Calvary Assembly of God church moved from Harvey to Flossmoor 43 years ago and now the church’s congregation is preparing for another move of sorts, except most of them won’t be going anywhere.
The 84-year-old church that’s been a fixture in Flossmoor since 1974 will formally re-open a shuttered church in Chicago Heights on Easter Sunday as its second campus.
The action ensures the recently closed Restoration Church at 274 W. 201st St. remains a part of the Assemblies of God Fellowship, a Pentecostal Protestant branch of Christianity. Founded in 1910 in Springfield, Mo., the Assemblies of God claimed 03.10 million adherents in the United States in 2013.
John Husbands, lead pastor of Calvary Assembly of God for the past five years, said he’s taking over the shuttered church in Chicago Heights at the request of the board that oversees Assembly of God’s 90 affiliated churches in Illinois.
Calvary members have been contacting former Restoration attendees about the reopening. Some Calvary members who live in Chicago Heights may also decide to worship there, Husbands said. adding,
“We have one lady attending here faithfully who lives across the street (from the new campus),” he said.
Calvary members will also host what they’re calling a “Love Giveaway” of clothes, dishes, school supplies and some furniture in late February at the Chicago Heights church as a way to reach out to potential congregants.
Husbands, a fourth-generation pastor who was born in Guyana, South America, and grew up in the United States, said Calvary would serve as the Chicago Heights church’s “parent” church, but the Chicago Heights church will operate autonomously, he said.
“We don’t want to take another Calvary Assembly of God and put it in the Heights,” he said. “We want it (the reopened church) to have its own DNA.”
The Chicago Heights church is scheduled for a “soft opening” at 3 p.m. Feb. 25.
Dennis Sullivan is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
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