Iowa River Flood Update 6: Evacuation

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Today at 3:30 pm, in the midst of continued fervent efforts, city officials informed us that last nights heavy rains will result in the Iowa River cresting on Tuesday at 35 feet. This will put river water close to roof level. Hearing the news was difficult. All hopes on saving our facility were lost and emergency evacuation began immediately.

It is difficult to loose a facility that was laced with so many meaningful memories over the last 9 years, but in many ways the loss generates a deeper appreciation for those things that matter most, namely our faith in the sovereign hand of God and our appreciation for the body of Christ. Fond memories of working side by side with my brothers and sisters in Christ over these last three days have been very rich. New friendships have been formed and a greater appreciation for the value of community has been cultivated.

This photo shows how high the waters had grown throughout the night.



The south side of our facility.



Our massive pumping station.



A boat parked in the handicapped parking stalls with diesel intended to refuel the emergency generator.





This photo captures how sandbaggers were bagging right next to the flood waters. Our parking lot was closed from parking in order to keep baggers working throughout the morning.



The view from the main entrance of our facility.





This meaningful piece of artwork was removed as part of the evacuation effort.



The atrium emptied of most fixtures and technology.









Our Boston grand piano was removed via fork lift over the flood waters.







A little after 9:00 pm, Jim Douglass (our administrator) and I shut down the water, turned off the master electric panel and walked out the northwest office door into ankle deep water. One chapter ends and a new one begins.

Water Flow Illustration

A local engineer, attempting to illustrate the massive water flow-rate presently moving in the Iowa River, explained that if Kinnick Stadium (pictured below) were totally enclosed and filled with the water presently moving in the river, its entire volume would be filled in only 15 seconds. Now that's a lot of water!



Here is our present river flow outlook.

Iowa River Flood Update 5

Today was another busy day. Parkview continued to function as a distribution center for our neighborhood throughout the day while my staff and I focused on moving out of our facility. The water began rising at a slightly accelerated rate throughout the day.

Here's a picture of this afternoons crew. Another great turn-out.




Trucks like this were continually dumping sand throughout the day.



Here is a picture looking east of our facility. At the top of the photo is Dubuque street, which is now completely flooded.



This picture shows how our parking area is now covered all the way up to our bagging area.



Today the southeast corner of our sandbag wall had first contact with river water.



This is an example of the ingenious engineering that went into channeling our roof drainage outside the sandbag wall.



Today a diesel generator arrived that will power our pumping areas in the event of power outage.



Here is a picture looking into the front entrance of our facility.



This picture shows you our southwest corner where the river current is moving more quickly. On the bottom right of our picture is a very powerful pumping station that will help us to prevent water from entering the building.



Here you can see Rob Smith illustrating how high our water levels are supposed to rise in the days to come. This level will reach within 8-12 inches of the top of our sandbag barrier.



Here is my office now almost completely empty.



In this final picture you see a view to the west of our facility. Taft Speedway is on the left and our parking is now under several feet of water.

Coralville Spillway Overflows

For the second time in its history, the Coralville reservoir is now overflowing the emergency spillway. The water is now going to enter Iowa City at an uncontrolled rate of speed. Here's a link from the Gazette and Press Citizen.

Iowa River Flood Update 4

Fortunately, levels did not rise as quickly as originally anticipated. Though flooding will increase in the days to come the Lord graciously granted us a few additional days finish sandbagging and get our offices moved out of the church.

Some very exciting things happened today. Again, hundreds showed up to help. The operation went so smoothly that fortification of the walls around Parkview was completed around noon. Because things were operating so proficiently at Parkview we became the regional sandbagging site for our entire neighborhood. The condominium development west of the church was our target. When the day began all of us thought this large development was going to be completely engulfed by the flood. The most satisfying thing was seeing our productivity increase so dramatically that by the end of the day, the entire development was completely protected by a well-fortified sand bag wall. A task that was seemingly impossible was accomplished in one day by the teamwork of so many!

Below are a few pics giving you a glimpse of today’s conditions…



This one gives you a glimpse of all that was going on during our peak activity time this afternoon.





Water had begun to fill out central parking section.



A beautiful lawn was replaced by deep muddy tracks.



Some of the innovation our workers used to drain our rain gutters outside the wall.



Taft Speedway looking west from the church property.

Iowa River Flood Update 3

Today we faced another long workday at the church. The most encouraging aspect of the day was the hundreds and hundreds of people who came together to help prepare the church for inevitable flooding. Many of these people were from the community and other churches throughout town. It was a great picture of the body of Christ pulling together to help one another out. We are so thankful for all of those who have given so much to help prepare us for the impending disaster.

We expect the emergency spillway at the Coralville reservoir to be breached within the hour (around midnight). At that point the floodwaters will no longer be controlled. Tonight’s news broadcast called this the 500-year flood. We are bracing for the worst and will continue to raise our sand barrier tomorrow while also moving our offices to an alternative location (starting at 9 AM tomorrow). Services will now be located at the West High auditorium for the foreseeable future. Any way you look at it, this flooding will result in months of displacement. Below are a few pictures from the day.

Iowa River Flood Update 2

From 3:00 to about 9:30 PM hundreds of people from Parkview, other churches, and our community showed up to help sandbag the church. It was a great picture seeing so many pitch in to help in a time of need. Unfortunately, we're only about half way in the sandbagging process. With the rain forecast, projections show us passing the flood of 93 levels so we're bracing for the long haul with this season of flooding.

Tomorrow (Monday) we'll be sandbagging throughout the day starting at 9:00 AM. VBS will go forward as planned, but may be cancelled later in the week as flood waters continue to rise. I'll post more later. Below are some pictures from todays sandbagging.

Iowa River Flood Update

As services proceeded this morning, the flood waters continued to rise covering about 1/3 of our parking lot. Here are a few pictures from last night and this morning.

These pictures were taken yesterday (Saturday) around 6:00 pm. This is looking westbound on Taft Speedway.



This picture is looking east on Taft toward Dubuque.



Our parking area.



Here's a comparison picture of the same parking area this morning during our second service.



Dubuque street southbound into Iowa City.



Crandic Park off Rocky Shore Drive.



City Park north of the University.



We'll keep you posted if the decision is made to begin sandbagging the church and regarding this weeks Vacation Bible School starting tomorrow morning at 9 am.

Flood Waters Rising

Our parking lot is slowly disappearing as the Iowa River waters rise. Right now around 1/5 of our lot is underwater with the Coralville Reservoir continuing to open up the spillway more and more each day. Below is a projection of the lakes depth increase which will eventually result in the emergency spillway overflowing.



We are not overly concerned about our facility flooding, but access to our facility is getting more challenged by the closing of Dubuque street and our parking could be easily cut by half if not more.

Next weekend we are planning on adding services with the hopes of distributing the population and hopefully reducing the parking problems that are sure to occur. The following are the times we'll be having services. In the mean time, pray that, Lord willing, we won't have much more rain. Depending on rain amounts we could surpass the flood levels experienced in 1993.

SERVICE TIMES ON FATHER'S DAY WEEKEND

Saturday

• 4:30

Sunday

• 8:00 (+ Chapel Venue)
  
• 9:30 (+ Chapel Venue)
  
• 11:00

Please be sure to attend at 4:30 on Saturday or 8:00 on Sunday to help prevent parking problems.

Playing Fast or Slow and Subdivisions

Zach Nielsen, a former staff member at Parkview, is featuring a good series of videos on his blog from a conference he hosted at his church with several of his friends who are professional musicians in Nashville. Here's one of the videos that has some great and helpful soundbites.



Check out his blog for additional posts. I'm sure he'll continue to add more throughout the next couple of weeks.

The Spot Ministry in Iowa City

I just had the opportunity to read this article regarding Parkview's ministry to at-risk youth in our community. Our southeast facility called "The Spot" is run by Doug Fern and numerous other staff and volunteers. It is a flourishing ministry that is making a huge impact in our community. Read the article and be encouraged. Praise the Lord!

Choosing to Cheat

Today this little book was given to me by a few of the guys at Parkview who attended a recent conference at North Point Community Church, in Atlanta, GA. The book is written by Andy Stanley and is a practical little book on balancing your career with your family life. Here’s a brief description from the back of the book:

This little book presents a strategic plan for resolving the tensions between work and home – reversing the destructive pattern of giving to your company and career what belongs to your family.

This book will be a great motivator and tool for the person who struggles balancing career with the responsibility to be a loving contributor to his or her family. In the book Stanley recognizes for many of us that there will never be enough time to do all you can and should do either at the office or at home, thus as the title of the book suggests, something will always be cheated. Of course, Stanley advises that, when push comes to shove, it will always cost more if you choose to cheat your family in the name of “work”. This cost may come in the form of a divorce or a grown child strung out on drugs. Whatever the case, we mustn’t allow our career to keep us from being the father or mother God has called us to be.

That said, those of you who are Biblically minded will notice how lightweight Stanley is in his Biblical interpretation and application. In many regards this is much more of a good secular book with some biblical references thrown in for punch. If we boil down the issues of workaholism, it will always lead us to the struggle between idolatry and the transforming work of the Gospel. We also must be very cautious with Stanley's proposal that cheating work for your family could likely lead to a blessing in your home and career. Of course, in many regards this may be measurably true; however, we must tread cautiously when we try to motivate people with the fringe benefits of obedience (no different than the health-wealth gospel). As one commentator noted, "The true reward God gives us for the gift of faith, is forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation; a promotion at work pales in comparison."

Despite these concerns, there are some good principles in the book that will be very helpful to those fighting to balance family with career. Apparently those who shared the book with me felt I could use the gentle reminder. I did find the book helpful in many regards and will recommend it on to those also struggling to maintain their balance between the home and the office.

Community Worship Survey Results

About a week-and-a-half ago the worship and programming leadership conducted a survey among a diverse sampling of people in our church regarding the Worship Services at Parkview. This survey included questions regarding every area of our worship service as well as information regarding our Family Ministry venue Family Connection. If you would like to see the general results of that survey, you can view them at this link.

Over all, the general results of the survey were affirming that we are doing a good job in many categories within our services. Perhaps more telling were the comments in the areas that need some refining. As always, when people have the opportunity to share anonymously they can at times be a bit uncharitable in their commentary. Despite this reality, we were able to see trends in everything from preaching to music to communication that will be very helpful as we develop strategic ministry plans for the upcoming school year. If you’re observant, you’ll likely notice some of those changes in the near future.

This survey was strategic in that it generated some good conversation among leaders within the church that will help guide us in many future decisions. In this regard, I am very optimistic that we’ve got an excellent opportunity to blaze some new trails in our upcoming ministry season.

To clarify one thing, I know that some may be inclined to critique the wisdom behind surveying a congregation regarding their preferences. Some may ask, if Jesus told us that if we followed him we would be persecuted, then wouldn’t we be most pleased with results that were critical of our practices? To this my answer is yes and no. If we are criticized for our commitment to worshiping in spirit and truth and doing all we can to share the gospel with the lost world around us, then by all means we should applaud critical feedback. On the other hand, if we are criticized for our inability to engage people in their cultural context, then we should view both criticism and affirmation as resources to help us grow and change. The last thing Parkview’s leadership wants to do is make everyone as “comfortable as possible”. In the same regard we do want to do all we can to participate with God in lighting a fire that ignites a movement of the gospel in people living missionally in Iowa City and around the world.

Yesterday’s Hymns For Today’s Church

This weekend in services I will be highlighting some of the hymn resources available for those who would love to take advantage of the organizations and musical groups working hard to revive old hymn texts by setting them to music relevant to new generations. One of the exciting things about this movement is that it is spearheaded by younger generations longing for connection with a faith that is rich in doctrine and deep in heritage. Though this list of resources is far from exhaustive, the following links will provide some places you can go to tap into this network of music. If anyone has additional links to provide, please consider leaving your link as a comments.

INDELIBLE GRACE MUSIC

Indelible Grace features numerous CD’s and music books. The Indelible Grace CD’s are compilation CD’s from numerous artists. You can also get CD’s here from artists such as Matthew Smith, Sandra McCracken, and Brian Moss. If you follow the links to the music store, you can actually preview the songs under each CD link.

RED MOUNTAIN MUSIC

Red Mountain Music is a ministry out of Red Mountain Church in Birmingham, Alabama. They presently have five CD’s available for purchase and their music is very similar in style to the Indelible Grace music. By clicking on albums you can go into each individual album and listen to audio samples.

LOVE DIVINE

Kingsway Music just came out with this new CD called “Love Divine” which is a remake of hymns by Charles Wesley. The new hymn we’re singing called at Parkview called “Jesus, The Name High Over All” came from this project. It is not available on Itunes, so you’re restricted to getting this one via snail mail. Just so you’re aware, outside of “Jesus, The Name High Over All” this CD has other good songs, but the arrangements are not as strong for congregational singing.

PASSION: HYMNS ANCIENT AND MODERN

This disk has been around a while, but is part of the Passion organization, which is a movement intent upon glorifying God by uniting students in worship and prayer for spiritual awakening in this generation. The hymn CD can be found at SixStepsRecords or downloaded on Itunes. SixSteps features a lot of other great music for younger generations.

SOUJURN MUSIC

Soujurn Music is part of the ministry at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kenucky. According to Greg Mazunik, our 24-7 worship director, the “Before the Throne” CD is killer good.

PARK SLOPE

Park Slope Church is a church in Brooklyn, NY that has put out this project called Kingsborough Hymns accompanied by those who regularly accompany their congregation in music.

I’ll add more links as I find or hear about them.

Community Worship Survey

As of Friday afternoon we've had over 360 take an online survey that was sent out via email primarily in regard to our weekend worship services at Parkview. This is the first time Parkview has taken an online survey and I must say it's been quite the experience. Though I know web surveys exclude a certain population, I found it interesting that those who have taken the survey are representing Parkview's age demographic and service attendance almost perfectly. If you haven't taken the survey, do so quickly because we will be shutting it down in the next few days.

I will be sharing some of the general results in the future. Some of the information has been very encouraging and some of it has identified areas we need to work on. Though this was a needed and important survey for us, it was really a precursor/test-run for a "spiritual health" survey we are hoping to take church-wide during the Fall semester. More on that later....

For those of you who work in businesses or churches who would benefit from online surveys. I highly recommend Survey Monkey. It is a powerful service with easy to build professional looking surveys that provide "to the second" analysis as the results come in.

Between Two Worlds: The Cultural Chasm

For a seminary course I am taking, I am reading a book on Biblical Interpretation called “Let the Reader Understand”. In the section I read today the authors discussed an idea called “distanciation” coined by P. Ricoeur. The idea, when applied to Biblical interpretation, refers to the chasm that is created between our time and the time of the Bible. This chasm is caused by our cultural assumptions and forsakes the fact that the first audience (from Biblical times) was not like me at all. Here’s a quote…

We should note that not only is a knowledge of the original culture important, but also a knowledge of our own culture. If we are unaware of our own culture, we will be unequipped to evaluate in what way our cultural conditioning is influencing our reading of the text. And if we wish to apply the meaning of the text to a present situation, we had better understand how our present culture works. (p. 148-149)

The reason I appreciate this understanding is that in my years of church experience, conferences and reading I have been exposed to ministry models that are very culturally savvy, putting great amounts of energy into understanding contemporary culture but little work into carefully interpreting scripture. I have also experienced ministries that are extremely rigorous in their study and interpretation of scripture, but are miles away from having relevant engagement with the present culture. Both models are subject to “distanciation” because they neglect one aspect of cultural understanding at the cost of the other. In most of those cases, they are even adamant in their rejection of the other cultural perspective because, in their mind, embracing the opposite cultural context violates their convictions.

My dream is for churches to take more seriously the need to combine the rigors of good Biblical interpretation with a passion for understanding the present culture and contextualizing the gospel for that culture. There are many churches doing a pretty good job, but countless more, large and small, whose convictions (and presuppositions) are keeping them from God’s mission to reach our present culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Whose Glory Do We Make Music For?

I love Bob Kauflin's heart in this little devotional clip. Good stuff. Who do you play your music for? Is it for the glory of Jesus or for your own? How do we discern if we are doing it for the Lord or ourselves? Are you more concerned about your audience encountering God or about them affirming your abilities?

Prosperity Gospel

My friend Chad just sent this to me. On this video you'll hear some strong language from John Piper in regard to the prosperity gospel. I know not everyone is a fan of John Piper, but the message of this video rightly resonates with disdain for those who are selling so many around the world this false gospel.

Static Mode

Static: Lacking in movement, action or change.

This defines my blog in recent months. Admittedly, it has been an exceptionally crazy season with numerous changes in the church, which include my job description change to "Pastor of Programming and Operations". In this new job I will still be involved in programming (arts and technical) but also carry oversight in church communication and staffing operations. Of course, my gradual change will necessitate other staffing shifts to compensate. Those details are still being worked out at this time.

Over the last few months I thought about shutting down the blog entirely but now that I can see some light at the end of the tunnel, I have decided I may take the opportunity to blog some throughout the summer.

As always, my blogging has been more of a personal journal of sorts. This means that posting frequency will alway come and go based upon the load I am carrying. I know this is not a way to build a following, but that was never the intent of my blog so I am not overly concerned.

Anyhow, this post's primary purpose is to let those of you who check intermittently that I believe I will pick-up posting in greater frequency as the summer approaches. For now, I am just hopeful we can hit 70 degrees at least once this April. One miracle at a time I guess!

Upcoming Easter Season Services

Check out the service times below. At our church website you can actually e-vite someone to the events.