been guiding me on how to love her as Christ loved the church (Eph 5:25). Jesus’ love has brought upon me the greatest change in my life. It is only through his example that I can truly honor him and my bride-to-be. To Audrey: I’m here today only because of you. Against all odds you led me to Christ. I owe my life to you.

–Brent Sonin

This past weekend at the Near North Campus Scott led us into John 12 as Mary anointed the feet of Jesus. Mary saw the worth of Jesus, and acted on that worth. Do you see the worth of Jesus in your own life?

Watch the video above, download the audio, or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes.

You can also follow along with Scott’s teaching notes.

Do you have questions about what Kensen is teaching? Leave a comment below, or ask us byclicking here.

This past weekend at the Near North Campus Kensen took us through more of John 10, talking about who the ultimate shepherd is. When we come to Christ, He will never let us go.

Watch the video above, download the audio, or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes.

You can also follow along with Kensen’s teaching notes.

Do you have questions about what Kensen is teaching? Leave a comment below, or ask us byclicking here.