Each year, we take a week to turn our attention to what God is doing in the world. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. This year’s Missions Week is going to be amazing!! We’ll be focusing on God’s global and local mission to reach the lost. We have several guests who will be sharing God’s heart with us throughout the week.

For both Northwestern and UIC, our Missions Week will kick-off with a special movie screening for the 1040 Documentary. Jaeson Ma, the producer of the movie, will be joining us to share his testimony and God’s work in some of the most unreached places today. Jaeson is both a musician and pastor and has a powerful testimony of how God transformed his life. I believe this will give us a glimpse of some of the incredible things that God is doing today, particularly in Asia. We’ll be hosting screenings for both campuses on two special nights:

• Northwestern – Tuesday (11/16), 7PM @ Fisk Hall 217
• UIC – Thursday (11/18), 7PM @ Student Center East, Illinois Room

For the weekend, we have another special guest joining us, Pastor Mark Vanderput and his wife, Mary Jane. The Vanderput’s have been special friends of HMCC for many years and will be visiting HMCC of Chicago for the first time. They will be sharing with us God’s heart in reaching the lost in our community and city. I believe this will be a very challenging and encouraging time for us as Pastor Mark and Mary Jane have years of experience in sharing Christ with others. We have two special gatherings planned for their visit:

• All-Church Worship – Friday (11/19), 7PM @ Annenberg G15
• Sunday Celebration – 10AM @ Annenberg G15

And to wrap up the entire Missions Week, we wanted to tangibly serve our campuses and community as the holiday season approaches. Our LIFE groups will be hosting Thanksgiving Dinners on that Sunday evening throughout the campus and community. Our Downtown Site will be hosting a very special Thanksgiving Dinner in the city.

During this week, we will also be sharing about our short-term missions projects this year. God is opening doors for our church to participate in his mission overseas this summer. We’re excited for how God will work both locally in our community and abroad. During the weekend, we will be handing out applications for you to prayerfully consider throughout the next couple months.

I’m so excited for our upcoming Undergrad Retreat! We’ll be joining together with both our sites in Chicago and HMCC of Ann Arbor. It’ll be awesome to see Northwestern, UIC and Michigan students coming together to experience God’s transforming power in our lives. I want to encourage all of you students to sign-up asap! Every year, we’ve heard amazing testimonies of how God has transformed lives through this retreat. Last year, there are some who even received Christ in their lives for the first time. I’m believing for greater things to happen this year. Our theme is Follow Me and we’ll be discovering what it means to follow Christ on our campuses. We’ll also respond to the greater vision that God has for all of our HMCC churches. You don’t want to miss it. Sign-up online today!

During my message yesterday, I shared about the need for our generation to rediscover the Bible as God’s Word. We live in a day where people are largely unfamiliar with the Bible. The world of the Bible seems as real to us as the World of Warcraft. So we neglect God’s own claims about who He is, what He has done and what He continues to do today. If want to experience God afresh in our day, we have to rediscover the Bible on its own terms. We have to engage with the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and not just from Psalm 23 to John 3:16 (according to how you feel that day).

I believe the first step toward a renewal of God’s Word in our lives is to have a heart to hear from God. I think we often take this for granted. We say we want to hear from God but in reality, our hearts are not ready to listen. Just as we’re selective in what we hear from people, I believe we often “tune out” God’s voice in our lives. We’ve already made up our minds about what is right and what our lives should look like. When we come to the Bible, we’re only looking for affirmation or blessing for our plans. Without a heart surrendered in obedience to God, seeking God’s guidance is nothing more than a gimmick.

We want to go deeper in our relationship with God this year. I pray that you will open your heart first before you open your Bible. And to help us understand more clearly what the Bible says, I want to recommend a couple of resources. I’ve been pushing these resources for a while, but I want to challenge you to invest in your personal relationship with God by using them regularly. First, the ESV Study Bible is a great resource. The English Standard Version is a more literal and helpful translation. Also, the Study Bible includes helpful articles and commentary for each book of the Bible. This will help you understand some of the historical and theological context of each book. You can also purchase an online version if you don’t want to carry around a 10-pound Bible everywhere you go.

The second resource is a companion to your Bible reading, For the Love of God by Dr. D. A. Carson. This comes in two volumes. Dr. Carson was one of my professors in seminary and is one of the leading Bible scholars today. In this companion, he provides helpful commentary and reflection for each passage of the Bible according to a two-year reading plan. I appreciate Dr. Carson’s commentary because he helps you engage more seriously with the actual text rather than providing a few inspirational quotes. He also tries to help you understand each passage in light of the Bible’s overall story line. This puts each text in context which is crucial in understanding the Bible as a whole.

So if you are serious about your relationship with God I would challenge you to invest in these resources and use them daily. Get into a regular habit of engaging with God through His Word and in prayer. Any spiritual growth you experience apart from this regular habit is short-lived. This is how you grow in every season of life (Psalm 1).

This week, many of our students at Northwestern have stepped up to the call to reach out to the new students coming to NU by participating in Operation Campus Reach (OCR). We take this very seriously as a church as it touches upon our church’s mission to transform lives & transform the world as we reach out to university communities. We started our training sessions this morning and it’s been awesome to see everyone’s excitement and passion to welcome new students to our campus. Throughout the week, we’ll be having several Welcoming Events to connect with new students. If you’re new to NU, check-out one of these events:

Ice Cream Social – Wednesday, 9:30PM @ Annenberg G02

Sports & Fun – Friday, 4PM @ Long Field

City Scavenger Hunt – Saturday, 12PM @ Foster-Walker

Sunday Celebration & Newcomer’s Luncheon – Sunday, 10AM @ Annenberg G15

For our second City Life gathering this Wednesday, we’re very excited to have a special guest from Breakthrough Urban Ministries. The mission of Breakthrough is to demonstrate the compassion of Christ by partnering with those affected by poverty to build connections, develop skills and open doors of opportunity. In Chicago’s East Garfield Park, where disinvestment has left the neighborhood devoid of opportunity and full of broken dreams, Breakthrough Urban Ministries is restoring the broken networks of youth and families and empowering adults in the community to achieve self-sufficiency and break the cycle of poverty.

Tony Escobar, Director of Community Relations, will be sharing with us about how we can make an impact in the city. I had the privilege of meeting Tony a few weeks ago. I was amazed to hear some of the great stories of how God is transforming lives on the west side of Chicago. As I was hearing the vision of Breakthrough, I realized how similar it was to our church’s vision to transform lives & transform the world. The good folks at Breakthrough are doing it everyday as they serve the poor and the needy. Our church has been partnering with Breakthrough by providing meals for the men’s shelter every month and helping with some of their other programs.

We’re hoping that we can strengthen our partnership together this year. I believe that our church can serve the city in big ways and make a huge impact for Christ! Join us this Wednesday as we hear more from Tony and how God is working in our city!

Over the next month, we’re going to be starting a new mid-week gathering called City Life. On Wednesday nights, we’ll be gathering together to get connected – connected to one another, connected to life in the city, and connected to God. It’s going to be a great time of meeting new people and hearing about the different challenges and opportunities of living in the city. Each week, we’re going to talk about an issue that relates to living in downtown Chicago and share about opportunities we have to make the most of city life! Come out and enjoy some great food and meet some great people!

This Sunday, we’ll be starting a new series together titled, Rebuilding the Community. We’re going to be looking into the book of Nehemiah. This was a time in the Bible when people were in desperate need of a renewed vision of God and his purposes for them. Their city was once a place where people experienced God’s powerful presence. It was now a place of brokenness and apathy. Through Nehemiah and others, God inspired and empowered his people to rebuild the community. As we think about our church’s calling in the city, I pray that we will be inspired by those of Nehemiah’s generation. Inspired to pray like Nehemiah, work like his people, and build a community where God reigns. Each week, we’ll be looking to apply this book into our lives as we seek to build our church community together. Come eager and ready to build!

“O Lord, Let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name.” Nehemiah 1:11

It was great to kick-off our fall ministry with our Welcoming BBQ yesterday! I was excited to meet some of the newcomers to our church. Our members from the Evanston Site did an amazing of helping cook and setup. It was encouraging to see both our sites partnering together to bless others. This is a picture of how we can reach more people as we work together.

Just imagine what it would be like to see hundreds of people coming together with the common vision of transforming lives and transforming the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ! I’m looking forward to these next several weeks of worshiping and building community together in the city!

I’m excited to invite you to our church in the city this weekend! Over the next 3 weeks, we’ll be having one Sunday Celebration hosted by our Downtown Site. To welcome all of you who are new, we’ll be having a Welcoming BBQ for the first Sunday’s. Provision Theater is located on the campus of UIC (on corner of Roosevelt & Morgan). It’s one of the only places with free parking in the city!

Join us as we launch this new season of ministry in the city. I can’t wait to see all the amazing ways that God is going to work this year. Spread the word!

For this new season of ministry, we wanted to re-introduce our church blog! I hope this serves as a great way to stay connected to what’s happening in our church and be encouraged by what God is doing. It will also be a way for me to share how God is working in my life and the lessons I’m learning along the way. I’m looking forward to journeying together!