What is Cross Culture?
Cross Culture is a church.
It’s also a collection of churches.
The Bible uses the word “church” to describe a group of people who believe the gospel and are empowered by God’s Spirit to submit to and demonstrate the loving rule of Jesus through their lives.
Cross Culture consists of several groups of people who primarily gather in homes and apartments in Chicagoland. We typically refer to these as “house churches”. Regularly, these house churches also come together in a larger assembly in a centralized location. We call these "Cross Culture United" gatherings.
Our rhythm of life reflects the description of the earliest believers in Acts 2:46 who were “day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes…”
Cross Culture consists of several groups of people who primarily gather in homes and apartments in Chicagoland. We typically refer to these as “house churches”. Regularly, these house churches also come together in a larger assembly in a centralized location. We call these "Cross Culture United" gatherings.
Our rhythm of life reflects the description of the earliest believers in Acts 2:46 who were “day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes…”
Cross Culture is built around three foundational realities that generate everything we must become and express in Christ.
These core elements of our DNA are
Kingdom, Family, and Mission.
The Kingdom of God is heart of the New Testament Gospel. It was the central concern of the public ministry of Jesus, both before and after his death and resurrection (see Mark 1:14-15 & Acts 1:3). Following his ascension, his apostles continued to announce his Kingship/Lordship and to unveil its implications for the people of Israel as well as the other nations of the world (see Acts 2:22-36; 28:31). We continue to announce the loving rule of Jesus to all people and seek to describe and demonstrate the love, power, freedom, wisdom, grace and joy (among other things) that characterize His Kingdom.
When the seed God’s Kingdom is planted in the earth, its primary and abiding fruit is Spiritual Family. Jesus was not simply an itinerant preacher; he was a mentor whose disciples came to constitute a family unit (see Mark 3:31-35). He was very deliberately giving birth to a social reality – a human community – whose very existence is destined to confirm and express His identity as Messiah/King (see Matthew 16:13-20). We see ourselves as a family formed by the gospel’s power, who are invited to cultivate sincere and mutually-strengthening relationships as an expression of our membership in the Great Household of the Father.
A secondary and ongoing fruit of the Kingdom’s presence is Mission. As King, Jesus commands the destiny of his people by inviting them into his great Eternal Purpose (Eph 3:11). This agenda stretches back beyond creation and the millennia of human history and will continue to carry us forward into the glorious promise of eternity. In our present time, the mission looks like being a people who bear God’s presence by the Spirit, receive and demonstrate the Spirit’s power, and who bear witness to him by being and making disciples in all nations (see Acts 1:8; Matt 28:18-20), starting with Chicagoland.