violence, Bishop Horace Smith has watched as others moved out.
It happened in 1987, when the church decided to invest $3 million in a new building. “The Lord impressed on us to stay where we are,” Smith told CBN News.
Now, the church has made a $33 million investment in a new worship center and ministry complex, even as the shootings and gang violence continue.
Already this year 3,000 people have been shot in Chicago and the papers regularly report on violence in Bronzeville. One study found two-thirds of the youth at Bronzeville area schools worry about the safety of their families and friends.