To know our church, you really need to know our city. It is in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago that our church lives, loves, and breathes.

Uptown, named after a 1920’s department store located at the Wilson Avenue El stop, is an inner-urban Chicago community with a unique history and future. Located five miles north of the downtown loop area along northern Chicago’s Lake Michigan coast, Uptown is best described by two words: dense and diverse.

An estimated 100,000 people live in a ten square block area. The estimated demographics include 25,000 senior citizens, 14,000 de-institutionalized mental rehabilitation patients placed in Uptown’s many halfway houses, and 15,000 of Chicago’s 40,000 homeless population. It is believed that 50% of Uptown’s population is single parent families.

Every major ethnic group is represented in Uptown. Racial and ethnic diversity are seen in Uptown’s high school, where 55 countries are represented, and 35 primary languages are spoken by its students. Social and economic diversity are evident with the very affluent Lake Shore Drive just a few blocks away from the poverty of the homeless in shelters. An estimated 90% of Uptown’s public school children have parents who receive public aid.