Bible Teacher. Pastor.Educator.

Thank you Bridge Community Church

Youth for Christ Chicago is so grateful  for The Bridge Community Church who allows us to use their facility each week.

Things definitely look different with Covid-19; we now do regular temperature checks, wear masks, and more frequently wash/sanitize our hands. Regardless of these changes, students still love getting to connect with their friends in this fun and safe environment!

#yfcusa #yfcchicago #yfccitylife

Christmas Letter 2019 from Pastor James Owolabi

Merry Christmas Family,

    The holiday season is upon us and this is probably one of the busiest time of the year for most people.  It has been a year of amazing transitions and “mind blowing doors” for ministry. God has been opening great opportunities, orchestrating events and allowing these things to happen in order to increase my leadership capacity for ministry. The ministry Slingshots a teen after school drop in center (Slingshotschicago.com) that I formerly worked with is now going to be under the umbrella of Youth for Christ USA.

Starting next year, I will be leading this teen center on the Northside of Chicago, while continuing to host mentoring events on the southside of this beautiful city.

My home church on the north side of the city became part of a vibrant growing neighborhood church movement (the bridge.church) which retained me twice a month as one of their teaching pastors.

This will increase my ministry footprint and expand my influence in the Chicago land area. I also launched a website (www.jamesowolabi.com) under a new ministry  “Grace for Life” that will allow me to continue to travel and preach around the world.

 I consider it a privilege to be promoted to Director of City Life for the city of Chicago and to serve as one of the teaching pastors at The Bridge community church.

            I’m going to be spending the holidays with my immediate family, excluding my parents in Nigeria, right here in my home on the southside of  Chicago! The capacity to be the host this year is not something that I take for granted. I want to fully enjoy this space that God has blessed me with.I am excited to share the space with my siblings for Christmas. 

   This Christmas my best attempt to being a perfect host I started to plan and make a lot of lists to ensure that everything for the holidays would be perfect. You can probably relate; guest lists, when everyone is arriving, grocery lists, gift lists… and more. I realized in all of my movement and list making that I was losing sight of the true meaning behind Christmas. More importantly than having the “perfect holiday” and getting everything on my list was actually the need to focus on the original guest list of Christmas day; Mary, Joseph, and Jesus! 
    Jesus is the reason for the season of course, but as I reflect I couldn’t help but feel there was a lot to learn from His mother Mary! What can we learn from her? She’s not Jesus-- however she has a lot of qualities that I admire! Mary was a young Jewish girl who probably couldn’t even read or write, but yet she was seen and valued by God. He knew her heart and chose her specifically to be the person that would bring our Savior into the world! When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her of God’s plans she immediately said “I am you servant, let it be unto me”! Mary was a young Jewish girl that probably couldn’t read or write and yet, but her faith in God is unmatched! She reminds me of myself when I’i'm excited about what God is doing. Her response to the angel, “I am the Lord's servant let it be unto me”. Her willingness to let God hijack her life causes me to reflect. I'm sure she had dreams and plans, but allowed the Spirit of God to take her future reputation. The pregnancy was a scandal and disgrace in that society. A surprise pregnancy did not establish her reputation as Godly Jewish girl! She surrendered her personal life completely. Her response:

         “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.”    

‭‭Luke‬ ‭1:38‬ ‭

           Wow!!! What a response!!! The word servant is a word for a slave, a female born slave. Mary was offering her life as a living sacrifice. There are not many of us that would’ve been so willing and unquestioning. She gave up the potential of her relationship with Joseph. Although we know how the story ends, Mary had no clue what consequences or further sacrifices would have to be made. She was excited about marriage, fully betrothed and then BOOM -- an angel comes! This could have been tragic to her dreams as i’m sure all Jewish girls looked forward to the seal of marriage. That was everything a woman desired in that culture but, she gives her body and allows it to be used to bring forth the line of David. How complicated, crisis inducing, and uncomfortable, however to Mary it was exciting. 

 

Her reaction lets me know that she spent time in the Word of God. 

“My soul magnifies the Lord he has looked upon the humble.” - Mary

 

Instead of being further consumed with lists and scheduled, I’ve begun to slow down and focus on Christmas story and all that can be gathered from every piece and character involved.You my dear friends have given me visible examples of  the characteristics that Mary displayed. Thank you for your prayer support and your sacrificial financial support that has enabled me to serve Christ in this great country.

I always pray for you all every day. You have all been a gift all year long by being present in my life, and helping me sustain my ministry. I am so grateful to God for you. Merry Christmas!

 

Love,

Pastor James Owolabi

May 2019 Youth for Christ update from Chicago Southside City Life Director James Owolabi

May 2019 Youth for Christ update from Chicago Southside City Life Director James Owolabi

Dear Ministry Partners and YFC Supporters,

    I would like to thank you all for your prayers and the unwavering support that you have shown this school year. We have all played an important role in making an impact across the city of Chicago! Over 150 students in 4 different ministry environments have been touched with the word of God through our efforts! To God be the glory for each child that heard the Gospel and felt the love of Christ during the different programs we have in place.

The past 7 months alone have truly blown me away and I’m grateful for our partnership with New Beginnings Church which made our impact even larger. I’m thrilled to share with you the following praise reports:

• Seeing our partnerships with teachers, school administration, and parents becoming stronger! We have already gotten requests to start more clubs at additional campuses this Fall!
• Students both during school and after school are now looking forward to learning about God.

• This year alone we have seen 30 students surrender their life to Christ.
• We have expanded our efforts serve schools outside the southside of Chicago.

• The weekly Friday night event (Refuge) with our partners New Beginnings Church and Project H.O.O.D. has continually had 80+ kids in attendance each week.
• We are seeing God answer our prayers of staffing needs. We have over 10 volunteers now (that includes student leaders) at our Refuge events.

As we head into the summer and planning for the next school year is starting we are preparing to launch Campus Clubs inside of 2 new high schools due to the success and referrals from the schools we currently work with. This news is amazing, however please pray because we are understaffed and are currently attempting to figure out how we can find and equip people to help facilitate at the schools each week.

Thank you again for your spiritual and financial support, your prayers and very appreciated. It’s important to keep in mind how much of a light YFC provides for these students. Just last week I got a chilling phone call from a parent whose child was shot. This young man has visited one of our  events in the city  and even though he survived the bullet, the news is still sad and scary. Along with that, two students a grieving due to gun violence that has affected their family, I'm hoping the loss will not cause them to lose confidence in Christ. The community we serve is very at risk so every contribution we make truly causes a deep impact.

 

Respectfully,

Pastor James Owolabi

Youth for Christ: March 2019 Update

Quick Update from Youth for Christ Southside Chicago from James Owolabi

 

It is very exciting to be a part of a needed effort towards teaching Biblical principles and challenging teenagers on the southside of Chicago to live a life for Christ through the ministry of Youth for Christ. There are over 100 students in four environments every month that are being greatly impacted by this ministry. The first two pictures are two campus life clubs, each hosted at Perspectives Middle School. The third picture is the high school city life club, which is also hosted at Perspective High School:

Campus life and City Light students at Perspectives High school and Perspectives Middle Schools have continued to kindle the desire to learn about the Lord, and take their time after school to hear about the Bible. It has been very heart warming and encouraging to see! Over  60 students at all of three clubs meet with us every other week.

I wish I could say the same with Refuge and our partnership with New Beginnings church of Chicago. We recently saw over thirty teenagers give their lives to Christ. It was so exciting to see students raise their hands to become followers of Christ! I was so thrilled I could not sleep that night!!

 However, unfortunately it was short lived, attendance there has decreased from averaging 100 to 60 students per week, due to a series of 30 suspensions and 20 students that we had to be permanently banned because of violent behavior.

Thank you so much for your continued thoughts and support. Please let me know how I may pray for you.

Respectfully,

Pastor James Owolabi
Youth for Christ  Chicago Southside City Life Director