Come if you’re interested in practicing or learning more about organic church planting, postmodern evangelism, and chatting about the things you’ve been reading about but rarely find others asking the same questions!  Folks from all sorts of churches and networks from around the area are invited.

We’re finishing up The Forgotten Ways Handbook by Alan Hirsch, and we’ll need your help in picking the next resource!

If you’d like to be updated on this event as we get the when/where details, fill out this short form: http://ht.ly/1FM1P

Or you can join this group: http://undergroundfamily.ning.com/group/readingcohort

Feel free to forward this on to friends!

Our resources are basically thought of in three categories (based on our DNA)

Divine Truth – “Love the Lord your God…!” Spiritual Formation websites or books, Bible Study curriculum, worship music, and more.

Nurturing Relationships – “Love your neighbor…” Group Ice Breakers, party ideas, discussion questions…and more.

Apostolic Mission – “Go and make disciples of all nations” Social justice resources and projects, outreach projects…and more.

But where do our resources come from?  They come from you!  If you have an idea that you’d like to share with other communities of faith in the UGN (and subsequently through this public website, the world) – submit info on the form below.  (If the form does not load properly, click here.)

Take a moment to think -

If you are connected to the Underground, what resource do YOU have that has been particularly helpful in your life?…

…In the life of your faith community?

We’d like to know what it is, and we’ll post it on http://ugnchicago.com for others to use.  So go ahead and fill out the form below!

:::REMEMBER!::: Starting this fall, Wednesday, September 17th, at 7pm we will be reading through the Forgotten Ways Handbook together.  A few copies are still available FOR FREE if you are interested in joining us in the conversation.  This book is helpful in developing the Jesus movement many of us are praying for here in the city.  Please leave a comment below if you are interested in learning with us!

Insights from Greenhouse Think Tank: Cultivating the Heart of the Leader -

• Learning to remain relentlessly attentive to hearts; your own, God’s, and others – is what allows for the life of discipleship and leadership you desire.
• Servant Leadership means you will be treated like a servant.
• Many pastors act like they don’t believe in the priesthood of believers, but in the papacy of pastors.
• Sometimes, loving one person hurts someone else in the process.  Can this be avoided?  For example, when I don’t seek the heart of God, many times I hurt my spouse or others.
• It is essential in learning to hear from God to record the seemingly unimportant so that when the time comes seeing God’s path becomes clear.
• Ben shared a favorite quote on leadership, “Pray as though everything depends on YOU, and act as though everything depends on GOD.”

If you would like to read the facilitator’s notes on this gathering, click here: Cultivate- LEADER

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What does Napster, Al Qaeda and the Apache Indians have in common?  They are all “starfish” organizations.  Categorically different than spider organizations, which rely on central command, clear cut membership, and hierarchical management, there is truly no one in charge of a starfish organization.  They are built around passion and ideology, rather than management and budgets.  Former CEOs become catalysts in a movement and quickly fade into the background as the fluid organization quickly takes over like Kudzu in a forest.

All this has profound implications for the Church in America.  For over 1,000 years, the Church has functioned like a spider, buts its earliest days (and most dynamic movements today) look more like starfish.  Our discussion Saturday will be on the Church in Chicago as a starfish organization, and how each of us can participate in the unstoppable movement where only Jesus Christ is a leader.

Hope you can join us!  A book summary will be posted on this article after the event is posted below for your reading enjoyment!

Starfish and Spider – Ori Brafman (Summary)

Tonight is our second Think Tank and we’ll be dreaming up what this revolutionary group may become.  If you’d like to participate in future Think Tanks, check out our calendar, or contact us for details.

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But why have a gathering like this?

It is meant to be a supportive/ validating environment.

It is meant to be a learning environment.

It is meant to be an environment of accountability.

It is a spiritual/missional discipline.

Important Questions we Ask:

• Did people walk away feeling empowered to the task and lifestyle of organic church planting?
• Does each person walk away with new insights in ministry, missions, and theology?
• Did we all have a chance to share what is happening since our last time together, and challenged to participate in God’s mission in tangible ways?
• Do we as a group understand the spiritual importance of meeting together for personal development as a disciple?

Each monthly session will include: (1) some worship and appreciation of the Lord (2) sharing (3) learning (4) discussion (5) some consideration of “next steps” (6) some reflection time and (7) some prayer. 

Tonight we’ll be getting to know each other and discussing group expectations.

I hope that these Think Tanks will become a regular rhythm in our network’s life together.  I will usually post the evening’s agenda here as I’ve done this month. Click on the link below for more!

GreenhouseGatheringsOrientation

We will be going through the Greenhouse material, introduced last fall at Moody and based on the book Organic Church and Organic Leadership by Neil Cole.  If you’re a reader, check these books out!  If not – come to the conversation – we’ll be looking at practical ways to implement this info into our daily lives.

So!  Here’s the skinny on the next Think Tank:

What: Organic Church Greenhouse Think Tank.  An engaging conversation on living as missionaries in Chicago, and planting churches in homes, coffee shops, barber shops…wherever life happens.
Where: Mercury Cafe (1505 W Chicago Ave, Chicago IL)
When: Wed July 15th at 7pm.
Who:  Come and bring others.
How…much?: Its free.  But you can always buy my coffee!

[podcast]http://ugnchicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/ugc_viola_feth_kbowman.mp3[/podcast]

Any form of worship that can be uploaded is appropriate here as long as it is an expression of the creativity that God has instilled in you. Where there is genuine worship there is joy. This is meant to be an inspiring encouragement to one another as well as an alter to our creative Lord!  Maybe you come to the Community Garden for personal inspiration, or fresh ideas for your faith community.  Maybe you come to contribute you or your faith community has recently offered the Lord in the form of worship and you’re ready to pass it along!

Give us ideas (ways you worship the Lord), give us videos or audio files of worship in action, give us written or spoken word, even prophecy and preaching is welcome.  Let this be a wild and diverse garden where the Body of Christ can grow and share the fruits of our imaginative Spirit.

This “Community Garden” is still being fertilized; cultivated.  We’re working on the best plot of land to begin (this website?  a nearby wiki space?) and we’ll send out the word when its ready to begin tilling!

In the meen time you can Post Comments to this page with links to things that you find inspirational or worshipful.

Pray4Chicago’

But the majority of time was not spent at their apartment.  It began with all the participants showing up to gain some orientation on what they were up to for the day.  For many, this was their first crack at prayer-walking, and needed some basics on what it was all about.

We shared some of our Chicago mission’s vision, gave some practical training on how to “pray with your eyes open” (something I was never allowed to do as a kid! ) and how to essentially see a city with God’s eyes.  We tried to be as specific as possible, but in the end, we knew that keeping things open for imaginations to run wild was the whole idea.  After a time of Q & A, we teamed people up in pairs, and sent them out to various city neighborhoods with maps, cameras, and journals.

Their job was to discover what they felt like God was doing in the city.  Different than other census reports or spiritual mapping projects, the goal of this event was to develop inspiration, not gather information.  Our dream is to see a vibrant family of Jesus in every neighborhood in Chicago – and then beyond that in close reach of every person in Chicago. So we need to know how to join God in planting a community of faith in each neighborhood.  What would it mean to be the church in Little Village?  In Lakeview?  In the South Loop?

The groups came back with amazing stories, profound discoveries, and changed hearts.  Read their reports here! I hope that some will return, I hope that more will get to experience this in the future.  One thing we hope to do next time is involve more of the house churches in our network in the event, as well as incorporate a more continued presence of prayer in between the “flash mob” events we do quarterly.  (The next one is August 8th – if you want to be a part of this, contact me!)

What if teams of people began walking the streets and praying for a neighborhood every week?  What relationships might develop?  Who might invite these teams into their lives?  Isn’t this how churches started in the first century?

I’m really thankful for each participant who gave their Saturday to this project.  I hope that it was as meaningful and inspirational to them as it was helpful for Alan and I, who now know a LOT more about these neighborhoods and hope to cultivate a community of faith their through the power of God.  May these followers of Christ never stop prayer walking, and like tilling the soil, may their shoes plough paths for other missionaries to follow them into these Chicago neighborhoods and plant a church in the midst of the city.