Articles for tag: Rich Gorman

March 18, 2016

By Rich Gorman We were failing miserably. We moved into our Chicago neighborhood in 2010 to join others in starting a new church that would help people discover Jesus and lead to lasting life change and community transformation for God”s glory. Our neighborhood provided some unique challenges. It is one of the most dense and diverse in the city, a home to refugees and immigrants from all over the world. It is a community of stark divisions: ethnic, racial, gender, socioeconomic, language, religion, culture . . . and the list goes on. But we were certain God would bless what

October 28, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Church Leadership

How to Succeed at Influencing Culture

By Mark A. Taylor How do you measure the success of your ministry? Joe Boyd and Rich Gorman and I talked about that for almost an hour last week in Christian Standard”s monthly Beyond the Standard online interview program, all while trying to address our assigned topic, “Church and Culture.” “The hardest thing about vocational ministry,” Boyd said, “is you never really know if you”ve done a good job or not.” Boyd doesn”t believe numbers alone can tell the story. He spoke about the ministry of Jesus who preached to the thousands but soon had only a dozen followers. And

October 7, 2014

Mark A. Taylor

Culture & Public Square

Creating, Not Attacking, the Culture

By Mark A. Taylor We were visiting the beautiful Cloisters museum and gardens in New York City and browsing through its remarkable displays of 5,000 works of medieval art. Most of the paintings, sculpture, and stained-glass windows depicted Christian images, and I found myself wondering, “Centuries from now what great art from the West will the world find as a Christian witness?” Several writers at our site this monthÂ are trying to answer that question. And all of our “Christians and culture” articles appearing hereÂ present a challenge to positive culture-shaping initiatives, some of them in ways far removed from the arts.

October 4, 2014

Christian Standard

Church & Ministry Community Outreach

FOR the City, Not Just IN It

By Rich Gorman When we waited on God and watched to see what he was already doing here, we discovered how he would work through us to accomplish his will. The voicemail we received the day after we moved to Chicago ended up having a greater impact than we could have imagined. My wife, Dori, and I could not remember who this woman was, though she knew of us from our ministry in Johnson City, Tennessee, during our time at Emmanuel Christian Seminary.Â She said, “This may seem weird, but I was praying this morning and felt that God told

July 5, 2013

Christian Standard

Church Leadership

40 Under 40: Rich Gorman & Dori Gorman

RICH GORMANÂ & DORI GORMAN Campus pastors,Â Community Christian Church,Â Edgewater, Illinois My former students Rich and Dori Gorman are an extraordinary pastoral couple with outstanding leadership gifts and a passion to reach urban people via the church. Their marriage and family are models for young couples and families. They are on the cutting edge of missional church planting and are creating a new model for new church development that reaches people who live in the margins. They are all about relationships and helping to empower people to find their gifts so every person is able to figure out his or

June 3, 2013

Christian Standard

Mission & Evangelism

Missional Blessing

By Jon Ferguson God”s approach for changing the world is a “bless” strategy. And for members of Community Christian Church in and around Chicago, change is happening as they apply the strategy day by day.Â For as long as I can remember, Community Christian Church”s mission has been “helping people find their way back to God.” And we believe that mission is accomplished as we: REACH people who are far from God, RESTORE God”s dream for the world, and REPRODUCE the mission in others. If you were to survey the people of Community on any given weekend, the majority could

June 27, 2012

Christian Standard

Church & Ministry Community Outreach

Church Pounds Pavement with Positive Chalk Talk

By Jennifer Taylor Rich Gorman, pastor at the Edgewater campus of Community Christian Church (Naperville, IL), was praying for the area and wondering how to share the love of Christ with such a large population. As he watched people walk to and from the “L” trains one day, he hit on an idea: everyone is looking down, so put the message there! Rich, his wife, Dori, and a small team from CCC Edgewater now meet every other Tuesday evening to pray and then divide into teams to write the messages on sidewalks leading to and from the L stations. Team