A Cathedral on the 2400 Block of Howard Street
Evanston Vineyard sits just behind the Jewel Osco on Howard Street on the north side of Evanston, Illinois, a few minutes from the lake and from the city line that separates Evanston from Rogers Park in Chicago. The building was not originally constructed as a church. It began life as a manufacturing facility, and the pastoral staff still joke that the HVAC system is bigger than a congregation of this size really needs. Inside, however, the bones of an industrial space have been shaped into two worship auditoriums, classrooms for children and students, a coffee bar that hums after every service, and the Care Center where neighbors come for food and clothing during the week.
The congregation began meeting in 1976 with about forty people, and in 2026 it marked fifty years of ministry in northern Chicago, Evanston, Skokie, and the surrounding communities. On any given Sunday more than eight hundred people now gather there. No single ethnic group makes up a majority of the room; members and regular attenders represent more than fifty-five countries, and the church lists itself among the most racially diverse congregations in the Chicago area. It belongs to Vineyard USA, a movement founded in the early 1980s that today numbers more than two thousand churches worldwide.
The senior pastor, Ted Kim, frames the church as a "cathedral" church, though not in the architectural sense. A cathedral in his description is a presence in its city, a place where what happens inside is as important as what is seen from the outside, and a home people return to even after they leave. That image shapes how the Evanston Vineyard talks about itself and how it spends its money.
Six Values, Six Habits of the Heart
The church describes itself with six recurring words: Biblically Orthodox, Egalitarian, Diverse, Charismatic, Justice Oriented, and Contemplative. Those adjectives expand into six congregational values that the leadership calls the spine of the church's life.
Worshipping the True and Beautiful God. Worship is the primary environment where the congregation believes it encounters God's presence, is renewed and anchored, and is united across the differences that would otherwise divide it.
Balancing the Word and the Spirit. The Bible is the church's standard for life, and the church also expects the Holy Spirit to show up in the room in healings, prophecy, deliverance, and personal guidance. Those two streams, Scripture and Spirit, are held together rather than played against each other, and prayer is woven into almost everything the church does.
Becoming Like Jesus. Formation, the slow work of being shaped into the character of Jesus, is described as the highest good of every person. The church teaches that when its members become more like Jesus they bring that same highest good to the communities and cities around them.
Being an Emotionally Healthy Community. Members are encouraged to grow in self-awareness, empathy, and the capacity to handle conflict well, and to listen carefully to people who think differently than they do.
Doing Restorative Justice. Drawing on the language of Genesis 1 and the teaching of founder John Wimber, the church teaches that every human being is created in God's image and that the church exists to combat injustice and serve every person. Practically, this shows up in feeding the poor, in the church's diversity, and in its weekly care of neighbors.
Embracing the Future. The leadership wants to innovate, raise up new leaders, invest in the next generation, and face the unique challenges of each cultural moment without giving up the church's orthodoxy.
Becoming Like Jesus: The Congregational Way of Life
Because formation is so central, the Evanston Vineyard has written out what it calls the Congregational Way of Life, a living document that walks members through the habits the church believes shape a follower of Jesus.
The Way of Life is organized around three foundational commitments and four congregational commitments. The foundational commitments are Personal Prayer, Scripture, and Community. Under each, members are invited to choose a practice that fits their season. Prayer, for instance, can be practiced through a simple ACTS model (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), through liturgy, through the examen, through centering prayer, or through extended silence. Scripture can be engaged by reading a chapter a day in the gospel of John and moving forward, by following a Bible reading plan, by memorization, by listening to the Bible Project, or by meditative reading such as Lectio Divina. Community is lived through small groups, formation groups, spiritual friendships, and the practice of making major decisions in discernment with others.
The congregational commitments are Formation, Justice, Presence, and Being Faithful in Our Roles. Members are not expected to be deeply engaged in all four at once, but to lean into one or two for a season, then shift as life changes. Justice, for example, is practiced through creation care, hospitality, and generosity, with the Care Center, the food pantry, and the Bowker Benevolence Fund named as concrete places where those values are lived out. Presence is practiced by attending to God's presence in prayer and silence, by being present to one another across differences of age, background, and ethnicity, and by being present to the neighborhoods and cities of Evanston, Skokie, and northern Chicago.
For those new to the Christian faith, the church recommends starting in an Alpha group or a Foundational Discipleship group before working through the Way of Life. For members, the document is reviewed periodically and adjusted only after members are notified of any changes.
Sundays in the Main Auditorium
Two identical English-language services meet at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM in the Main Auditorium. Services are also livestreamed through the church's online stream, and recordings are available afterward as a podcast.
The building sits behind the Jewel Osco at 2495 Howard Street. A large parking lot behind the church is free to use, and the front lot has reserved first-time guest spaces as well as a number of accessible parking spots. The Welcome Team greets visitors at the front entrance and points them toward Kids Check-In, the Main Auditorium, the La Viña Auditorium, and the lobby.
People are welcome to wear whatever they feel comfortable in, from jeans to a suit. Bibles are not required; passages appear on the screens and in the printed program. The Main Auditorium is arranged "in the round," with a center stage and circular seating, and visitors may sit wherever they like.
A typical service begins with prayer, moves into contemporary worship, and includes communion, the Lord's Prayer said together, a brief greeting time, the giving of offerings, short announcements, and a sermon that usually runs twenty-five to thirty minutes. At the end, a prayer team is available to pray for physical, spiritual, or emotional needs, and there is space for extended ministry time. Visitors are invited to stop by the Welcome Center on the way out to pick up a first-visit gift and then linger over coffee and pastries at the coffee bar. From spring through fall the outdoor patio is open as well.
La Viña: Worship in Spanish
On the same Sunday mornings, the church's Spanish-speaking congregation, La Viña, meets in the La Viña Auditorium just to the right as you enter the main doors. La Viña also gathers at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM, and its services follow a similar shape: prayer, contemporary worship in Spanish, communion, a sermon, and a prayer team available afterward. Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, lemonade, and pastries are served in the lobby before and after the service.
La Viña is pastored by Samuel Cordero, a second-generation pastor from El Salvador, and his wife Vicky Cordero, who oversees the prayer ministry, kids ministry for Latino events, counseling, voice training, and worship. The congregation has its own YouTube presence at youtube.com/@lavinaevanston. The two congregations share one building, one mission, and one staff team but hold services in the language that fits each community.
Wednesday Nights at the Care Center
While Sunday is the church's most visible ministry, the Wednesday evening Care Center is its most tangible. From 6:00 to 8:00 PM, the building opens its doors to anyone in the neighborhood who needs a hand. Three overlapping ministries share the space.
The Food Pantry serves as many as two hundred fifty families each week, helping them choose fresh and shelf-stable groceries to last the next two weeks. Households may visit up to twice a month and are asked to bring a Greater Chicago Food Depository card; those without a card can obtain one on their first visit. On the last Wednesday of the month, SNAPGap toiletries are distributed inside the pantry in partnership with Interfaith Action of Evanston.
The Clothing Closet offers gently used clothing for the entire family at one dollar an item, with a buy-one-get-one-free deal on the last Wednesday of each month. The closet also hosts prayer opportunities, kids' activities, and community events. Proceeds from clothing sales go toward creating jobs inside the closet itself.
The Resource Center sits down with patrons one at a time to listen to their stories and connect them with housing help, job search support, and other community resources. Diapers for babies and adult sanitary items are given out on the first and third Wednesdays of the month. The Care Center works with a wide range of partners, including the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Interfaith Action of Evanston, and 211 Metro Chicago, and will help neighbors apply for SNAP and Medicaid benefits.
In 2023 alone, the Care Center distributed more than ten thousand articles of clothing or bedding, and the food pantry served eight hundred eighty-four unique households, sixty percent of which were new to the pantry that year. The Care Center is overseen by Pastor Keva Green, whose background in community development and non-profit administration shapes its design.
Kids, Middle Schoolers, and High Schoolers
The church runs a full pipeline of ministries for the next generation. EV Kids serves infants through fourth grade during both Sunday services. Check-in opens twenty minutes before each service, and staff at the Welcome Desk can point families to the Vineyard Kids area. Limitless is the middle school ministry for fifth through eighth graders and meets during both Sunday services under Pastor Keren Chookaszian. EV Youth, the high school ministry for ninth through twelfth graders, gathers on Sunday evenings from 5:00 to 7:00 PM in the lobby and Main Auditorium for student-led worship, teaching, prayer requests, games, pizza, and pop. No registration is required for the youth programs.
The children's ministry, pastored by Iris Andersson, runs nursery and preschool care, kids church during services, family events, vacation Bible school, small groups for kids, and child dedications. Andersson's team has more than thirty years of experience with children and their families.
Students ministry, led by Adama Diakhaté, also covers college-age ministry and the church's involvement in short-term missions. The students pastor is himself a Senegalese-American who grew up in Rogers Park and Evanston and is working toward a Master of Divinity at North Park Theological Seminary.
The Wimber House: Training the Next Generation of Vineyard Pastors
One of the most distinctive things about Evanston Vineyard is that it is also a training ground for the wider Vineyard movement. The Wimber House, named for Vineyard founder John Wimber, is a two-year, five-semester residency program operated in partnership with Vineyard USA. Tuition is five thousand dollars a year, with scholarships available, and students arrange their own housing. Classes meet all day on Fridays, with select Friday evenings set aside for Public Lecture Nights that are open to the whole church.
The program rests on three pillars: theological education using official Vineyard USA curriculum, ongoing formation and discipleship including spiritual direction and coaching, and hands-on ministry experience in preaching, prayer for the sick, prophecy, deliverance, pastoral counseling, and leadership development. Each student also takes on a customary drawn from the Congregational Way of Life and joins the church's preaching cohort.
There are no educational prerequisites. The program is designed for those who have already discerned a call to ministry and want to live out that call within the Vineyard movement. Graduates are fast-tracked for ordination. The Wimber House builds on a long Evanston Vineyard track record: the church has helped plant more than twenty churches and has trained more than a hundred leaders from around the world.
Small Groups, Stephen Ministry, and the Way In
For adults who want to go deeper, the church runs quarterly small groups that meet in homes and other locations around the city. Groups are described as "many and varied," and newcomers can browse open groups and request to join through the church's online directory. Stephen Ministry provides one-to-one confidential care for people in the congregation who are hurting or facing life challenges. The marriage ministry, overseen by Pastor Brian Van Der Werff, also flows out of the small groups office.
Several volunteer teams make Sunday morning work. The Welcome Team staffs the front doors and the Welcome Center. The Coffee Team keeps the café running after services. The Tech Team runs the sound, lighting, and streaming. The Photo Team captures the life of the church. The Worship Team leads congregational singing. The Prayer Team prays with people after the service. There is also a Vineyard Kids team, an EV Youth team, a Limitless team, a Vineyard Farm team that grows fresh produce and flowers for the food pantry, and even an indoor plant care team that keeps the building cheerful.
Strengthened for Sending: A Capital Campaign for the Next Fifty Years
To mark its fiftieth year, the church has launched a capital campaign called Strengthened for Sending, with a goal of two million dollars over three years. The campaign focuses on four practical needs. The first is a roof overlay; the building leaks during heavy rain, and buckets have had to be set out in the La Viña Auditorium to catch dripping water. The second is an HVAC overhaul so that the heating and cooling system matches the building's actual use. The third is a stronger financial reserve, since the church could currently operate for only about a month without donations. The fourth is the start-up cost of the Wimber House training school itself.
The campaign frames these ordinary needs as the foundation that allows the church to keep being a place of worship, formation, and sending for the next fifty years. As of the campaign page, more than seven hundred thousand dollars had been received and pledges pushed the total past one million dollars, well on the way toward the two-million-dollar goal.
Joining the Mission
Becoming a member of Evanston Vineyard begins with a commitment to the Congregational Way of Life. From there, members choose a small group, meet with a Spiritual Companion if they wish, and find a place to serve. Giving is available online through Subsplash, by check mailed to the Howard Street address, through a bank's bill-pay service, or in the giving box on Sunday mornings. All contributions are tax-deductible; cash gifts need a giving envelope for the tax deduction.
The office at 2495 Howard Street is open Sunday from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM and Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. The phone is 847-328-4544 and email reaches the office at Office@evanstonvineyard.org. A weekly newsletter and a podcast keep those who can't yet attend in the loop, and the Connect Card is the easiest way to reach the pastoral team for a prayer request, a question, or a first step toward membership.