In 2016, the city of  Chicago saw 762 murders—more than New York City (334) and Los Angeles (294) combined, and far higher than its 2015 tally of 485. Much of the violence was driven by gang activity from the South and West side. After the surfaced footage of a police officer shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times, many speculated that the video weakened the Chicago Police Department, causing a rise in violence. 

 

In the middle of the chaos, many pastors are making a difference.

 

Pastor David Washington spends most of his days praying with people, reaching out to neighborhoods, running programs for kids, and handing out school supplies on streets he knows well. He grew up in the South Side neighborhood of Roseland; the same neighborhood where he used to run one of Chicago’s most notorious gangs.

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It was a volatile time in Roseland in the 1980s."As more African Americans and Latinos moved in, the white people left,” he explains. “The neighborhood was caught up in a vicious cycle of drugs, money, and guns”. His own life in gangs began when he was in middle school. At a time when many kids are just beginning to interact independently with peers, Washington was learning the trade of buying and selling drugs. “It was just the part of the community I grew up in. Whether we claim it or not it was just who we were. We were the Gangster Disciples. You couldn’t be seen as the weak person.” 

 

Today they Gangster Disciples are said to be at least 40,000 in numbers and continue to grow with members as young as pre-teen and members as old as in their 70s. 

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n 2016 Washington established the Kingdom Covenant Church Chicago in his old neighborhood in Roseland. Kingdom Covenant works with those currently in prison and those getting out— helping them to provide for themselves and their families. The congregation passed out school supplies in the fall, as well as candy, tracts, and prayers on Halloween.. Washington is working to draw on his past to in order chart a way for the future. 

 

Washington has said, “I am staying in the ghetto, and letting the ghetto know it’s not bad... I know what it’s like, but let me show you the love of Jesus”.

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