Parkview Lockport Blog

Renovation Start & New Hires!!!

Dear Lockport Campus Core,

I just wanted to give you a heads up about a few new developments in the Parkview Lockport Campus

Construction Start Date

I am excited to say that renovations on the Lockport Campus will begin on Tuesday May 27!  Most likely, additional parking will be added first followed by interior work.  However, God has truly blessed us with a great building so our interior work will mainly be in finishes, audio visual enhancements, and small structural modifications to our front lobby.  Please pray for this process as we move forward and I will continue to provide new details and images as they come together!

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New Additions to the Lockport Campus Staff

I am very excited to announce that we have filled two of our staff positions for the Lockport Campus.  Please help me welcome our new team members.   

Joyce Renik has accepted the position of part-time Administrative Assistant.  Joyce comes to Parkview Lockport with an extensive administrative and corporate background beginning in 1993.  Joyce along with her husband Rich and their 3 children Olivia, Emily, and Joseph are thrilled to be a part of this new adventure.  She is a huge addition to this budding staff and I’m honored to have her on our team. 

JoAnn McDonald has accepted the position of part-time Early Childhood Coordinator.  JoAnn comes to us with a degree in Early Childhood Education and tremendous experience in the field of Early Childhood Education.  Since 1999, she has been working as a pre-school educator as well as serving passionately in the Nursery and Pre-school departments of her churches for over 20 years.  Her husband Pat will be heading up our Communion Ministry at Lockport and both of them are excited to be a part of this great Campus. 

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Next Lockport Gathering

June 7, 2008

Following Saturday Worship Service

Food will be provided and childcare is available upon request.

Please RSVP to Jeanna at jeanna.lentes@parkviewchurch.com

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Things are rocking and rolling so keep praying that we continue to follow God’s direction in this process. 

All For His Glory,

Brian Hunt

Campus Pastor

The Someone at the Church

Growing up in the church I heard all kind of “church phrases”.  I remember hearing things like “I don’t think they prayed enough and that is why it happened”, “I heard that he can’t keep a job because he drinks a lot”, “Well the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree so you can see why their kids act like they do”, or “Someone from the Church should do something for them”.  Now, I admit most of these I remember being at belt level when I heard these conversations, but nonetheless they stuck with me.  Especially the last one; “Someone from the Church should…” 

At first, I thought there was actually a little guy that lived somewhere in the Church building who was called the “Someone from the Church”.  I imagined he looked like a character from Where the Wild Things Are, but never could see him for myself to confirm it.  I figured that the reason I didn’t see him or know his real name was because he only came around when someone needed something like when a homeless person came in from the street needing money or when a single parent couldn’t pay her electric bill.  Perhaps when I got older, I thought, I would learn the secret to find him when I came across someone that needed something because every older person I knew called him anytime one of the situations came about.  What was interesting to me is that even though they would call the “Someone at the Church” for his help, they always acted like they had done the work and were very proud of themselves when it was obvious that all the work was down the by little guy at the Church.

Well eventually I learned that there is no such person as the “Someone from the Church” (although you can ask any Church secretary or Pastor and they may tell you otherwise).  I came to realize that what those people were really asking for was someone else to do the work of helping someone.  They felt really good about telling other people about people’s problems instead of actually doing something about it.  You see doing something might cause a crack to form in their “Christian Bubble”.  Trust me, cracking this protective bubble would be detrimental to the safe and “perfect” world they lived in and it could potentially cause their hands to get dirty.  Yuck!  No, it was far easier to call the Church and ask the “Someone from the Church” to be unleashed from his hiding place and take care of the problem…however that happened.

Ok, I will jump out of this tongue-in-cheek story to get very real with all of us.  As we open this new Campus there will be no “Someone at the Church” because that someone is you and me.  We are the body of Christ, we are the people that call Jesus Lord and Savior, and we are the people that God has given the breath of life to.  It is all of our responsibility to meet the needs of those we see around us.

So, if you see a single mom out to dinner with her kids and she can’t take a bite of food because she is trying to make sure the kids don’t kill each other, don’t shake your head and grab your phone to call the Church.  Call the server over, tell them to give you the mother’s check, and pay for her meal.  Don’t tell her who it is from, but just have the server tell her that Jesus loves her.  Don’t look for the credit, just meet the need.   

If you know about a family that is having trouble getting school supplies together for their kids, don’t look for the “Someone from the Church” to take up a collection.  Go to Target, get some school supplies, stick it in a back-pack and leave it on their front step with a card inviting them to come to church.  Don’t pass the responsibility on, just meet the need. 

Our mission at Lockport is to show the love of Jesus to as many people as we can and 99% of that mission is accomplished outside the walls of the Church!  Your ministry mission is in your homes, neighborhoods, jobs, sports teams, and anywhere your two feet take you.  Christ needs us to be his hands and feet in all situations and not pass the responsibility on to someone else. 

I’m sorry to say, but I have made an Executive decision.

Effectively immediately I am firing the “Someone at the Church”.  He is out of work, homeless, and there is no chance I’m rehiring him.

Now get out there and meet some needs. 

All for His Glory,

Brian Hunt

Campus Pastor

A Lesson from Private Ryan

Last week I attended the Exponential New Church Planter’s Conference in Orlando, Florida (don’t worry, it was much warmer and nicer than it sounds).  I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the nearly 3,000 people who were there.  Now some of you may be saying, “Um, Brian, that isn’t even as many people as we have in a weekend at PCC Orland.  What is the big deal?”  The big deal is that those 3,000 people represented the future growth of God’s Kingdom.  Minus the proverbial smell of compost, when you looked around the room, you could clearly see the freshly planted Church seeds resting in the lives of ripe soil, just waiting to burst into new Church life.  What an exciting time to be a Christian!

As excited as I was to be there, I must confess that the experience humbled me beyond words.  For some reason, I couldn’t get the image of one of the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan out of my head.  You may remember it too.  In one particular scene, Tom Hanks and his troops were on an amphibious craft, referred to as a Landing Craft, Infantry (or LCI), heading to Omaha Beach during the Normandy Invasion.

A brief history lesson tells us that of the five beaches stormed, the bloodiest fighting occurred at Omaha, where the Americans suffered more than 2,000 casualties¹.  President Eisenhower ordered 3,000 landing craft similar to those depicted in the movie.  Each carried approximately 41 men^2,3, so quick math tells us that in landing crafts along, approximately 123,000 soldiers when ashore at these battles.  Of the soldiers who fought, 70% were between the ages of 20 and 34, and 20% were under the age of 20⁴. 

Following scenes in the movie depicted the boats coming ashore.  The large iron doors that protected them as they motored in would drop down and the men would rush out of the boat to storm the beaches.  However, as artillery rained down into their boats, many of the men never made it out alive, and were killed before the battle even began.

This struck me so hard because as I looked around at the conference, all I could see was a group of Church Planters traveling to shore to go to battle.  Of course, the difference is our battle field.  You see, our battle field includes Atheists, Agnostics, Deists, Buddhists, Islamists, and every “-ist” in-between.  It is complete with hypocrites, closed minded Christians, lukewarm Christians, and every other version of Christian you can think of.  And if I can be honest, it is a battle field that is littered with thousands of bodies of other churches that didn’t make it. 

What we can learn from the Normandy Invasion and the soldiers who fought, can be found in three distinct areas: 1) Most soldiers, if not all, were fearful as the motored to the battle field.  They knew that not everyone would make it through.  They had come to grips with that reality, and they still chose to fight.  2) Even more sobering was that each soldier knew that even if their personal mission was unsuccessful their overall mission was for something bigger than themselves.  3) Every one of them believed they would succeed.  Every soldier was determined to make it to the top of that hill, to make their commander proud, to complete the mission, to scream at the top of their lungs in victory.  THEY ALL BELIEVED THEY WOULD WIN.

I don’t know for sure, but I would guess some of you have those same feelings I do.  You wrestle with the fear of the unknown at this new campus, only to find yourself, later that day, so pumped up and confident that you could run through a wall.  The polarity of your emotions seems to be so extreme that you wonder if you should just invest in a white jacket without sleeves just to be ahead of the game.

My encouragement to you is found in Romans 8, where it says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  As I read this, I just want you to know how proud I am to be on this boat with you.  It is an honor to be your leader as we take on this battle field together, knowing that we are not blindly going into this fight alone.  Rather, we are following the flag of our God, who “is for us”.  Because of that faith, we are assured victory.  So as we continue together toward the opening of PCC Lockport, I encourage you to link arms with one another, build relationships with each other, and get ready to storm the gates of hell as we continue to Grow the Kingdom of God together.

All For His Glory,

Brian Hunt

Campus Pastor