Celebrating our Authentic Community,
One Person at a Time
40% of the BLV congregation did not attend church before finding BLV
Brown Line Vineyard strives to be a multicultural community made up of churchgoers, non-churchgoers and everyone in between. We celebrate diversity and seek to provide a welcoming community to women and men of all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and levels of religious experience. Our goal is to help you connect with God and live a deeper, fuller life as a result.
Please watch the videos below and share this page to help us celebrate our authentic community! Feel free to reach out with any questions.
Meet our pastors, Kyle & Vince
Vince and Kyle are longtime friends and co-lead BLV together. They don’t fit very well in the American Christian sub-culture, but experiences of Jesus and community have changed their lives. So they started BLV.
“In terms of churches, our's just may feel a little less churchy than you've experienced, and it's not because we're cool... I think it's the fact that we just have lots of people that don't come from church backgrounds.”
Meet Kevin
Kevin, a marketing consultant from Chicago, has been attending BLV for almost 2 years.
“BLV welcomes people as individuals. And what ties us together is this sense that we are all reaching out for a better understanding of what it means to be a Christian in today’s world. That is the common thread that brings us all together.”
Meet Sydney & Zachary
Zachary identifies as Unitarian / Universalist, Sydney identifies as Liberal Evangelical Christian. Their son, Harrison, is 2 and he loves donuts! They have been attending BLV for over 6 months.
“BLV has given us a space where we can be open about our personal theologies even though they may vary from the people around us. At BLV we feel like people celebrate their differences and are still open to inviting us into a space that is really about Jesus, which is truly about loving people where they are.”
Meet Angela
Angela, an actress from the Chicago suburbs, has been attending BLV for 3 years.
“I feel like in Brown Line Vineyard we don't [just] tolerate people. We invite them in and we celebrate them. I feel celebrated and embraced in the Brown Line Community”
More about us...
Our experience has been that the sort of true depth and fullness all people seem to want in life can be elusive. We've come to wonder: maybe life is inherently spiritual and we have to continually look outside ourselves to God for help we can't give ourselves.
But talking about God can be hard today - we break up into camps based on religion or culture or class, and we either fight with those not like us or isolate ourselves apart from those not like us.
Are the greatest stakes of life really just who's in and who's out? Is the only way to grow spiritually to do so in a bubble?
We believe that true connections with God will lead to authentic bridge-building communities and lead to deeper spiritual experiences in life no matter who you are. To us, that sounds like the best possible way to go about life, especially in such a diverse, multicultural and pluralistic city as Chicago.
40% of the BLV congregation did not attend church before finding BLV
We are proud of our diverse community including members of many races and many backgrounds
Our members range from age 18 to 65 with the largest segment between 25 and 45
We are home to many new families and offer free childcare
Free coffee, tea, bagels and DONUTS!