The story
Commons began in 2018 as a thirty-person gathering in the back room of a Salvadoran restaurant. We were three languages and eleven nationalities on our first Sunday. We never grew out of that.
Today we meet at 123 Main Street, in a refurbished brick storefront with one cross, one table, and a kitchen that feeds the neighborhood twice a week. About 180 people call Commons home; half of us were born outside the United States; seventy languages are spoken in the surrounding twelve blocks. We are trying, slowly, to be a church that reflects that.
What we believe
We confess the historic Christian faith — the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, the trinitarian God, Christ crucified and risen, the Spirit poured out on all flesh. We are an affiliate congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA), though our worship and ethos draw on the wider Protestant and Catholic traditions.
What we emphasize, in addition:
- That the church’s first vocation is to its neighborhood, not its members
- That Scripture and the prophetic tradition call us to the work of justice
- That hospitality is a theological act, not a program
- That multilingual worship is a recovery of Pentecost, not a compromise
- That the poor, the immigrant, and the stranger are at the center of the gospel
Our leadership
Pastor Adaeze Okechukwu — founding pastor, Yoruba-English bilingual, ordained in the PC(USA), trained at McCormick Theological Seminary. Came here from Lagos via Chicago.
Rev. Marcus Chen — teaching pastor, second-generation Chinese American, ordained in the PC(USA). Holds the Tuesday-night Bread Table together.
Rev. Dr. Luz Morales — teaching elder, Spanish-English bilingual, heads our Latino ministry and runs Habla Español group.
Deacon Tobi Adeyemi — director of community partnerships, formerly a public defender. Holds the Housing Collective together.