"You can't go home again."

Author Tom Wolfe brought this often-referenced thought to American culture 80 years ago. And for most of us, it still rings true.

After a decade away, I recently had the opportunity to return home. I returned to the city of my birth, the place where the foundation of my faith was formed.

Things are never exactly the same as you remember them. Places change. People change. We change. Home changes.

I have been through a lot since I lived in Chicago. The city has been through a lot since I left. I never left my faith, but I see it differently now. The communities of faith across the city's neighborhoods never left, but I look at them differently now.

Some of my longest friendships, some of my most important mentors, the inspiration for my career choice, my first employer, a significant portion of my formative experiences as a youth, my understanding of race and class in this city, the community of women who supported and nourished my mother as she found herself having to raise me and my brother largely by herself....all of these cornerstones of my life were molded in these spaces.

I am also a product of the general Christian subculture formed by people of faith who live in this part of the country. Having moved in and around communities of faith for over three decades, I am neither objective in my observations nor oblivious in my opinions about them.

I have intentionally chosen to share the stories about my year-long journey visiting 35 faith communities in Chicago in a manner that is stripped of the packaging & pageantry, labels & titles, and divisions & denominations that matter to fewer people now than they did when they were created.

Hopefully, this book and podcast will challenge the misperceptions about these spaces and celebrate the humanity of the people who gather in them.

This project was created in hopes that people who may be unfamiliar with these norms (and/or confused by the large swath of American society influenced by them) will find a bridge to walk with me as I consider questions of life, spirituality, and our beliefs about God.

I invite you to open yourself to whatever emotions and thoughts are inspired or provoked by this journey.

Thanks for checking it out,

-Deji