Gospel in Life is privileged to share stories from Redeemer City to City (CTC) — stories of gospel-changed lives and communities (like the one below). CTC exists to multiply churches and Christian leaders committed to a shared vision for gospel movements in the great cities of the world. Through a worldwide network of regional affiliates, CTC accomplishes this by training, coaching and equipping local leaders and pastors to start and strengthen churches and initiatives that serve the flourishing of their cities. Please pray that God will continue to bring about gospel change through this worldwide network of leaders and trainers. To learn more, visit their website: redeemercitytocity.com.
Together Chicago is a partner ministry of Redeemer City to City, and they’re working faithfully to bring gospel-change to the city of Chicago.
“You guys are in violation.”
Lavonas and his teenage friends were playing basketball in Union Park in Chicago when a group of older guys from their apartment building grabbed their ball.
“In violation for what?” Lavonas asked.
“You missed a meeting.”
“What meeting?” Lavonas asked. “We don’t know nothing about no meeting.”
Lavonas Troupe had lived in Chicago his whole life. His dad left when he was young, and his mom used drugs. He and his siblings grew up in poverty. He’d been told he would have three vocational choices when he got older: policeman, firefighter or criminal. His choice disappeared that day on the basketball court.
The guys explained that Lavonas and his friends lived in their building, and that made them part of the gang — the Vice Lords gang. It didn’t matter that Lavonas said no — that he didn’t want to be part of the gang. The guys were older, bigger, stronger. People from other apartment buildings began to identify Lavonas as a member of the gang. It was impossible to fight. And just like that, his choice was made. Criminal.
When someone stole his coat, he borrowed his brother’s guns and stole another guy’s coat. When one of his good friends gave drugs to his mother, he “kind of lost it.” Lavonas beat his former friend badly. After that, he didn’t care about anything. He said, “Over time, I started getting into the gang banging and doing shootings and robberies or whatever it took to survive.” The other gang members feared him. A year after joining the gang, he became the leader. But that brought more attention to him, and he got shot. Getting shot made him bitter. “I did what I had to do to go get my revenge,” Lavonas said. “‘I want my lick back,’ as they call it: retaliation. Just anybody I catch, I’m catching them, trying to shoot them and kill them or whatever. I was on a rampage.”
But Lavonas had another force working in his life. He had a praying grandmother.
But Lavonas had another force working in his life. He had a praying grandmother. “My grandmother was a woman of faith in Christ,” Lavonas said. “When she talked, it [was like] God talking to you.” She called one day and said to him, “You got death on you. Go get on your knees and pray.” Lavonas went home and prayed. He didn’t know God, but he knew there was a God. He prayed God would lock him up because, he said, “I’d rather be judged by twelve than carried by six any day.”
By this time, Lavonas had been in the gang for fourteen years. He’d been arrested for little things, but nothing major. The very next day, he got arrested and sent to a prison that operated on a “23 and 1” schedule, meaning he was locked in his cell for 23 hours a day and only out for one hour. This wasn’t what Lavonas had in mind when he asked God to lock him up. He’d expected a facility where he could lift weights and walk outside. He knew he’d done bad things, but people had done things to him. “I questioned God over and over,” Lavonas said. “Yeah, I robbed people, but man, people robbed me. Yeah, I shot people, but people shot me. Why’d you put me here?” The next morning, after that prayer, he had a court appointment. A light came through the window of the transfer van. Lavonas felt compelled to look out the window. When he did, he saw a cemetery, and he knew — that’s where he’d be if he weren’t locked up. He sat down and thanked God.
Seven years later, he was released from prison and married his long-time girlfriend, Sharice. He’d prayed and read his Bible in prison, even though he didn’t understand it much and didn’t know Jesus. But he knew one thing: he wanted to change his life. He wanted to give back to his community. “I helped destroy the community I was raised in,” Lavonas said. “And when I got out, I wanted to make a change, and that’s what I did.” People started calling him the peacemaker. “I could go to any gang and bring them to the table and put them together [with another gang] to come up with peace treaties and truces.”
An agency showed up in the neighborhood promising money for the beautification of the community and tickets to a theme park, the White Sox, the Bulls and the Cubs, but they over-promised and under-delivered. This angered Lavonas. He cared about his community and didn’t need outsiders making things harder. And then another group showed up. This group was called Together Chicago and claimed to be different. Lavonas was skeptical, but one of the leaders, Pastor Michael Allen, invited Lavonas to lunch and explained that he and his team were God-fearing people. He asked Lavonas to give them a chance.
Together Chicago, a partner organization with Redeemer City to City (RCTC), launched in 2017 when a group of Chicago-area business, faith, community, non-profit, civic and government leaders met to explore if there was more that could be done to address the root causes of the violence in Chicago. Co-founded by Pastor Michael Allen and businessman David Dillon (who is the chair of RCTC’s board), Together Chicago believes in the concept Tim Keller pioneered of creating a “gospel ecosystem” in the great cities of our world — and Together Chicago has been able to do just that in Chicago over the last eight years. They now have over 200 churches, nonprofits and businesses partnering together across five areas of focus: Economic Development, Education, Gospel Justice Centers, Violence Prevention and Faith Community Mobilization.
Lavonas did see a difference and began volunteering for Together Chicago, which gave him a small stipend for his time. Then the organization offered him a contract and put him on the payroll. They saw how Lavonas cared about his community and how he led those around him. As Together Chicago gathered residents from the neighborhoods for discussion and strategy, Lavonas found himself around the table with some unexpected acquaintances. “These were some of the same people that when I got shot, had me shot,” Lavonas said, “and I shot some of them, and we [had] tried to kill each other. But now we are at a table called Together Chicago to do the one common goal — to reduce violence and increase thriving community. So it was strange at first.”
Pastor Michael saw God at work in Lavonas’ life. He invited Lavonas, Sharice and their kids to a camp called Life Action Camp. The first day, Lavonas and Sharice talked (and argued) about some financial struggles. When they went to chapel, the speaker spoke on exactly what they’d been arguing about. Later Lavonas and Sharice discussed some work problems. During the next chapel, the speaker spoke directly to those issues. Lavonas was a bit freaked out. “I go up to the speakers,” Lavonas said, “and I’m like, ‘Hey, y’all got wires on me, man? Y’all got cameras or something in our room? Cause this is unbelievable. Everything we talk about, y’all keep answering my prayers.’”
…I shot some of them, and we [had] tried to kill each other. But now we are at a table called Together Chicago to do the one common goal — to reduce violence and increase thriving community.
That evening, they had dinner with Pastor Michael and his wife. The conversation turned to God and marriage. Sure enough, the pastor at evening chapel talked about marriage. “Me and my wife looked at each other,” Lavonas said. “We looked at the past, and we started crying like, man, this is it. I mean, God is real. And he answered everything. And I think that’s when we really gave our lives to Christ. Pastor Michael and his wife prayed over us and invited us to Christ, and we accepted.”
Pastor Michael kept showing up for Lavonas. “You could see God in him,” Lavonas said. “The father figure, and not just a brother or a mentor, but the father figure. [He and his wife] invited me and my wife into their home and shared the gospel and showed God’s hospitality. They’d break bread with us, showing me something different, a different kind of love. David [Dillon] as well. God put these men in my life to help guide me.”
That gospel message continues to impact Lavonas. He says now he’s got a renewed spirit and sees how God kept him safe over and over again. “I’ve been in situations [where I was] trapped in clubs with guns,” Lavonas said, “and I know I shouldn’t get up out of there, but I’m getting up out of there. When the police had me, I knew I couldn’t get away, but I’m walking out of there. And I’m like, man, he just keeps saving me.”
Lavonas began telling the community outreach leaders gathered around the Together Chicago table what Christ did for him. (He tells everyone.) “I was the first one to become a Christian,” Lavonas said. “And then it led to another outreach worker, then it led to another outreach worker, then it led to another outreach worker. They all became Christians and joined the church. Now we probably like 40 of us, and the majority of us are Christians.”
Lavonas now serves Together Chicago as the director of violence reduction. His team walks through the neighborhood four to five days a week. Men from different buildings and sides of the city walking and working together show that it’s possible to break the pattern of hostility. It says there’s a new way to navigate identity and friendships. There’s a new way to look at the neighborhood.
“We go up to the little guys on the street corners, and the majority of them we know since this is our community,” Lavonas said. “We try to get them to change their lives. [We say,] ‘You need to go get a job,’ or, ‘You want to get back in school,’ or just something to be more productive than just sitting here on the corner because we all know that idle time is the devil’s playground. We just try to get them to meet and mingle with the other guys.” Lavonas and his team take the guys golfing and bowling and set up friendly competitions to break that trend and mentality that tells them they are enemies because of the buildings they live in.
Basketball has been a powerful catalyst. “A lot of them develop relationships … and [find] out that they got the same interests and could play ball together and be on the same team. Our Together Chicago basketball team (The Misfits) [has] maybe four or five different gangs on this one team. And we came together and won the city of Chicago championship.”
Together Chicago’s Violence Prevention work has grown from West Haven Park to the Near West Side, Austin, East Garfield Park, Greater Grand Crossing, and soon, West Garfield Park. They just received the Faith & Service Award from Chicago Mayor Johnson in recognition of their community service. “We came out of nowhere, but we mighty,” Lavonas said. “So God has been working with us and using us. I’m blessed to meet Pastor Michael Allen and David Dillon. And I just thank God for sending them our way and coming into our community and putting me in line with them to be blessed so we can continue to bless people. It’s just a great thing.”
Lavonas would love prayer that Together Chicago be protected from the spiritual attacks they face. Pray for his marriage and finances and debt reduction. Pray that their seven children (ranging from 9 to 32) would be blessed and protected and would come to understand and accept this great gospel and follow Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Lavonas and the others on his team are now father figures for the young men in the neighborhood. Every day they’re asked for help or advice on subjects like kids, family, girlfriends, school, financial problems. The work can be overwhelming, but he gives whatever he can — support, advice, money — all out of what God has given him. “I know that God is going to always provide something,” Lavonas said. “He always gives to me, so I will give a person my last just to see them get through.”
