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The City of Chicago is at a crossroads. So also are the surrounding suburbs whose fate is tethered to that of the anchoring municipality. Our city faces pressing issues like community violence, city and state budget shortfalls, educational failure, housing, personal/public health, and population decline (to name a few).

One of the great questions facing this region is whether we have or can build the civic resources to meet the moment. Civics is that area of public life devoted to promoting the quality of life in the community, through both the political process and related non-political processes like education, economics, and culture. We are in desperate need of an informed and engaged community of citizens who can come together across partisan, ideological, racial, age, economic, and geographic boundaries and meet the demands of this pressing moment.

The church in Chicago has a particular role to play in meeting the moment. We have a responsibility to our parishioners. As one of largest institutions remaining in the city, many of the people whose lives will be impacted by the direction of the city are the very people who worship in our pews, eat at our tables, participate in our programs, and share our faith. We also have a responsibility to the broader community. In Jeremiah chapter 29, the prophet encourages the people of God who have been carried into exile in Babylon to “seek the peace” of that city. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes His disciples as “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world”. The scripture seems to urge us through these and other passages not to be passive recipients of the culture around us, but rather active participants in the culture around us for the glory of His name and good of our neighbors.

Hosea says, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge”. While many in the church in Chicago feel the call to impact public life and know that our civic life both shapes and reflects the state of our souls, there is a void of timely, relevant civic information in the church. Between the secrecy of government corruption, ideological leanings and under-resourcing in media, and shere size of the City of Chicago, it can be difficult for believers to access news and information they can trust. 

We cannot speak into, pray about, or act upon things of which we have no knowledge.

If we are to be the hands, feet, and heart of God extended to Chicago’s civic life in this most critical hour, then the church must have the ability to remain informed about the goings on in government and civic life. We must be able to interpret the words and actions of civic leaders and public officials through the lens of scripture and stir ourselves to righteous action on behalf of the city we are called to love and the God we are privileged to serve.

The Chicago Civic Update newsletter is a humble effort to provide information and analysis on the civic life in the city from a Christian perspective. Our objective is to equip and challenge the church by providing relevant newsclips, commentary and analysis, and original reporting across a range of media platforms.

Our hope is that our work will be a resource in the church for accurate thinking, relevant preaching , and strategic prayer about civic life in Chicago as well as a catalyst for deliberate action on the part of individual Christians, local congregations, and the broader church within the civic life of our city. 

As a final note, while we unashamedly write for and to the church, we know that non-Christian members of the Chicagoland community who are committed to the wellbeing of the city can benefit from our work and hope that they do. We also know that because Chicago is a world-class city sitting at the heart of the United States, people of goodwill across the country and throughout the world often join in prayer, concern, and work for the betterment of the city. We pray that our work will be a benefit to those national and global neighbors as well.

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People

Bylines at The Chicago Civic Update, a publication of And Campaign Chicago. Co-founder of the Liberation Caucus of the American Solidarity Party. Follow me on Twitter @MikeVickNews and @VoteVickUSA.
Half-Asian, half-white, and having lived in diverse places such as Hoffman Estates, Evanston, & Chicago neighborhoods of Uptown, Chatham and Bronzeville. As God led him in this journey, he hopes to inspire others to do what God has called them to.
I love my family. I lead a church. I labor with the AND Campaign. I ran for U.S. Congress in Illinois.