The Painted Door

Dunk Sunday Tue, Jul 13th

Just three months after launching The Painted Door, we had the great honor and privilege to baptize a number of people during a Sunday service. Few things are greater cause for celebration than publicly dunking people who have professed faith in Jesus. Baptism is all about testifying to the goodness of God, and three of our people did just that, taking the microphone to share their stories of conversion.

These are the kind of stories we came to Chicago to hear and participate in – stories of grace and hope and new life in Christ. It’s remarkable to see the many different paths God uses to draw people to himself. From a moralistic Bible-belter stuck in dead religion to a straight-edge death-metal fan who hated Christians to an apathetic wanderer from a broken home, God saves sinners.

We also got to watch a father baptize his 8-year-old believing son – perhaps the greatest evidence of God’s grace that he would rescue someone from a life of folly and sin before they’ve had the chance to go there. I pray that all my kids would be blessed with such boring testimonies, embracing the gospel without having to endure the trials and hardships that a stubborn type like me needed to soften my heart 10 years ago.

Any more, all I need to go absolutely gooey is to see God at work in the lives of others. We all got to see that at The Painted Door’s first ever dunk Sunday. We’re praying and giving our lives to see many more such days. Well worth it – easily.

Poker Tournament & UFC Watch Party Fri, Jun 11th

The city of Chicago has cancelled its July 3 fireworks display, but all is not lost. Come play poker for your favorite local charity and watch UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar in his much anticipated comeback fight against undefeated interim title holder Shane Carwin.

Mercury Rising Sun, May 9th

Seven months ago, I landed in Chicago and began meeting with all manner of people about potentially joining The Painted Door. With moving boxes still cluttering my home office, most of these meetings took place about a half block away at a massive, funky coffee shop called Mercury Café. For three weeks, that space became my functional office, and a rocking one at that – free Wi-Fi, intelligentsia coffee, a cool, arty vibe. I met with some three dozen people over that period, forming the launch team for our church. You might say that The Painted Door was birthed at the Mercury Café.

Now, we’re poised to grow up there.

Shut down and abandoned last fall, Mercury Café sat empty and unused over the winter, a large “for rent” sign adorning the locked front door. But this spring, as our church began looking for a more permanent meeting space, the owner of the building unlocked that door and gave me a tour through 6,000 square feet of character-dripping real estate on bustling Chicago Avenue.

And I had a vision: What if our church moved here? What if we controlled this space 24 hours a day, seven days a week? What if we opened it up for community events, art shows, concerts, film festivals, after school programs, computer labs, and Sunday church services? Might we even re-open the Mercury Café?

The possibilities seemed endless. My head was spinning. This space represented the potential for the fulfillment of all our values:

Beauty: Not only is the space aesthetically riveting, but it would serve as a springboard for local artists, encouraging creativity in visuals and music.Compassion: Kids from lower income families often lack access to computers, mentoring, tutoring. In this space, we could provide it all.

Brokenness: The building’s appearance is not slick or impressive but humble and honest. Such a neighborhood coffee shop attracts authentic people and facilitates real relationships.Truth: With this space as a launching point, our church could embody truth throughout the surrounding neighborhoods. We could live out our mission, showing who we are.

Community: For diverse Near West neighborhoods lacking identity and unity, we could provide a place a gathering, of coming together, a place to build a mosaic of difference.

So I jumped. I began making phone calls to financiers and members of our leadership team. Every single one said “Go!” Two days later, we put down a deposit and began a new chapter in the young story of The Painted Door.

Now, we call on you for help. To move this grand vision into reality, we need financial help and manpower. A friend of The Painted Door has gifted us a $15,000 matching grant to get things started. To give toward this Mercury Café fund, click here.

We hope to begin using the space for Sunday services soon, but there’s a bit of work to do inside. The former tenant left everything behind, tables, chairs, espresso machines, commercial refrigeration, computers, art, you name it. We need lots of hands to organize everything and put it to good use. To sign up for one of our scheduled work parties, click here.

Game on.

Church outdoors, with meat Mon, May 3rd

The Painted Door took a Sunday off from gathering for service on May 2 and instead met in Gospel Communities throughout the city. We had great turnout at all three of our gatherings as people connected with others in their neighborhood.

The West Town community (pictured below) invaded my roof deck and got bathed in sunshine. We grilled up three kinds of marinated steak and slapped it onto tortillas with cheesy eggs and fresh salsa for a tasty Mexican brunch.

The University Village community grubbed on pizza in a local park and played some Frisbee and football. And the Logan Square community fired up the grill for BBQ at Scott Baermann’s place. Thanks to everyone for participating in this expression of church. We’re hopeful that this event will help kick start ongoing communal living for all the people of The Painted Door.

Let’s keep grilling for Jesus. 

Not by bread alone Mon, Mar 29th

This is Holy Week, the time of year when Christians historically have remembered the event on which all of human history pivots – namely, the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday and his subsequent resurrection on Easter Sunday. For our church, this is an especially important moment as we prepare to officially launch The Painted Door at our Sunday evening Easter service.

This connection between remembering what is old and birthing what is new is profound. It’s because Jesus got out of the grave that churches even exist. And we intend to build our community on this foundation of the risen Christ and his finished work.

So, in light of the week’s dual import, we are calling on all people connected to The Painted Door to fast and pray. Many of us will be fasting from all food on Good Friday, reflecting on the cross and preparing our hearts for the celebration of resurrection. Some of us will extend that fast from Friday through Sunday evening, abstaining from food until after our Easter launch service when we will break our fast together with a community feast.

Church-planting is a pointless pursuit of vanity unless God himself breathes life into it. Would you join us in asking God to move?

Radio Riffs Tue, Feb 2nd

For the next three months, the nationally syndicated radio program Prime Time America has hired me to do weekly commentaries at the end of the first hour of their Wednesday afternoon shows. I get to riff on whatever topic I so choose -- culture, politics, religion, hotdogs. These will air on Wednesdays at around 4:45pm central time, starting tomorrow, Feb. 3, and running through April.

If you want to listen, you can catch the online broadcast here. If you miss it, the recorded audio is typically posted by the next day here.

New Video: Sunday gatherings at The Painted Door Sat, Jan 30th

This video is intended to give folks a good idea of what to expect at a typical Sunday gathering of The Painted Door. Enjoy!

The Painted Door: What to Expect from Parable Media on Vimeo.

sermon audio: missional compassion Mon, Jan 18th

Audio from our Jan. 17 service is up over at thepainteddoor.org. The service was our most encouraging yet -- big turnout, lots of new faces, much grace. Click on over and check out the bottom left corner of the home page to give a listen.

Mercy poker and UFC 109 “Relentless” Sat, Jan 9th

swimming in Lake Michigan Mon, Dec 21st

Just as Jesus took the plunge into the mess of humanity to relate to us, he now calls us to plunge into the messiest social corners of our city. To illustrate how uncomfortable that can be, I went for a winter swim in Lake Michigan. Click the image to check out the video.