#connectionchicago

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An inspiration for @casszawa is @iris.apfel and can you blame her? We can only hope we're this glamorous at 95!

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We miss #theclash, especially #joestrummer too, Brad!

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Kevin McGlone has produced various live events and performed at them, including “David Bowie Is” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Who could resist David Bowie in "Station to Station?"

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Le Book is pleased to announce Burcu SAHIN, the Senior Global Marketing Manager for BEAM SUNTORY, as a jury member for CONNECTIONS CHICAGO! Welcome, Burcu! . . . Prior to joining Beam Suntory, Burcu spent 6 years at BBDO Worldwide, where she worked as Global Senior Strategist based out of its Istanbul, Dubai and Chicago offices, building brands in categories as diverse as airline, automotive, health care, home storage, pest control, skin care and snacks. And before that, Burcu was the Assistant Brand Planner at Carmichael Lynch in Minneapolis. Burcu is a global citizen and a creative strategist, whose greatest passion is to connect the dots, tell stories, make things, and make things look beautiful. . . . Don't forget to Register for #CONNECTIONSCHICAGO here http://forms.lebook.com/connections/

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An Update from Connection Chicago

Matt, Angie, and Taylor Temple are loving their city and learning like crazy in Chicago. As one of our two church-planting ventures we’re supporting, I’m asking Matt to update us on a monthly basis on what he’s learning and what their doing in Chicago.

Brandon and Amanda, at Connection Rock Island, will be updating us monthly as well. Because we’re all in this together, I’ll be updating Chicago and Rock Island on a monthly basis on what’s up at Connection Quad Cities.

Enjoy this update from Matt below.

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Most you know that throughout the summer and into early fall we were in the process of purchasing a property on the South Side of Chicago. One week before the final contract was signed I began to have some conversations with Angie and realized we were not on the same page. After much thought and prayer we decided to back out of the offer. Honestly, after we did that I kind of crashed. It seemed like everything we had worked to start here over the last year and a half had been a miserable failure. I felt like a failure several years before when I had to resign my role as Pastor in Milan, but that was a much different experience. That was a failure that I was in control of. It was the result of me going against my better judgement and making really bad decisions.  This failure wasn’t like that at all. This one was not because I made a bad decision. This one happened in spite of me doing everything I knew to do and felt like I was supposed to do. It was pretty devastating. I felt numb.

Prior to this we had been attending church that had just been planted by a couple miles south of us. We didn’t really connect with the vision though so we decided to try and find a church that we felt was a better fit for us. We connected with a little faith community…a beautiful little faith community that met in an assisted living complex just north of us. It was one of the most eclectic and diverse blend of people I had ever seen. As soon as I walked into their gathering I felt like a dry sponge soaking up all the moisture in the air. I didn’t realize how badly I had missed being a part of a faith community. And this one in particular was really powerful. They had redeemed this space with a profound simplicity. Everything they did was spilling over with meaning and significance. From the songs they sang to the stories they told to the “Holy Wandering” that took place during communion…everything was charged with purpose. This community was being shaped together by the gospel and they were reaching people. Not just church people looking for a new, “hip” church experience but real people…broken people…people that in my experience don’t go to church. It was during this time that I began to gain some clarity as to what God has been doing in me over the past seven years.

This is what I wrote in my journal:

In some ways I feel spiritually like I do when I’m hungry. I look through the fridge and cupboards but nothing looks good. In this seasons I am undone. I feel in a lot of ways this is just a continuation of what started back when I left the church in Milan. I’m still in this boundary season where things are unclear and so much is being deconstructed. First it was personally, then ecclesiologically and now culturally. Help me not perform for love but rather embrace this season and trust that you are preparing me for something, even if I don’t know what.

For so many years I had been micro sleeping through my faith. I was going through all the right motions but not registering the meaning of it all. Everything I had been through over the past 7 years was about waking me up. When I was younger and my mom would ask me to clean my room I would take everything in my room and put it in a big pile in the middle. I can remember my mom coming in and shaking her head because my room was messier than when I had started. But in my mind everything had become cluttered and out of place so the whole thing had to be dismantled so I could put it back together. I was undone. My burnout in Milan, planting Connection, moving to Chicago, spending two years completely disconnected from the Church and experiencing all that failure was my very necessary undoing. In that space everything in me wanted to run. I wanted to get away and find a comfortable place to just quietly live my life but instead we have stayed. Slowly but surely the pieces seem to be falling into place. There has been nothing magical. The heavens haven't open and there have been no choirs of angels singing “Holy, holy, holy.” We just know…we want to plant a church. We want to be a part of a community charged with meaning, shaped by the gospel and committed to making our city a little more like heaven.

When I first had my thoughts about living like a missionary in the city I had rejected the idea of what we called “traditional” church. What I came to realize was the beauty and value in being part of a faith community when it is truly centered and shaped by the gospel and committed to its city. I was rejecting my own micro sleep version of church and had to walk away from it all in order to really see the beauty of a faith community. We have spent a lot of time over the past couple of months reflecting on our time here so far and what it will look like for us moving forward. Do we want to stay or go somewhere else? Do I want to pursue education or plant a church? This has been big question for me because I realized I couldn’t really do both. I have been wrestling with whether or not I want to be a trainer or a practitioner. The more I have leaned into these tensions and questions in me the more I have recognized my own fear of failure.  In a lot of ways I think that fear is what makes education and training seem so appealing (those who can’t do teach). There seems to be a lot less at risk if I just tell other people how to do things and never do it myself.

Our time at Urban Village Church has been very healing for us. It has been really refreshing and has reminded me how much I crave a gospel centered faith community. The church has been a key instrument in us deciding that we are going to stay put and plant a church (actually we will pry move down to the University Village neighborhood to plant…it’s too vanilla in our neighborhood :-)). Our hope is to build a team of 12 - 15 people by the end of spring. As it stands we have commitments from 8 people (5 if you don’t count our family).  Hugo, the young man living with us and going through the residency will be part of the team. In late spring Brehanna and Kyle are planning to move back to Chicago and be a part of the team as well. I was also recently contacted by a young man and his wife who are Youth Pastor’s at a church in Virginia. They told me that they are feeling called to Chicago as well and would like to relocate and help us plant. Besides those five I am in conversations with about eight others who are considering being on our initial team.

While we are waiting for the team to get in place I am also working on a book that will explain who we are as a church and will also serve as the primer for developing our team. I hope to be finished with it by early summer. Starting this summer we will do weekly meetings with the team to build cohesion and talk about culture/ethos of the church. During this time we will also look to embed together in some missional ways. In January of 2017 we will split our team into three to five groups that all start missional small groups meeting weekly together (or maybe bi-weekly…haven’t decided yet). Our plan is to get each of those 3-5 groups up to about 12 in attendance before we start having weekly services in the fall of 2017. We’ll see how it all goes and how quickly we can get our team in place but that is the plan for now.

We miss you all very much! You have no idea how much we appreciate your friendships, prayers and support. It is always refreshing to see you and hear from you. Happy New Year!

Matt

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Matt will be joining us this Sunday, January 17th, at our Sunday Gathering at Bucktown. Hope you’re able to join us to see him!