in november of 2000, a couple of us took a drive into chicago and ended up walking around the wrigleyville neighborhood - home to wrigley field, many restaurants, clubs, theatres, and thousands of young singles and families - but hardly any churches. we felt a calling from god to do something, but we weren't sure what. we had no facility and no resources, so we simply kept an open heart about what might happen.

through a few contacts, we located a small church in the city that wanted to be revitalized. this church had become ineffective in reaching it's surrounding community and desperately needed help to become an alive church again. imagine our surprise when we drove to the meeting and it was right in the middle of wrigleyville. needless to say, god had our attention.

in february of 2001, a handful of people convened on the wrigleyville neighborhood to revitalize this struggling urban church, and the next chapter of the church of wrigleyville began. we started with a group of about 20 people meeting in the basement of the church. on easter sunday of that year, a growing community of 60 moved the service upstairs into the spacious auditorium.

as god brought more people from the neighborhood searching for an experience with him, the new direction of the church began to emerge. in 2002, a community of 120 people walked through the ten commandments together. what developed was a guide for the way we wanted to live and interact. we decided together that we would seek to become a community of people who pursue god, love each other, and show the love of jesus to the world around us.

we still have that as our goal. now each week nearly 300 people gather to better understand the life god has for us. our children learn these values in kid kingdom and our compassion ministry reflects these values as we love others by meeting their needs. our hope is that every day our lives would be more worshipful to god. that every thought, action and conversation would bring worship to our creator.