Google is up to its old tricks again. This time its Google Insights for Search, a nifty tool that reveals who is searching for what, where.  I typed in “Jesus” and here are the results:

(click to expand the image if its too small)

El Salvador nabs the number 1 spot for Jesus, making them the nation God will bless…Ahem.  This kinda gives you a shift in thinking to know that the United States didn’t even make the top ten list in regional interest!  FYI, when I searched for “Jesus Christ” the top country was Eritrea in East Africa.  America is not the hub of the Christian faith, the global south is.

Just for fun, I searched by city, and Chicago came up as #10 worldwide - way to go you spiritual seekers (or searchers) you!  In a city where there is the lowest proportions of evangelical Christians of any US city and a church attendance of just 11% county-wide, (the city is only 8%), there is a lot of interest in the man Jesus!  What might these people be like?  How can we befriend them, and in a natural way, present to them this Jesus in their own context and language?

It was also interesting to see WHEN people search for Jesus - as predicted, its always around December and April.  Why then do some churches down play the Christian calendar, when it is obviously the time when most people are “searching for Christ?”

Just thinking…

I’m beginning to see that part of my calling in this mission field is to begin searching, praying, walking researching, and traveling through Chicago’s vibrant city neighborhoods.

There are 77 recognized community areas in the city, making it one of the most glocal, ethnically diverse, and contrasted cities in the world. The people of Chicago are fiercely loyal to their ‘hood and many (though they live in a global city) rarely leave the boundaries of their blocks for another part of town.

My hopes are to make good use of my CTA Chicago card; using buses and trains to travel to and in these different communities. I will do my best to write reflections on what I saw, felt, and heard from God as I navigate through the city. My assumption is that God is already at work in their neighborhoods (in bars, churches, and city streets), and a missionary’s job is to find him and point him out for others to see. My centering prayer will come from Luke 10, asking God our Father, the Lord of the Harvest, to raise up workers in the desperate harvest field of that particular neighborhood.

With so many villages to pray through, (there are 77 recognized areas, but most maps draw up about 237 neighborhoods), I’m thinking I may also look for teammates in this work, and start a collaborative project to draw out a complete “spiritual map” of the city. If you are a church planter in Chicago or would like to work on this with me, please email me (see “Contact Us” on this blog’s sidebar).

Why spend so much energy on this project? My firm belief is that first and foremost God’s people depend on God through prayer. If there is to be a church planting movement with lives transformed and the gospel proclaimed afresh, it will come through a prayer movement. One that has its ear close to the ground, to see what God is doing in the streets.

This will be sort of a “live” post, meaning I’ll be updating it as a directory to posts about each neighborhood. To learn what I found from each neighborhood, click on the name of each below:

Following is a list of the Chicago Community Areas by community area number (see map).

May God get the glory!

SITE UPDATE:  I’ve added a lot more resources to this site, including a blog “Resources” category that organizes all my posts that point you in the direction of helpful books, videos, music, and conferences.

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Today as part of my studies in Comps, I’m reading…

The Varieties of Religious Experience, by William James

Perceiving God: The Epistemology of Religious Experience, by William P. Alston

Philosophy for Understanding Theology, by Diogenes Allen and Eric O. Springsted

and

Imagination and Authority: Theological Authorpship in the Modern Tradition, by  John E. Thiel

…all have been a stream of thought I usually don’t have a chance to swim in, but are always very intriguing.   What’s keeping my heart rate up however isn’t the reading material, its the Pandora audio!  Below is the cover image on James’ book; “Memory” by Elihu Vedder, a creative way to “picture” the varieties of religious experience.  I think about this passage of Scripture when I see it.

Reading this book was a wake up call for me. While somewhat purist in his pursuit of New Testament Christianity (I feel for the guy, me being a Restorationist and all), its an absolute gem. Piece by piece, Frank Viola uncovers the pagan roots to traditional Christianity - and asks his readers and the Church for an explanation. From choirs, to pulpits to Easter itself - Viola helps uncover the competing religious impulses that pushed the ancient (or not so ancient) church to adopt foreign tenets and practices.

But here’s a worthy question: is Christianity, if it changes gradually, or even fundamentally in content, structure and style over the course of 2,000 years, still to be considered “Christianity”? Is the Christian faith allowed pagan influence? Thoughts?

Bonus: read a sample chapter here.

Double Bonus: Read a continuation of this progressive book review here: Should we Have a Pagan Christianity?

Part of being a disciple of Christ is learning to live in God’s governance; his new economy. In America, we tend to see capitalism as the foundation for our society - production and consumption are the backbone to its market economy. Capitalism tends to put competition at the top of a short list of values for its citizens. We see the vicious, unjust effects of this all the time - the rich are taxed much less than the poor, unemployment, concentration of political and economic exploitation, and environmental rape.

Maybe its time in God’s Kingdom to function more organically in a new economy.

I just found out about time banks! They are really sweet way to use the currency of time to provide services to a local community.

The concept is simple. For every hour you give in service to another Time Bank member, you earn one Time Dollar. You can now use this Time Dollar to spend on a service someone else offers in the time bank community.

Time Dollars are a community currency that members earn by using their time, energy, skills, and talents to help others. Time Banking is about local individuals, organizations or business’s helping each other in one-to-one exchanges or in group projects. Members help rebuild neighborhood networks and strengthen communities. There are lots of time bank communities that set up shop on the internet as a way to search available services and meet their neighbors.

What an amazing way to (1) save money (2) participate in a local, neighbor centered economy and (3) experience the redistribution of wealth and resources. Imagine seeing a white collared businessman doing taxes for a Mexican immigrant family who earned their Time Dollar repainting their black neighbor’s house, who got his Time Dollars by going grocery shopping for the elderly woman across the street. Imagine the crime rate going down as neighbors get to know each other and watch out for each other. Imagine an investment into your own local economy!

“Give and you shall receive” - God’s economy doesn’t include dolla billz, he was talking about relationships!

Maine Time Banks - a time bank up in Portland, Maine

Start Your Own! - no matter how big or how small, why not begin one in your neighborhood?

Living In Story- Reciprocal Missionality in the Image of God - Ron Pate’s participatory seminar that clued me in to time banks. He is a part of SCUPE (Seminary Consortium of Urban Pastoral Education) in Chicago. SCUPE helps communities in Chicago start timebanks (they call it Abundance in the Beloved Community, or ABC’s).