The Chicago Vision: Evangelists' Update

ARTICLES

The VISION: An Elder's Perspective

The VISION: Praise and Worship

The VISION: Youth and Family  

The VISION: Evangelists' Update  

The VISION: Teachers

VIDEO

The Original Chicago Vision Steve Staten (10:47)

---

Darren Gauthier discusses the process that was followed in developing the VISION (3:08)

---

Introduction to the VISION presentation Tony Singh (6:49)

---

The VISION (Part 1) AT Arneson Presents The VISION (13:03)

---

The VISION (Part 2) AT Arneson Presents The VISION (14:11)

---

The VISION (Part 3) AT Arneson Presents The VISION (14:05)

HANDOUT

This flyer contains the Vision Statement and highlights of the Ministry Center Model.  (PDF ~ 1.3 MB)

MINISTRY CENTER MODEL

(Click to Enlarge)

It might be hard to believe, but it was a little more than six months ago that the entire Chicago Church of Christ gathered at the Stephen's Convention Center in early May to hear about an exciting and visionary plan for our entire body of believers. We were there for the unveiling of a ten-year vision for our church. As we celebrate our 25^th anniversary as a church this year, not only are we looking back at all that God has done, but we are faithfully looking forward to all that He will do.

Our ten-year vision calls for us to have fully functioning ministry centers within a 30-minute drive of every person in the Chicagoland area.  Each ministry center will have a central leadership core that is made up of an evangelist involved in preaching God's Word, elders who are shepherding the hearts of the members, a worship leader who is ensuring that our Sunday worship experience is outstanding, a teacher who will keep us grounded in the truths of God and a youth and family minister who is working with our families to ensure the passing of spiritual conviction from one generation to another.  Inherent to our vision, and crucial to its success, is that the Chicago Church is growing both spiritually and numerically.

Once the May 6^th event was completed, we set out to accomplish several goals. First, we wanted to keep an open line of inspiration and communication flowing in the church. We wanted to be able to keep the church connected and updated through great stories and milestones. So we set a one-year goal of completely redeveloping our church website. Through much hard work on the part of Kurt Roskopf and others, we are excited to announce that this goal has been met.

Secondly, we wanted to really drive home some of the core convictions upon which The Vision is founded. We sat down with the ministry center leaders and came up with eight lessons that we would teach in our ministries from June through September. The lessons included the following topics: Evangelism, gift-discovery workshops, multi-generational lessons, cross-cultural awareness and, of course, what it means to be a disciple who will give up everything, go anywhere and be whatever God calls them to be.  We are very excited that not only was this objective accomplished in all of the ministries, but it has helped to deepen all of our understanding and convictions in connection with The Vision.

Lastly, we are very excited about the unity we are building in our new leadership model here in the church. Tony Singh, Darren Gauthier and myself find our hearts being knit together in great unity as we are called to lead the charge for The Vision. And there are several other congregational leaders who have really stepped up to the challenge of building their part of the wall to ensure that the goals of The Vision will be met. Recently, Steve Staten (Teacher), Dave Pocta (Youth and Family) and Dave Eastman (Worship) met with me, Tony, Darren and the elders to discuss the development of a three-year plan in each of their corresponding areas of service that would keep us on track with The Vision. We left inspired, faithful and resolved to do the work necessary. We look forward to sharing all of these great plans with the church in the coming months.

Amid all of these exciting plans and goals, we must stay committed to having an outward focus and planting spiritual seeds wherever we go. But we must always remember that we can only plant and water the seeds. It is God who will make them grow. And we are grateful to God that the Chicago Church is growing once again! The ministry staff set a goal to see 100 people added to our number from September through December of this year. And we are almost halfway there!

I believe with all of my heart that we will see many miraculous things happen in the next ten years. And I believe the Chicago Church is entering its next 25 years with greater faith, greater wisdom, deeper convictions and an even greater awareness of the need to evangelize our city than ever before. We are maturing as a church. We are awakening again to be a great light to a metropolitan area in great need of salvation. And to God be the glory!

AT Arneson