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New
International Ministry on Chicago's North Side
by Helen Kaufmann
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Irving Park church building. Top circle: Pastor Frank Mensah,
Irving Park International Ministry. Bottom circle: Pastor Mark
Adams, Hillside Church, Evanston. |
Since late last year the Irving Park International
Ministry, on Chicago's north side, has been meeting in the facility
of the former Irving Park Free Methodist Church. This new ministry
fulfills a dream which Evanston Pastor Mark Adams says "flowed
out of the refugee ministry" of his Hillside FM Church. Irving
Park International Ministry now provides Sunday evening praise and
worship at 5:00 p.m. and a prayer service on Wednesday evenings
for an international congregation of Africans, Indians, African-Americans
and a variety of others.
Hillside's refugee ministry developed at a few years ago when the
church began an outreach to Evanston and north-Chicago immigrants
from India, Pakistan, and various African countries, including Ghana,
Rwanda, Congo, Sudan and Liberia. The demographic makeup of Evanston,
Adams says, is approximately 40 percent European-American and 30
percent recent African immigrants, with the rest a mixture of African-American
and southern Asian.
In the north-Chicago target area for the church plant, the fastest
growing ethnic groups are African-American and Hispanics. Statistics
show that approximately 70 percent of residents are unchurched young
people. When Hillside began its refugee ministry, buses were sent
out to bring people to the church. Along with these refugees God
sent pastor Frank Mensah, a church planter from Ghana. Mensah is
now pastoring Hillside's daughter church in Irving Park with Hillside's
Assistant Pastor, Sharon Baker-Johnson.
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Donations
for the refugee ministry.
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The new Irving Park Church plans to organize around cell groups,
with leaders chosen from the targeted ethnic groups. The small groups
will be used to disciple members and reach out to the community.
Evangelism strategies include neighborhood contacts and store displays
in international shops around the Chicago area. A service project
planned for early fall is free computer training for people in the
immigrant community.
The church's intentionally international focus can be seen in its
mission statement: "to bring people from every nation into
fellowship, service and love through the work of Jesus Christ."
Among its goals are crafting an environment in which "worship
styles from various cultures will be represented" and forming
"a community of mutual respect, valuing God's creation of diversity
in gender and gifts."
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