It’s About Health
Jubilee Faith Community Church, Country Club Hills, Illinois

Jubilee – a time of renewal, of justice, of joy – is an appropriate name for a new congregation – Jubilee Faith Community Church in Country Club Hills, Illinois – which organized on October 1, 2006. After years of hard work, this primarily African American congregation celebrated with a memorable Eucharist. The charter was signed, official resolutions were adopted, and a call was extended to its mission developer, Pastor Michael Russell. From its beginnings in 1999 with the five members of Pastor Russell’s family, Jubilee now welcomes eighty people at worship each Sunday and has a solid group of leaders who have become its church council.

The Metropolitan Chicago Synod, through its African American Strategy, envisioned, mandated, and funded the mission start that led to Jubilee. Pastor Russell began by offering Sunday morning devotions and Bible study in his apartment in Chicago. Members of his extended family and friends attended. Pastor Russell describes knocking on thousands of doors, engaging in dialogue with people about the community’s needs. When he became the interim pastor at Holy Trinity in Madison, Illinois, Jubilee followed, worshipping after the Holy Trinity service. Finally the congregation settled in its own building in Country Club Hills, a small church that had been designed to be the first stage of a now-closed 60’s mission start, with office space and a fellowship area.

At home now in a suburban setting, Jubilee is surrounded by African American families who have moved out of the city in search of a better place to raise their children. Ironically, in moving, people left behind close-knit neighborhoods built around multi-family housing and landed in neighborhoods of single-family homes where residents often don’t know each other. Jubilee, therefore, focuses on hospitality to families, whether headed by two parents, single parents, or grandparents. Children’s church was added right away, and programs are offered for youth and young adults.

As called people of Christ in community, Jubilee now celebrates with two Sunday services that are distinctly different but both reflecting African American culture. One is shorter and more structured, built around the ELCA’s hymnal “Thus Far by Faith”. The second service is longer and more free-flowing. Members are encouraged to choose the service which speaks to them and feeds their needs. On most Sundays a gathering is held which includes a meal, sometimes sponsored by an organization in the church, sometimes a potluck. This fellowship time allows members to get acquainted, make connections, and support each other.

Pastor Russell calls organization “a faith step”. As he looks ahead, he knows his congregation is faced with many challenges. To be a strong, enduring faith community, Jubilee would like to stand alone financially, covering its expenses and moving toward a capital campaign. The talents and gifts of all members must be utilized. Small group ministries must be nurtured. Outreach must continue so that the church attains the critical mass of committed people needed to sustain the vision. As an active participant in the ELCA, Jubilee must continue to act as an anti-racism congregation and to call the church to welcome and support all people.

Jubilee is a place where people are joyous in their relationship with God, a place where people come for healing and for release from heavy burdens, a place of forgiveness, grace, and daily renewal, a place of fellowship and mission, organized and ready to continue its important work for the sake of the Gospel.