March 2020 eNewsletter

I pray that this newsletter finds you, your family and friends doing well. My family and I join you in lifting our communities, nation and world in prayer as we all fight this pandemic together.

As I was praying this morning, I began to think about how God could use this as a global wakeup call of sorts. It has made me wonder what would happen if, like we are commanded in Scripture, we took the moral and spiritual decline that is happening in our country as seriously as this global pandemic. It is interesting how laser-focused we can become when something threatens our lives. If God were to give us eyes to see what is happening across our country and if we prioritized our spiritual health the way that God teaches us to, then we would mobilize every resource to encourage people to submit their lives to God and surrender to His strength.

We approach each day with this type of urgency for the people in Chicago who are living in desperate circumstances. In order to impact Chicago, the way that we are feeling led to, we need leaders and resources. Our community is being hit especially hard during this time. Please pray for our community and give as you are able so we can fulfill God’s call on our lives to serve this community in His name. Specifically, I have been praying that God would lead evangelists to come join me in ministry here. He is answering our prayers. In addition to bringing Marlon Washington to be our Worship, Youth and Creative Arts ministry leader, He has inspired another friend of mine to join us in ministry.

Bill Dubon is someone that I had the privilege of mentoring and helping to get a disciple-making job at Trinity church in Roselle for the past 5 years. At Trinity he served as the pastoral assistant for communications and led a community sports outreach program. He is a passionate evangelist and communicator who has felt led by God to leave Trinity and come join us in the city. Just like Marlon and me, Bill has heard the Lord’s call to be part of this team and is committed to prayerfully raising his financial support. As you know, the only way that we can do what God does through us is by living as missionaries to the people of Chicago.

Please pray for us all that God would provide us with all we need to fulfill His purposes here and now. Bill has two engineering degrees, seven years of theological studies, an MBA, is fluent in Spanish and French and is a committed disciple-maker. During his discernment process he went on some job interviews and felt led to turn down a 6-figure salary with an old employer to pursue God’s call to be a member of our ministry team. God has given him a Holy boldness that will help us to continue to introduce our ministry to our surrounding neighborhoods and serve them in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We are pressing into God’s call to build disciple-making communities here in Chicago. Please continue to pray about how you might support our ministry. Also, we are beginning to reach out to our community through technology and live streaming. We have been shut out of our worship space for the foreseeable future while this global pandemic takes its toll, but we have moved our worship experience online. Tune in and join us in this disciple-making journey. God is on the move.

Faithfully, 

Pastor Jason Pankau