A 164 year old prayer that helped create a church

David C Cook is a major publishing company focused on the church and ministry, creating books, music, and curriculum resources. Some of their titles include books by Francis Chan, Erwin McManus, Greg Boyd, Leonard Sweet, Matt Redman and Louie Giglio. Some of the music projects they’ve produced are from All Sons & Daughters, Paul Baloche, Kari Jobe and Rend Collective Experiment. David C Cook produces these works to fulfill their Mission Statement of, “To equip the Church with Christ-centered resources for making and teaching disciples who obediently transform today’s generations.” They are really an amazing company, powerfully fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19–20), equipping and encouraging Jesus followers all over the world.

How did it start? With one guy, named…David C Cook (sure you saw that coming). Cook was born on August 28, 1850. At the age of 14 Cook prayed this: “O God, make all you can of my life.”

A simple prayer. A powerful prayer.

Cook and his family were living on a rural farm near Wheaton around this time but moved to the city while in his teens. There he learned the craft of typesetting and printing.At the age of 17 he was teaching Sunday School, using his honed printing skills to make tracts and Bible lessons for kids.

After the Chicago fire, Cook decided to stay in the despairing city. At 22 he started his own printing business. But business was always a 2nd interest with Cook. His main burning passion in life was Sunday School — pouring into children and adults, teaching them about the scriptures and God’s love, equipping them with the gospel.

In 1872 (also at 22yrs old) he organized and ran “Everybody’s Mission” which opened on North Ave, at the time one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. The location of that first printing plant was on Lincoln Ave near Wrightwood, a 3 story frame building. The 2 lower floors were given to the publishing house, but the 3rd was solely used for religious services on Sun and the large Sunday School class he ran. During the week he rented the 3rd floor out and it became known as “Cook’s Hall”

The book, Memoirs, printed in 1927 about Cook states: “Without aid from any church or society, Mr. Cook maintained and financed this school until churches were organized in the neighborhood and able to take over the work. Besides Everybody’s Mission, he organized and superintended the North Avenue Mission, the Lake View Mission and the Lake View Union Sunday School. Much of the time, for ten years, he superintended two schools, and some of the time three schools, each Sunday.”

There was a great need in the area for the Good News. The Memoirs book states, “The neighborhood was full of people who were poor, many illiterate, some embittered by their losses. Saloons and gambling dens preyed upon their scanty resources, leaving them robbed of money and wounded in self-respect.” It was this great need and the zealous dedication of these Sunday school workers that led a group of 27 people on February 21, 1882 to meet at Cook’s Hall to consider the urgency of forming a church in the area. This small group of people met with the dream of starting a church that could continue the work Cook’s Sunday School had started. They decided the name of the church would be the Lake View Congregational Church. On April 6, 1883, the new church was recognized by the Congregational council — a church was born. But they had no building.

On June 17, 1883, a special meeting was held in Cook’s Hall for the purpose of raising money to begin building the new church. Total cost of construction was estimated at about $7,000. Construction on the new building began and the cornerstone was laid that fall.

An article describing the laying of the cornerstone on November 18, 1883 read like this; “Before the usual hour for the Sunday School a goodly number of People assembled at the corner of Seminary and Lill to witness the laying of the corner-stone of the new church building. Brief remarks were made congratulating the church and wishing a prosperous future for it, hoping that it would ever be a church working for Christ and the Salvation of Souls, not for its own glory as a church.”

The 1st service in the new building was held five months later on March 16, 1884. The building was formally dedicated as the Lake View Congregational Church on December 4, 1884. In 1964, Lake View Congregational Church was renamed Seminary Avenue Community Church.

Though flourishing in the first half of the century, during the 1970’s and on the church struggled. Declining attendance and resources put a great strain on the congregation. On October 5, 2008 the 12 members remaining at Seminary Ave Community voted to merge and restart the church on Seminary and Lill as New Life Community Church’s Lincoln Park campus (NLLP).

On March 16, 2008 the church held its grand reopening, exactly 124 years since the first service held on March 16, 1884.

This is the church family I am incredibly privileged to be pastor of.

David C Cook’s prayer of “O God, make all you can of my life” was answered!

Was answered by God using him to vitalize the Sunday School movement in churches.
Was answered by God using him to create the David C Cook publishing company that has ministered to countless people around the world in the last 100 years.
Was answered by God using him to equip and inspire others to be ministers of the gospel, right in our neighborhood of Chicago.

“O God, make all you can of my life” — God also answered that prayer by using Cook, and 26 other people, to start the church we later became part of, the building our church meets in. We are answers to Cook’s prayer! When the 27 people who started NLLP prayed “…that it would ever be a church working for Christ and the Salvation of Souls, not for its own glory as a church” — the NLLP family is an answer to that prayer!

Last night our church gathered to rededicate ourselves to that history as we move into the future.

We didn’t create something new last night. We continued in something; to be like the church that started 130 years ago: “one that would ever be working for Christ and the salvation of souls, not for its own glory as a church.” It was about coming together as a church family, to before God and one another, commit that we will be THAT church. That we’d love God with all our hearts & love people the best we can. That we’d show Jesus and let people experience Him when they experience us. We’re gathered together last night to say we’ll be that church.

I’m so thankful being part of a church with such a deep history in the city, with a genuine love for one another and those around us, and with a deep passion for Jesus.

***this post is an adaptation of what I shared last night. You can listen to the audio from last night here: Stream/Download. Background info was taken from the book “Memoirs” and also a paper written by Mark Jobe about the early history of our church building on Seminary & Lill.

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