Jesus Is Building His Church...

...and I'm almost positive it doesn't look like what we think it should.

I highly recommend you read that blog post, which talks about The Line, a church plant in Chicago that one of my best friends has been helping to plant over the past year and a half.

I really wish that every person who has been inclined to comment on this thread had the opportunity to actually visit The Line. As one who has been there recently and experienced the grace of God there firsthand, I can say without any hesitation that the Holy Spirit is working in powerful ways in and through The Line for the exaltation of King Jesus. It's undeniable. I was so tremendously encouraged AND challenged by The Line's commitment to both contend for AND contextualize the gospel. To do both well isn't easy. Quite honestly, I don't think most evangelicals do both well (myself included). I would argue that the majority of churches/organizations are better at and/or focus on one more than the other (for me, I'm definitely better at and probably more focused on contending). Not The Line. The Line does both, very well.

Just a couple of things that stick out in my mind most:

1. I had the privilege of being in Chicago the weekend when Milano (the band mentioned in the article) dropped their latest release with a concert on a Saturday night. It was a unique experience. Being an outsider, I didn't know anyone who was there. I have no clue what percentage of the audience was professing believers. But honestly, the best part was that it didn't really matter. My guess is that the majority of the audience was Christian, but even if that was the case it was an environment that seemed like an atmosphere that a non-Christian would totally enjoy and feel at home in (like the tax collectors and prostitutes did around Jesus). There came a point during the concert when Jon (the band leader) had his opportunity to "preach." And preach he did. Even though it probably wouldn't be what alot of evangelicals define as preaching. He pointed to sin by talking about the brokenness of the world that we can all identify with, Christian or non-Christian. And he pointed to the Savior by talking about the hope that we are all in need of, Christian or non-Christian. But he did so with what clearly appeared to me as carefully chosen words that wouldn't immediately alienate the non-Christians but rather invite them in to look past all the stereotypes (and we all know there are many) and take a closer peak at the gospel and the Christ who it's about. And my favorite part was when he said that the celebration that Saturday night was going to continue the next morning at a particular theater (which is where The Line gathers for their Sunday morning worship) and invited everyone at the concert to come and be a part of the celebration.


2. I just finished reading a book called Culture Making by Andy Crouch. I can say confidently that this is one of the best books I have ever read. And definitely the best book I read in 2010. It's oozing with insight, commanding in its biblical theology, and it's just simply beautiful in its rhetoric. It opened my eyes to see the entire Bible through the lens of culture in a way that I've never before considered, but which has clearly been there all along. I'm still working out the implications for my life. I was challenged to the core. One of the main premises of the book revolves around this concept of gestures and postures. A gesture is a movement our body makes in response to something. A posture is a position our body assumes over time. Crouch argues compellingly that, as the church, there are four different gestures that we can make in response to culture: condemn culture, criticize culture, copy culture, or consume culture. And each of these is necessary at some point. But one of our biggest problems is that at one point or another in church history or in certain wings of the church, we have turned these gestures into postures that we assume by default. And even though these gestures are necessary and good at the appropriate time, embracing any one of them as postures will end up bearing no fruit in the long run. Because the main posture that God has called us to embrace is none of these four (they're meant to be gestures only!) but instead that of being cultivators and creators of culture. Why do I mention this book and bother giving you this short little synopsis? Because The Line and Milano are doing exactly that. The Line and Milano aren't mainly condemning (like me!), criticizing, copying, or consuming culture. They are mainly cultivating and creating culture, showing Chicago what a culture that is submitted to the one true God looks like. And they are offering a legitimate and similar yet altogether different alternative to all the other cultures that people in Chicago can choose to embrace.

I'll be honest. It was hard for me to enter into musical worship at The Line. It's so remotely different from anything that I'm used to. But that's evidence that they are contextualizing for a Chicago culture that I'm an alien to (as would be the case if I were in a church in Japan). And so by the end of the service, when we were singing the last truth-filled song celebrating the hope of Jesus coming to make everything right, I was jamming because the gospel that secures that hope for us is powerfully at work in Chicago through The Line and that fills me with hope for the church here and now.

Thank you The Line. Thank you Milano. You're a gift and an example to us. Keep doing what you do. Thanks D. I praise Jesus you followed Him to Chicago.

Thank You King Jesus that You are building Your church. And that neither the gates of Hades nor our folly will prevail against it.