CHICAGO – Throughout his rooftop vigil to raise funds to build a transformative community center in his blighted neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, Pastor Corey Brooks has experienced deep doubts about his mission. There have been highs, of course, especially on days when the rooftop overflows with visitors bringing food, donations, laughter, and good wishes. Then there are the days when no one shows up and that is when the doubt enters his mind. The pastor often wonders if he did the right thing or if he made a mistake. And it is during these moments that he thinks often of Jesus and what Jesus would do if he walked these South Side streets.
On the 120th day of his rooftop vigil, the pastor shared his ongoing battle with his doubts with two fellow pastors staying the night with him: Karl Clauson, the morning host of WMBI 90.1 FM, and Mark Jobe, the president of Moody Bible Institute.
The pastor began the campfire conversation by asking Clauson and Jobe why Jesus is the key to filling the void in peoples’ lives and transforming them for the better.
"We all have a void," Clauson began. "I am absolutely convinced that this world is on this unquenchable search for life that only Jesus can fill. For me personally…I was one hurting mess of a kid in Alaska. I was strung out on cocaine and Crown Royal…On the outside, life of the party; inside, I was dying in a pile. Back in 1984, Jesus radically transformed me. The reason I know Jesus changes lives is because of what He did in me. I've seen it done thousands and thousands of times, over and over again, where we see entire directions of life totally changed. That's what He can do in our city."
The pastor then asked Jobe the same question.
"I‘ll take you back a few years back. I'm not going to mention what mayor it was, but it was one of the mayors of the city of Chicago who came to our church," Jobe said. "There had just been a couple of execution-style murders in the city of Chicago, and I could tell this mayor was just down. He looked at a group of maybe 40 pastors that had gathered together and he said this: 'Our city is in a mess. There's violence. We don't have the answers to this. We can try to police it. We can try to educate it. We can try to create business opportunities, but we have a soul problem in this city.’ And he says, ‘Gentlemen and ladies, what you have to offer is really the answer.’ Here is the mayor of Chicago admitting our structures can't change this. This is a spiritual and soul problem. I believe that."
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Jobe added that the reason why the pastor is doing such important work is because "this is not just a community center. This is a faith-based community center — because this is about the transformation of the heart and the soul that I believe comes through Jesus the Christ, who is the author of peace (and) who wants to bring peace to a city like Chicago."
"Without a doubt," the pastor replied and then turned to Clauson. "Jesus not only calls us as individuals, but He calls us as individuals to be a part of community. Can you talk about that aspect of being community?
"People are hungry for relationships," Clauson said. "The relationship that Jesus called us three into is a relationship that we are filled, and then we give out of that overflow back out to the world around us. What Mark said about Project H.O.O.D. and this community center, he is so right on, because this is an outflow to the community of what Jesus has poured into us. This is not fun and games. It's not religiosity. This is serious life transformation. So a community will be changed as Jesus followers lock hearts around something that's bigger than themselves. That's the mission God's called us to."
The pastor agreed wholeheartedly. He then asked Jobe to explain what kind of a man D.L. Moody, the founder of the Moody Bible Institute, was.
"Pastor Corey, D.L. Moody would love what you're doing here. He would love this. He'd be on the rooftop with you," Jobe said. "D.L. Moody was a compelling figure. He grew up in a broken household. Father was a drunk. His mother couldn't pay the bills, but a pastor came to his house and actually helped them out. At the age of 17, (Moody’s) Sunday school teacher really went and shared the good news of Jesus with this young man, and he had a conversion.
"He came to Chicago to make money, but when he was in Chicago, he kept being drawn by the needs in the city. So he was probably (in his) early twenties when he saw that there was a bunch of kids in Chicago that were living in what they called Little Hell. These were street kids. They didn't have clothes to go to church. They were dirty. They were abandoned. So he started a Sunday school in the street. On horse, he'd give them candy. He'd bring them together. It grew to a thousand kids. He just loved on them. Abraham Lincoln was actually running for President at the time, and so he dropped by Moody's Sunday school and actually gave a little speech to the kids there. So, Moody understood this. He started a school in the heart of Chicago, which now has been there for 136 years."
"D.L. Moody was remarkable, the school is remarkable, and I’m so grateful that they have you at the helm to run it and take us into the future," the pastor said. He then asked, "If Jesus was on the South Side of Chicago, having to deal with all of this violence, all the poverty, all the crime, what do you think Jesus would be doing?"
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"He'd see this as a harvest field," Clauson answered without hesitation. "Those that are the lowest with regard to how they view and see the world, they don't see themselves as the ones with the answer. Jesus was gravitationally pulled by the spirit to them. I believe Jesus wouldn't have come to the South Side. I think He would've planted Himself here. I believe He would've been here working here…Jesus didn't go to the high and mighty. He went to those who saw their need and He ministered because they responded."
Jobe reflected quietly for a moment before saying, "I think if Jesus were on the South Side of Chicago, I think the first thing He would do is He'd probably weep."
"Oh wow," the pastor reacted.
"Jesus looked at Jerusalem and He was broken over the hurting, the despair," Jobe continued. "He'd weep over the city with compassion, then I think He would roll up His sleeves…The Bible tells us that Jesus came to open the eyes of the blind. He came to heal the hurting. That’s what Jesus came to do, and I think Jesus would roll up His sleeves and bring hope and peace, and especially the word ‘hope’ to where there's despair and darkness…you look at the eyes of young men and women (in this neighborhood) and you see the hollowness of despair there. I think Jesus would be right in the middle of this."
"Remarkable," the pastor said, touched. He then asked Clauson to reflect on the time he spent mentoring kids at Project H.O.O.D.’s temporary headquarters at the church across the street.
"It almost gets me crying for you to (bring that up)," Clauson said. "The picture that I get is right across the street, right down there, where we met with these young men prior to COVID for a few years. A little bit of love goes so far because I would come in after one week and after week two these young men would come sprinting up to me. Just because I'd played a pickup game of ball with them inside the gym, now all of a sudden they're running up, they're bear hugging…You give people a fair shot at love, it will blow our minds how many are ready to respond."
The pastor smiled, knowing that feeling well. He then directed his last question to Jobe: "Where do you see us going from here as believers here in Chicago with all the stuff that's going on with the work that all of us are doing to try to make this city better?"
"There are days, Corey, where I get discouraged. When I hear another eight-year-old girl shot in broad daylight holding the hand of her mother, and our team ministered to her, I get discouraged," Jobe responded. "So I have days where I'm like, ‘God, I don't know.’ Then I have other days where I see people like you, and I see others that have said, ‘I'm not going to run from this. I'm going to roll up my sleeves. I'm going to believe and go against the flow, the current, and believe that there's a different way.’
"I have hope that the people of faith, the community of faith, men and women that believe that this place can change…that are saying we're going to anchor down and do whatever it takes to turn this place around for the glory of God and for the transformation of people's lives. But it's going to take a group of people that come together…It’s going to take an army of volunteers rising up in unity, not divided, but coming together in spite of some of our differences. Coming together with faith and believing together that there can be change. So I have hope for our city. I have hope for our city."
"I do, too," the pastor replied.
"I know it's been hard to be up here so many days," Clauson said. "But I want you to know we're going to do everything we can to make this dream a reality."
Follow along as Fox News checks in Pastor Corey Brooks each day with a new Rooftop Revelation.
For more information, please visit Project H.O.O.D.
Eli Steele is a documentary filmmaker and writer. His latest film is "What Killed Michael Brown?" Twitter: @Hebro_Steele.
Camera by Terrell Allen.