(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!

A recent worldwide study of city residents around the world concluded that Chicagoans are more satisfied with their home town than the flashier global icons of New York, Paris, Sydney and all 14 other cities they interviewed!  Reasons cited included the ease of lifestyle, Lake Michigan, being close to nature, and the rush of festivals and activities across the city.  Check out the full story here.

One more notch in the belt for the city as it gets ready for the Olympics in 2016!

Frank Sinatra’s “My Kind of Town” (listen to it here)

Now this could only happen to a guy like me
And only happen in a town like this
So may I say to each of you most gratefully
As I throw each one of you a kiss

This is my kind of town, chicago is
My kind of town, chicago is
My kind of people too
People who smile at you

And each time I roam, chicago is
Calling me home, chicago is
Why I just brim like a cloud
Its my kind of town

My kind of town, chicago is
My kind of town, chicago is
My kind of razzmatazz
And it has, all that jazz

And each time I leave, chicago is
Tuggin my sleeve, chicago is
The wrigley building, chicago is
The union stockyard, chicago is
One town that wont let you down
Its my kind of town

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“Your lack of faith disturbs me.” - Darth Vader, Star Wars Episode IV

Let’s never take ourselves too seriously!