• Jul 1, 2008

On June 29, we welcomed Matt Heard as our first guest speaker at our Crosby Campus.

Matt was the founding pastor of Park Community Church and served as pastor until 1990. He presently serves as the lead pastor of Woodmen Valley Chapel in Colorado Springs.

"I want to congratulate and affirm you for continuing a vision and unpacking it in powerful ways in this city," Matt said.

He challenged us through a message on the ‘theology of plumbing' of what our role here in the city is.

Matt defined the theology of plumbing as the difference between a pipe and a bucket: what goes into a bucket stays in a bucket, but what goes into a pipe flows through that pipe somewhere else.

In the context of our Christian life, we're not called to be buckets. Buckets keep what God has done in our lives to ourselves, and what flows into a bucket stagnates. Rather, we're called to be pipes, and let what God is doing in us flow out of us into the lives of those around us.

In closing, Matt encouraged us saying, "May God enable you to begin in a new way, a journey, to be "pipes" in the city of Chicago, conduits of His mercy and grace. Do not let this building become a bucket. This building is a pipe...keep it as that, as long as you're alive, and the city of Chicago will be eternally grateful as a result."

"We don't fully comprehend how significant these days are for Park Community Church. It's a moment of celebration for what God has provided, but it's also a moment of decision of how you will steward what God has provided in this new building. Realize this building is to be a tool in God's hands in facilitating a community of ‘pipes' who will be conduits of who God is and what He's done in the city."

We encourage you to take a moment and listen to the entire message and share your thoughts and reactions to the message in the comments section.