Friday, April 15, 2011

Kingdom Slacklining

By Jonathan Kindberg

With the weather finally getting warmer in Chicago, the children are out in mass again in our neighborhood at Briar Street. After being cooped up inside for the long winter months, they are now able to run outside in the sun, play soccer in the company of their friends…and scream their heads off.

This last Sunday was a beautiful day and so our team decided to put up the slack line and grill outside. Quickly we were mobbed by a very excited group of screaming kids who wanted to join in on this strange new sport. For those of you uninitiated folks,  slacklining is: “a balance sport that uses nylon webbing tensioned between two anchor points. Slacklining is distinct from tightrope walking in that the line is not held rigidly taut (although it is still under some tension); it is instead dynamic, stretching and bouncing like a long and narrow trampoline” (thank you, Wikipedia).  It’s great fun and a great way to get to know a lot of our neighbors.

As we seek to get to know our neighbors who don’t yet know Jesus, we seek ways to build authentic, reciprocal relationships with them. One question we have found it helpful to ask (and one that I heard first from Bill Hybels in his book on evangelism), is: what do you enjoy doing that you can involve others in? This activity, whether it’s a specific sport or hobby, is meaningful in and of itself, but can take on a greater degree of kingdom significance when done in this purposeful way.

So if anyone is wondering what our model for church planting is, you now know the answer: kingdom slacklining.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Youth Retreat - Spring 2011

by Jonathan Kindberg

This last weekend I led a youth retreat with the youth from Santa Maria (that I lead on Sunday mornings in Franklin Park) and from Iglesia. The Spirit’s presence was powerfully at work softening the hearts of the youth and the Lord answered many prayers for our time together. Thank you all of you who were praying! The main scripture for the weekend was Psalm 95 with an emphasis on invitation (“come”) and on the one who is giving the invitation, the Good Shepherd.

For many of these youth, this was their first time away from home for a night and for most the first time at a retreat. There were a lot of nervous parents and students Friday night as we left, but this soon melted in the excitement of a weekend away. Most of these students are still considering whether to fully commit to following Jesus as this is a very new concept for them.

God is raising up the second generation of Hispanics in Chicagoland and it is exciting to see! Praise the Lord!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Of Spanish and the Spirit

By Jonathan Kindberg

Our usual Sunday community dinners at Briar Street have been anything but usual. Each week we are excited to see what surprises the Lord will bring through our neighbors. This last week found us after dinner sitting in a circle in our living room with notebooks and pens in hand learning Spanish from Gerardo. We should have seen it coming when Gerardo, one of our Mexican neighbors, walked in for dinner carrying two plastic bags full of classroom supplies. He had markers (which later turned our living room windows into art canvasses thanks to one of the kids), notebooks, pencils and a large piece of foam board which he converted into a make-shift white board. It was quite amazing to see how much ingenuity and planning he had put into this.

At Briar Street as we prepare to launch weekly services hopefully by the end of the summer we have begun to study together the book of Acts with some of our neighbors. One of the first things we realized is that it is the Holy Spirit who really plants a church. In one sense, for any of us to call ourselves “church planters” is a bit presumptuous. It’s kind of like someone claiming they can make babies all on their own. We were also surprised to see that one of the first ways the Holy Spirit reveals his power is by giving the disciples the ability to speak in other languages. The book of Acts begins with this statement in 1:8:  “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses.” This power is then demonstrated through the reversal of the tower of Babel and the ability the disciples have to be witnesses in many different languages. It seems, then, that learning another language (such as Spanish) is an activity very in step with the workings of the Spirit.
Many churches in an attempt to reach out to their diverse community begin ESL (english as a second language ) classes. We are talking about eventually doing so ourselves as well at Briar Street Anglican Church. But I think it is worth noting that we began our ministry at Briar Street not by teaching English, but rather by putting ourselves under Gerardo’s teaching and learning Spanish. I think this makes the Holy Spirit smile.