Edgewater Presbyterian Church has 189 members. About 50 percent of the congregation are first and second generation Africans, primarily from Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Kenya. About 25 percent of the congregation is Euro American, 15 percent is African American and the remainder is Asian American and Latino. The church is seven miles north of downtown Chicago, two blocks from Lake Michigan. It was founded in 1896 in what was then a resort community.
The Edgewater neighborhood has long been an entry point for immigrant arrivals to Chicago. One elderly Assyrian member moved here from Iraq with her family in the 1940s. The first Japanese-American families came to the church in the late 1950s. By the late 1960s and early 1970s they had been elected elders and trustees.
The first African immigrants joined the church approximately 25 years ago. They received a warm welcome and became leaders in the church. This openness on the part of the established leadership identified Edgewater Presbyterian as a church that would recognize the gifts and empower the leadership of all members. Today immigrants continue to come from Africa — from the countries long represented in this congregation, as well as from Liberia and Ethiopia. The Edgewater neighborhood has gentrified and so another wave of new immigrants are young urban professionals who are Euro American, African American, Latino and Asian American.
The session consists of nine members. Five are African. Four are Euro-American. Two are under 30. Our boards of deacons and of trustees are similarly diverse.
The following mission statement was adopted in the 1990s:
We believe our mission is:
To love and serve Jesus Christ by presenting the Good News of the Gospel to our members and to the Edgewater community and by being a strong Christian presence on Bryn Mawr Avenue
To present an opportunity for all people of all ages and all ethnic backgrounds to worship God and to invite them to join us.
To bring people to Christ by preaching the Gospel, by teaching and by example.
To make the facilities of our church building available to the Edgewater community and to maintain our building in a condition that is inviting, functional and safe.
To be the Presbyterian Church for the people of Edgewater and its surrounding communities.
To implement our mission, we will continue to be a family of faith and action; have a strong bond of fellowship and caring; be a beacon of Christian witness; encourage and support personal involvement as disciples of Jesus Christ; and be involved in community activities. Through it all we will listen to the Apostle Paul who reminds us of the reason we can face the future:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)
Our primary style of evangelism is having our members invite their friends. The Edgewater Church continues to grow and thrive as people invite their friends and word spreads about the multicultural nature of the church and the gracious welcome all people receive. We are fortunate to be in the kind of neighborhood where we have visitors attend our service every week. The Passing of the Peace is one of the longest and most exuberant parts of the service, as most members move around the sanctuary so that everyone is greeted. We also have inserts in the bulletin and ask newcomers or anyone with a prayer request or something they wish to communicate to fill them out. However, one-on-one contacts are by far the most effective source of our growth.
We received a Lilly Endowment grant through the Calvin Institute for Christian Worship for 2006-07 to work on creating community through multicultural worship. The session read together the book Culturally-Conscious Worship by Kathy Black in 2005-2006. As part of the grant the congregation read the book, went on retreat together and continues to work to incorporate the musical and worship styles of the various cultures represented in the congregation. We sing music from a variety of countries each week. We have sung “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” in Igbo. We are learning to practice “generosity of spirit,” whereby even though a particular spiritual practice or style of music does not enhance my worship of God, I can be grateful that it enlivens the spirit of some of my brothers and sisters in the Lord.
This year our confirmation class consisted of nine young people — five Africans and four Euro Americans. These young people did not even all know each other’s names when the class started. The security staff commented after the first class that when they left the church the African youth were together and the white youth were together. Over time they shared their faith and their doubts, a weekend retreat, lots of pizza, teasing and laughter. They bonded with one another. By the time they were confirmed, when we would finally drag them out of the church building on Sunday afternoons, they were one big group — laughing and bouncing off the walls and off each other. They have been a vital witness to the rest of the congregation of the unity that is ours in Jesus Christ. |
