Pastor braves Chicago winter on rooftop to stop violence

A Chicago pastor has a solution to the violence in the Windy City, and he’s taken to a rooftop to proclaim it.

Southern Baptist Pastor Corey Brooks is spending 100 cold and windy days and nights — Nov. 30 to Feb. 28 — on a rooftop nearly 40 feet above the streets, where he invites people to come and talk with him about their lives, to discuss ideas, solutions and opportunities, despite the all-too-common fatherlessness that can lead to gang life in a search for protection.

“Violence is like cancer: You can see it spreading,” Brooks, founding pastor in 2000 of New Beginnings Church of Chicago, told Baptist Press. “Violence started in impoverished pockets in our community. Because we didn’t deal with it properly to annihilate it, it’s gotten to where you can see it spreading.

“When you don’t deal with the violence, when you don’t handle it as you should, it continues to escalate. … You have to intervene in peoples’ lives before they start down a pathway toward destruction.”

Brooks’ plan — a vision from God, he says — is to build a multi-faceted community center that will address the economic, social, mental and spiritual needs that plague the inner city.

Politicians enact policies, but people effect change, the pastor said. “We believe the government cannot change hearts,” Brooks said. “They can legislate laws, but it is faith in Christ that changes hearts.”

He is staying on the roof for 100 days and nights to raise awareness about the effects of violence, and to raise $35 million for a community and training center across the street from the church. As of his 50th day on the roof, he had raised about one-third.

— Karen Willoughby is a freelance writer for Baptist Press.