The Painted Door

gospel Fri, Apr 10th

Here it is, best I can say it: God has always existed and has never needed anything or anyone. He has community within his very being, Father, Son, and Spirit. This community is perfect and selfless and full of joy. Out of desire to share that joy, God created. He made birds and flowers and wine and sex and people. And everything was good.

He told the people to enjoy the creation, to drink in its beauty as evidence of its beautiful creator. But the people mistook the beauty of creation for something ultimate. They rejected the creator. And since that time, the beauty of creation has failed us. We've marveled at roses only to watch them wilt. We've collected trinkets and gadgets and fine things only to see them break or fail. We've reveled in sex only to have it betray us with diseases or unwanted pregnancies.

In his love, the creator could not leave us in this desperate state, always longing for ultimate beauty but finding it nowhere in the creation. So the creator entered creation. God became flesh. Jesus walked the earth and showed us what true beauty is. He taught us to love our neighbors and our enemies. He taught us to care for the sick and the poor and the marginalized. He taught us that there is neither slave nor free, male nor female, but that all people are of equal value and worth in the eyes of God. And most importantly, he laid down his life in the most captivating display of courage and love that history has ever seen.

In the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, the beauty of God was revealed again. Here was a perfect man substituting himself for imperfect people and the judgment they deserved for rejecting their creator. No longer is there need to clamor after beauty in created things. Ultimate beauty is plainly made known in the cross. And therein lies unimaginable joy, forever.

our context Fri, Apr 10th

Urban Chicago is among the most diverse population centers in the country, even the world. Yet it remains a largely fractured and divided society. Within particular neighborhoods, people of various ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds cluster among their own, often harboring sentiments of mistrust or animosity toward other clans. This splintered makeup contributes to dramatic social inequity and all manner of other ills, including poverty, violence, illiteracy, and urban decay. In the gentrifying neighborhoods of Chicago's near west side (the target zone for our initial plant), hostility between longtime resident immigrant families and newly arriving young educated whites often prohibits community relations. Many people live in isolation from their neighbors, afraid or unwilling to work together for renewal.

Tragically, the most favored solutions for these problems wholly discount the role of personal sin in perpetuating them. The majority belief among residents is that institutional systems are solely to blame for the city’s issues. The propensity to point fingers out and up the stream of political and civic power is rampant. Few groups, organizations, or individuals are demonstrating the courage needed to point fingers in, to take responsibility for the sins of racism, classism, selfishness, and pride. Even churches, by and large, have abandoned their prophetic edge, leaving behind the Bible’s calls for personal heart transformation to join the chorus of blame game.

These neighborhoods need the blunt force of the Gospel to confront people’s hearts and provide a new unifying identity in Christ. But just seven percent of the current population is Protestant Christian, and only a fraction of that evangelical. We must plant Bible-teaching, Jesus-loving, sin-debasing churches. Only through a blood-painted doorway will people enter true, reconciled community. Only in recognizing our shared spiritual poverty will we find the cross-cultural commonality to dwell together. And only there, in that place of mutual brokenness and dependence, will the church incarnate God to a city in desperate need of him.

the painted door, values and direction Fri, Apr 10th

Why we exist

The people of The Painted Door seek to follow Jesus together among our neighbors in a way that proves the God of the Bible is real.

Who we are

• Beauty: We believe that most all human behavior can be understood as the pursuit of beauty. God has built this passion into people for the sake of our joy. Accordingly, we value the arts, aesthetics, nature, sex, food, and drink, all of which point to the ultimate beauty of the creator, who is to be enjoyed forever.

• Compassion: We love, care for, and suffer with the hurting because Jesus has done so for us. We are not out to get rid of guilt or feel good about ourselves. We are not out to earn God's favor. Our kindness and empathy toward the poor and marginalized is in response to the infinite kindness we've received. And when we follow in our Lord's example, we see Jesus in our own hands.

• Brokenness: We are flawed people, frail, broken, and often foolish. That's why we love Jesus. He does what we can't -- reconnects us to God and saves us from ourselves. This dependence on him defines us. And it frees us to stop pretending that we're impressive. We call it grace, an invitation out of the exhausting madness of trying to hide the junk of our lives. We are free to be nothing in ourselves.

• Truth: We submit to the revelation of God, no matter how much it may offend us. We consider the post-modern ideals of pluralism and self-determined truth to be mere arrogance masquerading as humility. Uncertainty in matters on which God has spoken clearly is folly. And God has spoken most clearly in Jesus, truth personified.

• Community: We lay down our lives for each other, as Jesus did, in the hope of imaging God to a watching world. No one has ever seen God, but he makes himself known through his people, the church. Individual Christianity does not exist. We are a body, every part as much in need of every other.

Where we're going

The Painted Door envisions thousands of people from various tribes and backgrounds united under a new identity in Jesus and deployed on a mission to love and serve the city. Out of such personal renewal, urban renewal will flow, as Chicago's societal fabric is mended and shalom restored. To accomplish that end, we will aggressively train up leaders through our local church and send them out to plant autonomous congregations in every neighborhood of the city.

The story of God

We believe a story, a story that God has been telling for thousands of years. It’s a story about beauty and betrayal, covenant and redemption. In it, the glory of God is revealed over and over again. And the ancient truths of the Creator are proven timeless across all creation.

• Bible: God has communicated this grand narrative through the written word, inspiring some 40 authors over a period of some 1600 years to pen the 66 books of the Protestant canon. This library of history, poetry, and prophecy, as originally written in its original languages, is trustworthy and without error. Every word is the result of divine inspiration and guidance (2 Tim. 3:16) expressed through human personalities and styles (2 Pet. 1:21). Accordingly, the scriptures hold highest authority over all other means of revelation. They are not to be added to or detracted from (Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Prov. 30:5-6; Rev. 22:18).

• Creator: The story begins with the one and only true God, eternally existent and self-sufficient in a community of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Gen. 1:26; 11:7; Deut. 6:4; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:1-2, 14, 18; Heb. 1:8-9; Rev. 22:3). Within the godhead is submission and love and worship and friendship, such that God lacks nothing within Himself.

• Creation: As an expression of divine love and glory, God chose to create the universe and all living things therein. He made everything out of nothing by the power of His word – all of which was good (Gen. 1:1-31). At the pinnacle of His creation, He fashioned humanity in His own image, male and female, and gave them dominion over all else that He had made (Genesis 1:26-30). He placed the first man and woman in a garden, naked and unashamed, and charged them to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth (Genesis 1:28; 2:25).

• Fall of man: Despite possessing every needed provision for lives of joy and peace with God and creation, the first man and woman disobeyed God’s command that they not eat from a tree in the center of their garden paradise. A fallen angel, masquerading as a serpent, tempted the woman with false promises that she might become like God. The woman, in turn, tempted the first man, and both ate the forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:1-6). As consequence, God cursed the land, introducing pain and hardship into creation for the first time. The man and woman felt shame over their nakedness and experienced spiritual separation from God (Gen. 3:7-24). All human offspring have since experienced that same separation, being born with a depraved nature prone to reject God and embrace sin (Rom. 3:10-18).

• Redemption: From the moment of man’s initial sin and the plunge of all creation into curse, God promised redemption through the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15; Rom. 16:20). He reiterated that promise to Abraham, telling him that blessing to all nations would come through his offspring, namely Jesus (Gen. 22:18; Gal. 3:16). God foreshadowed that coming redemption in His covenant with the nation of Israel, instituting a sacrificial system for sin whereby the people might find reconciliation with God (Lev. 16). The prophets of Israel then foretold of a new and better covenant in accordance with the promises to Abraham and established by a messianic figure who would atone for sin once for all (Jer. 31:31-34; Isaiah 53:1-12).

   

  Jesus proved to be that Christ, fulfilling all Old Testament prophesies. He was God made flesh, (John 1:1-3, 14) the second person of the Trinity, entering human history as a man to live without sin as a perfect example (Heb. 4:15), die for sin as the propitiation from God’s righteous wrath (Heb. 2:17), and resurrect over sin, death, and Satan in victory (Col. 2:13-5). Jesus then returned to His place of glory in heaven, where to this day He intercedes before the Father on behalf of all those who trust in His sacrifice (Heb. 7:25). God adopts this people of faith as children and unites them as His church. He regenerates their dead hearts to new life and pours out the Holy Spirit for supernatural empowerment to continue Christ’s work of restoring shalom and incarnating the divine (Acts 1:8; Eph. 1:13; Titus 3:5; 1 John 4:12).

• Restoration: These believers are invited to join and partake in God’s kingdom, even as they await the kingdom’s full consummation on the earth. Jesus has promised to return one day, not again as a humble peasant, but in glory to judge the nations. He will bring final justice and usher in a resurrection of all peoples, some to eternal torment, others to eternal peace (Rev. 11:18). He will establish new heavens and a new earth in which the redeemed people of God will live in perfect, sinless harmony and worship forever (2 Pet. 3:13).

frequently asked questions Fri, Apr 10th

donations Fri, Apr 10th

The Painted Door routes all monetary gifts through Converge MidAmerica, a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability and an established 501c3 organization. Donors can be confident that all monies will be processed independently and dispersed to The Painted Door in a manner that is above reproach. All gifts are tax deductible, and donors will receive tax receipts.

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give by mail

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Converge MidAmerica
C/O Painted Door Initiative
924 Busse Hwy
Park Ridge, Il 60068

Giving in either manner will automatically enroll donors to receive regular updates from The Painted Door on the work of the ministry. Many thanks for your generosity. The Painted Door depends on it.

thank you!

the greatest american city Wed, Apr 8th

My wife shot this picture last month from one of the many bridges over the Chicago River. It's easy to see why most natives of the city never leave. Chicago is, in one sense, the greatest American city. New York, of course, is more grand but ultimately belongs to the world in the order of Paris or London. And L.A. is plastic-land, its Americana almost completely nipped, tucked, and tanned out of existence.

In Chicago, cultures and people groups from around the world collide and assimilate in a living definition of Americanism. The city has so much to give, and the temptation to move in and take is strong. Yet Chicago's needs echo loudest -- poverty, racism, injustice, violence. As for me and my house, we will serve.