‪(847) 238-2923‬ info@unshacklednetwork.org

Meet the Microchurches: Frontline Street Intervention!

Meet the Mircochurches: Frontline Street Intervention!

The Unshackled Network is a decentralized network of Microchurches with a mission to help those in the margins of Lake County, IL, and beyond experience freedom in Jesus. This month, we are featuring one of the micro churches within the network based in Lake County, IL, and led by Jesus “Chuy” Llanos.

Frontline Street Intervention’s mission is to prevent gang involvement, provide gang intervention, and promote social, spiritual, and life skill development. The mission of Frontline is very important to Chuy because before coming to know the Lord, Chuy was in and out of county jail and prison. While in jail, God opened his eyes on loyalty and he realized the life he was living would only keep him in jail or leave him dead. 

“I started to attend Torch Church at that time and joined bible study groups they held. I met Josue, George, Arman, and many more brothers and sisters.  That’s also when I surrendered to Him, left the gang, and wanted to Follow Jesus Christ. I later attended a ministry called Frontline Street Intervention, where I helped clean up after Holy Homies; a small bible group gathering and fellowship. I then became a group leader and led the Bible study group Holy Homies. As time went on I started to lead GLIFE (God’s love is for everyone) a basketball outreach and became the program director.” 

Frontline serves the Round Lake and Lake County area but they do wish to one day grow larger, but on God’s time! The hope is to preach the Gospel and reach out to as many people as they can and build and equip one another.

“Since being at Frontline Street Intervention, I’ve seen God rescue and change so many lives as well. From young to old; just being a part of it and God using me and others who are a part of Frontline too. I have seen people get baptized, gang tattoos removed, and or covered up. I just want everyone we cross paths with to know that Jesus Christ loves them! We just want to be the help our and other communities need.  We want to help kids in gangs and provide intervention/prevention to all who need it. I want people to know to never give up, even when you fall down. To Be the Difference and No Turning Back!”

If you want to know more about Frontline Street Intervention, please visit Frontline.  Inspired by Chuy’s story, learn more about the upcoming documentary about Chuy’s life here. To donate to this micro church, please visit Unshackled Network.

 

Contact: (847) 238-2923, info@unshacklednetwork.org

EVERYONE IS WELCOME AT THE TABLE!!!

EVERYONE IS WELCOME AT THE TABLE

Join us on July 16th from 5-7:30 as we gather once again at The Table. This is a great time to invite a friend or relative for fellowship with food, games, great conversation, and lots of fun! We hope to see you there!!!

The Table will be held at:

FrontLine Street Intervention

1631 N. Cherokee Dr.

Round Lake Beach, IL 60073

RSVP here.

Contact: (847) 238-2923, info@unshacklednetwork.org

Meet the Microchurches: Steps of Kindness!

Meet the Mircochurches: Steps of Kindness

The Unshackled Network is a decentralized network of microchurches with a mission to help those on the margins of Lake County, IL, and beyond experience freedom in Jesus. One of the micro churches within the network is based out of Kenya and led by Abraham Wonders. Get to know Abraham and Steps of Kindness:

Praise God, My name is Abraham Wonders and I am a servant of God from Nairobi, Kenya. Before becoming a Christian I was a Muslim and I was against Christians because of my previous beliefs in Allah but one day as I was watching TBN, I watched many programs that led me to Christ. In the beginning, my family was against me when I accepted Christ. I faced rejection but by the grace of God, they accepted my belief in Christ though it was not easy, until now.

My ministry began at my aunt’s house where I was leading house fellowships every evening. We saw God working in our lives. Today my ministry Steps of Kindness is giving hope to many through our organization. We help the less fortunate by giving them food, sanitary towels, shoes, books, and other basic needs. Our hope as a ministry is to save many souls and show the love of Christ through his Word as is expressed in John 3:16.

We have seen God in many ways; the sick are getting healed, the oppressed are set free, people have hope of eternal life, and we are seeing many come to Christ and have inner peace. We are teaching people the word of GOD…AND THE GOSPEL IS BEING PREACHED IN SEASON AND OUT OF SEASON.

Through generous donations to the Unshackled Network, Steps of Kindness has been able to pay the rent for the church each month. Our plans are to buy land to build a school and have a place for the homeless.

We are so grateful for the Unshackled Network and Pastor Fury! If anyone is willing to support our vision and purpose, we will be grateful!

If you would like to learn more about Steps of Kindness, please visit Steps of Kindness. To donate to this micro church, please visit here.

 

Contact: (847) 238-2923, info@unshacklednetwork.org

God Does New Things

God Does New Things

My name is Arman Sheffey and I am the Founder and Executive Director of the Unshackled Network. In August 2018, I was faced with the question, what does church look like? I had been a pastor at a thriving church in an affluent nearby suburb for six years, and full time the last two. Life was great! However, on our family trip to Canada, something happened! God broke my heart for the poor all over again! As my family drove the long journey from Toronto to Round Lake in the far northern suburbs of Chicago, I realized I was now coming back home changed as though it were a second conversion. I knew that God was saying, “Now is the time. Now you must go to the poor and share with them my love.” I began to process, what is this church that He wants me to plant? God was doing a new thing and that new thing would eventually become The Unshackled Network. The Unshackled Network is a decentralized network of microchurches with a mission to help those in the margins of Lake County, IL, and beyond experience freedom in Jesus through equipping Spirit-empowered disciple makers called to the forgotten. However, the story of this family of missionaries ultimately had its genesis long before we launched in 2019.

When I was a 7-year-old black kid moving from Chicago to an all-white Dutch village in the south suburbs, it was hard. I was a child of divorce who struggled with identity, dealing with racial tension and acceptance. When God got a hold of me, He gave me purpose, belonging, and a new identity. I soon answered the call to pastor and began to understand more about how God had designed me while leading a new campus for my church. I was sent from the lower socio-economic realm of our initial location and off to lead in the affluent nearby suburb. This was when I realized a significant part of how I was wired was with a heart for the poor, a passion for those on the margins of life. In 2015, a seed was planted that one day, God would send me to plant a church focused on reaching the poor. So, I began learning what it meant to plant a church, attending Exponential conferences, and devouring planting books. Until God reminded me to focus on those that I was currently leading and that He would be the one to get me ready. I refocused and spent my time loving those I was called to lead at the time and eventually went into full-time in ministry in 2016. When the Lord took that vision off the shelf, I had some real heart-to-heart talks with our lead pastor and we discussed the call and with his blessing, I was released to go and explore God’s call to the poor. God was doing a new thing!

Over the next few years, I began learning from the Underground Network, reading books like Organic Church by Neil Cole, and having meals with different people in my area that were stirred in unique ways as I explored how God could possibly use me to help bring to life whatever He placed in them. It was as if God was having one long conversation with me and His message for me was all surrounding a simplified understanding of church, but also, an expanded understanding of who He is and how He works. As we continued to meet and dove into God’s Word more and more, we saw the convergence of worship, mission, and community playing itself out as the simple truth of who the church is. God was birthing a simple and yet expansive vision for communities that were unbound by the conventions of church to which so many of us had grown accustomed. We believe that the Gospel is too big to be contained by brick and mortar and to have true saturation; we also need churches small and nimble enough to start fast and reach deep.

In March 2019 the Unshackled Network was born, with goals to see every marginalized population in Round Lake actively engaged by the Gospel, to see 25 microchurches launched by 2025, and ultimately a thriving gospel community in every neighborhood in Round Lake. The Lord has led us to launch 5 microchurches, 4 locally, and 3 global churches in Kenya, Uganda and India have felt called to join our network. One microchurch, Frontline Street Intervention, and its leaders Chuy and Josue have developed a reputation as a trusted part of the community doing ministry with the youth and developing relationships with school leaders. Another microchurch, Freedom Fighters, went from doing meals together two Tuesdays a month to doing an online bible study on those days when COVID struck. Soon it evolved into a full worship experience every Sunday together on Zoom. Now it is led by Kim and Willie, a couple in their 60’s and 70’s, who are not the most tech-savvy, but fell in love with the ministry when their invited family members surrendered to Jesus during an Easter Zoom. A microchurch that started in my basement music studio is now led by one of our leaders who is an amazing man of God and rapper. As he developed his album, God was developing a church. Jonathan has taken the Beats, Bars, and Bible men’s discipleship microchurch and made it his own.

God does new things. Not only in my life, but in yours too! Just like God called me, He is calling you too! When Jesus was resurrected, He provided instruction to his disciples and sent them on mission. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28: 18-20. This Easter as we celebrate our savior’s resurrection, we must remember to also be on mission with resurrected Jesus.

We cannot imagine what else God has planned in the story of the Unshackled Network, but with great expectation, we anticipate God’s activity among us as we worship together on mission. What new thing is God calling you to? Just like those early conversations as we began, we’d love to talk with you about what God is stirring. Let us know if you’d like to discuss ways we can help you be faithful to what God is birthing.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1 Peter 1:3

Contact: (847) 238-2923, info@unshacklednetwork.org