The Painted Door Church - Chicago
The Painted Door Church is church family that gathers in Chicago, IL. We are a people who share the same story; we are sinner, saved by grace. We draw our name from the Exodus account in the Hebrew Scriptures, when God spared his people from judgement, passing over all homes that had the blood of a spotless lamb painted across their doorways. Jesus is the new spotless lamb, his death on a Roman cross sparing the people of God from judgment once for all. He reconnects us to our Maker and to each other and invites us to participate in his grand work of restoring all things.
The Painted Door Church - Chicago
Members of Jesus / Ephesians 4:17-25
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Pastor Mark Bergin
Who am I? This is the defining question of the human experience. Without an identity, our lives lack meaning, direction, even coherence. We must know who we are. Yet careful examination of our own personhood--our passions, abilities, fears, hopes, etc.--can provide a disconcerting answer. In and of myself, I have many deviant passions, many lacking abilities, many crippling fears, many misplaced hopes. On my own, my identity is in shambles. But what if who I am was never meant to be determined independently? What if I was always meant to be defined in relation to others--and most importantly, in relation to God? The message of the Christian gospel is that my independent and broken self, the shambles that is me, is not my true identity. All of my crumbling personhood has been sutured into the very body of Jesus Christ. And attached to him, all of that inadequacy is overwhelmed by his more than adequate body. Every passion in him is pure, every ability present, every fear overcome, every hope sure. All that Jesus is defines me, because I am united to him.