Pastor Corey Brooks spent much of the winter (of 2022) on a roof top in south Chicago sleeping in a tent. He hoped to raise awareness and resources for the South Side neighborhoods, ravaged by poverty and violence.

On the 120th day of the vigil, Brooks was joined by two other pastors Karl Clauson and Mark Jobe (the president of Moody Bible Institute). He began his conversation by asking why Jesus is the key to filling the void in peoples’ lives and transforming them for the better. In response, Jobe told this story:

I’ll take you back a few years. 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. 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 said, “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.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Our cities have a problem. It can't be policed, educated, or employed away. It is a soul problem with a sole answer. The answer is the gospel.