City Jesus
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This chapter presents a fuller history of Downtown Church and its organizational structure. Intertwined with this is a more in-depth exploration of the congregation’s goals, its marketing plans and target members, and the implicit conception used by the leadership to understand “the city.” The extent to which these are aligned with popular culture and a culture of affluent consumption is presented and analyzed. Along with cultural consumption, the association between the city and ethno-racial and cultural diversity is also explored—specifically, the efforts by church leaders to distinguish themselves as a downtown church and not an inner-city church in their efforts to become an authentic member of the Chicago urban scene.