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New Challenge for Historic City Church

Make a designated gift to help St. Matthew's

Volunteers continue to help feed the hungry at St. Matthew's Soup Kitchen on the south side of Chicago. Meals are served every Tuesday and Thursday. There have been days in recent months when they have run out of food, as the number of people in need continues to grow.

Well, maybe it's not an entirely new challenge. Any building that is an official historic site is, well, old. Old buildings have their aches and pains, and the expense of fixing them is a big challenge.

But for St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood (2108 W. 21st Street), the push to do repairs has come at the recent heavy hand of the City Building Department and repeated dates in court.

“We have never had any problem with the city and this is very unusual pressure,” said Pastor Julio Loza. He said they are not arguing, however, and that “the best way to solve this is to do what they ask us.”

The church building, which is 138 years old, was completely tuckpointed and the inside restored to its historic appearance during the 1980s. Since then the church has been able to keep up with only small repairs as it focuses most of its resources on their soup kitchen, which during winter's peak season serves 150-200 homeless people and seniors each Tuesday and Thursday (the summer census averages about 100 each day).

“St. Matthew's has a very special place in this community,” Loza said. That's why the court summons, with its threatened fine of $5,000 per day if violations weren't fixed, stunned the congregation.

“At first I was shocked, but not anymore,” Loza said. He described how the Lord has worked through community media coverage to bring many offers of help and volunteers, even people who had never heard of the ministry, as well as many longtime supporters from the Northern Illinois District, like St. Paul Lutheran Church in Matteson.

“This is an experience that tells us as long as we have faith we'll be able to overcome,” Loza added.

Engineer Jose Duarte, an executive of Blackwood Group LLC in Chicago, and several architect volunteers have already helped the church tackle the “minor problems that don't cost too much money,” Loza said.

Money is needed for more materials and work permits, and there are still major problems to address, like a structural analysis of the ceiling, chimney tuckpointing, and safety bars on the doors.

The church is working to involve more volunteers and also is searching out grants and donations to complete the work, even as they count down until their next day in court – May 26.