Chicago has long been seen as one of the most secular portions of the Midwest and even the nation as a whole. Yet a handful of Christians in the Windy City are pushing back against spiritual darkness with the light of Jesus and a massive coordinated evangelism effort.
Chicago for Jesus, in the words of co-leader Juan Riesco, exists as an “evangelistic training and outreach ministry for the whole city of Chicago." Christians who volunteer with the ministry, which is an initiative of Metro Praise International Church founded by pastor Joe Wyrostek, are trained to “reach the lost with the gospel in the public square” across the entire spectrum of Chicago communities.
Beyond frequent street preaching evangelism campaigns, Chicago for Jesus uploads footage of their encounters to social media, resulting in tens of thousands of followers across multiple platforms and videos which can sometimes draw millions of views.
“Many people have no idea that in what some would say is a liberal wasteland, there are Christians on fire for Jesus who are not compromising or bowing the knee to Satan,” Riesco said in an interview with The Sentinel. “I think the reason that goes viral is because it contradicts what people think is happening in Chicago.”
Riesco explained that Chicago for Jesus has specific efforts to target every population center in the city: there are outreaches on Monday evenings in Wicker Park, which is considered the most liberal neighborhood of Chicago, as well as twice-per-month outreaches in both the Muslim neighborhoods and a homeless encampment called Tent City. Riesco also serves as the Chicago director for the anti-abortion ministry Love Life and leads fellow Christians in outreaches at abortion clinics, during which they persuade mothers to keep their babies.
Chicago for Jesus has a refined methodology for drawing people into conversations about the state of their souls before God. “What we do is we preach the gospel publicly: one person on the microphone with two speakers, casting out the net, which is the gospel; and a handful of people, anywhere from two to ten, not on the microphone but catching the fish that get drawn in by the net,” Riesco described. “The point is typically for the guy on the microphone to cast a wide net, to preach in a biblical way that convicts by the Spirit of God and isn’t necessarily meant to be a one-on-one dialogue. It’s the people who are not on the microphone who catch the people who are drawn in by the preaching of the word.”
Participants in the ministry are nevertheless accused of not meeting the practical needs of their neighbors. Riesco noted that their desire is to help those with whom they interact become involved in local churches and continue in meaningful long-term relationships.
“I always say this: evangelism and discipleship are married,” Riesco said. “Every single person we evangelize, we hope to disciple one-on-one for the duration of their life. People who critique us say, ‘What are you really doing to build the church?’ We hope this person comes to church, comes to get saved, and then we disciple them and are in their life until God takes them home.”
“We have real dialogues with people. We are not there to just yell at somebody, but rather to expose darkness and get into their lives,” he continued. “The church since it was founded, since Jesus gave us the Great Commission, has always been about walking with people forever.”
Riesco recalled that one particularly special long-term relationship started when a young college student became a member of his church due to the influence of Chicago for Jesus and eventually started to date Jocelyn Morales, the young woman who was instrumental in launching the movement on their campus.
“We recently graduated a young man to the second level of our discipleship program who we met preaching at the University of Illinois at Chicago,” he described. “Jocelyn, a sister in our church who has a heart for evangelism and went to the school, knew that the Lord wanted her to start evangelizing. She started basically with one other brother in the Lord and that young man comes to church, and now Jocelyn is actually dating him.”
Riesco also told The Sentinel that the explosion of Chicago for Jesus on social media has helped to reduce skepticism of street preaching across the city and the nation. “People have really been able to fall in love with street preaching, and not just Chicago for Jesus street preaching, but street preaching in general has become much more mainstream.”
American Christians have faced pressure in recent years to diversify their churches along ethnic lines. Riesco noted that Chicago for Jesus has naturally produced a more ethnically diverse church without having to “inject any diversity theory” into their operations.
“The reason our church is diverse is not because anybody on the leadership thought to themselves, ‘We should have a culturally diverse church,’ but rather because our church, by the grace of God, goes to the streets and preaches the simple gospel to all creation,” he told The Sentinel. “The fruit of that is all ethnicities come to your church. We simply obeyed God’s commandment and it became diverse because of our willingness to preach to all mankind.”
Riesco exhorted those who live in spiritually dark cities and those concerned about the spiritual state of the nation to recall that “where sin abounds, the grace of God abounds greater.”
“The darkness makes for a great opportunity for light to shine. If the darkness is discouraging you from wanting to follow the Great Commission, and if you are failing to see it as an incredible opportunity for the gospel, I think you’re missing the heart of God,” he said. “I think a part of God’s heart that we sometimes miss is, ‘These people can really benefit from the gospel, and there is a possibility for a good testimony here.’ Instead of looking at the darkness abounding, rather see it as an opportunity for the light of God to come and do a radical work.”
“That’s what we’re seeing in Chicago: the love of God transforming hearts, not because we’re special or greater servants of the Lord, but rather because God’s word is true.”
