Every weekday sometime around 11:30 am I find my way over to Lakeview Presbyterian Church’s third space where I enjoy a better than home cooked meal prepared by First Slice and spend an hour or so in fellowship with friends. Up until April 22nd we had been temporarily meeting in the sanctuary, waiting for the completion and opening of third space which is the name for the old Parish House just west of the Church on the corner of Broadway and Addison in Chicago.
Pastor Joy Douglas Strome shares in the above video their community’s dreams for third space and explains how they arrived at the name as well as the secret, or maybe not so secret to community builders, to creating community in a 21st century modern city. If you are interested in building a community today, I believe this video will provide a good blueprint.
The house built in 1911 provided educational programs to a rapidly growing Lakeview Community. In 1870 2,000 residents, mainly celery farmers populated the area. By 1887 the population reached 45,000 residents, leading to the eventual incorporation into Chicago in 1889. (Wikipedia)
Over the years the space was used for teaching English to immigrant populations, providing sanctuary for Central American refugees, providing alternative education for at-risk youth, serving a hot lunch to neighborhood senior citizens are strong evidence of a church history that proclaims the gospel in actualized missions that serve both neighborhood and city.” (Church Website)
Thanks Pastor Joy and Lakeview Presbyterian Church Community for your continuing to make community thrive in a time when many of us believe real, honest-to-goodness community is something of the past. You’re proving us wrong.
Posted by Dan O’Donnell, a layman who has covenanted with the Chicago Community of Passionist Partners. In addition to the standard covenant, Dan promises to work at connecting all partners known and unknown, to a conscious following the the way of Jesus, the way of the cross which Dan believes transforms all failure, democratizing the human journe
We are a community of laymen and laywomen who, with vowed Passionists, seek to share in the charism of St. Paul of the Cross through prayer, ongoing spiritual formation, and proclamation of the message of Christ Crucified.
Hi Dan, That was a great interview and really enjoyed seeing how they are using their church facility to reach out and help the community.Sorry to see some of our churches not used to capacity and serve the needs of the community.Would like to contribute to this effort if you can send me who to send a check to and the address.We are trying to find a time to come into Chicago but have been tied up with helping our daughter out with her very active 2 year old and 2 older dogs.Seems like our plans for a big reunion are not going to happen but would be nice to get some people together.Have been emailing Dan Zaborsky who lives in Minnesota and he was interested in coming but hard to get the out of town people all to meet on one date.Will stay in touch and look forward to seeing Dave and you soon. Neil
Hi Neil, Thanks for the good words and I agree, it’s so refreshing to see a church using their facilities to help the whole community, and not just their particular congregation. You can donate by copying, pasting the going to the following url : http://third-space.org/ways-to-give.html Hope that helps. I know whatever you can give will be much appreciated by Paster Joy and her team. And ah yes, our 60th reunion. I agree, I think we can be just as happy with a small group as with a big one. That being said, I’d better get on the ball and call a meeting. Thanks for the reminder and as always good to hear from you. Hi to Kathy and keep up the good work grandpa.