Christ at the center, Chicago all around.
In 2002, a small group of people began meeting to pray and share a meal together in the living room of an apartment in Logan Square. Our desire was to establish a church in the city that was focused on bringing the historic Christian faith into conversation with our contemporary context.
Out of the group was born our mission statement which has served us well for over two decades:
Grace Chicago Church exists to actively seek the good of individuals and the welfare of the city by the embracing the good news of God’s redemptive promise.
In the early years, the Spirit was at work in our group developing distinctives that characterize us to this day. Here are three of them that have always marked us out as a community. (Click the “+” below to read more about each of our values.)
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Throughout the story of God with God’s people it has been obvious that doubt and faith go together hand in hand.
We see this from the Psalmists’ cries, “Where are you God!?”; in Jesus’ parables of the almost invisible kingdom; in the epistles of St. Paul to the fledgling churches ("Do not lose heart in the midst of suffering. . ."); and in the Revelation of St. John ("Jesus is King and will win in the end even though the Roman empire may kill you. . .").
Life comes at us hard in a fallen world. Let’s not pretend that it doesn’t.
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Being honest about doubt and struggle is not the last word for the follower of Jesus—any more than Jesus’ death on the cross is the last word about his life.
So, as a community, we have always encouraged one another to not give into the despair that the great Christian thinker, Soren Kierkegaard called the "sickness unto death". As a community we lift each other and lean into what Kierkegaard called, "the leap of faith"—confident that the resurrection of Jesus Christ has set into motion the power of God’s Kingdom in our midst, enabling us to live into our mission, to actively seek the good of individuals and the welfare of the city by embracing the good news of God’s redemptive promise.
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Everyone’s journey with God looks different from the next person’s, including timetable. God’s radical welcome includes everyone and because of that, so does ours. Each and every person is invited to participate meaningfully in the life of the community, regardless of whether they are professing members.
Over twenty years later we are continuing this conversation between our faith and our contemporary context. We hope you will consider joining us as we trust God’s Spirit to enable us to write the next chapter together.
If you're unsure about attending a service, and would be more comfortable grabbing coffee with a member of Grace first, head over to the contact us page and send a note. Coffee is on us!