WILFREDO DEJESUS
Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus is the Senior Pastor of New Life Covenant Ministries. Under his visionary leadership, New Life has become the largest Assemblies of God church in the United States. Through this ministry, Pastor De Jesus currently impacts thousands of individuals in the Chicago area and around the world each week.
Wilfredo was born and raised in Chicago in the Humboldt Park area. He grew up in a political and cultural climate that had the odds stacked against him. However, at the young age of 14, God ordained for him to be placed in a maintenance position at a small local church for a summer youth employment program. In the summer of 1979, he encountered Jesus as his Lord and Savior for the first time.
De Jesus dedicated his life to the Lord and committed himself to this local church, called Templo Palestina (Palestine Christian Temple). In 1992, he first came on staff as an Administrative Assistant. From 1998 to 2000, Wilfredo held two positions, one as Assistant Pastor and the other as the Executive Assistant to the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools.
Twenty years after he first set foot in Templo Palestina, he was appointed the Senior Pastor for that same small congregation. Giving it a new name and a fresh vision, God began to expand the ministry from a weekly attendance of 120 to over 5,000 locally and more than 12,000 under the ministry umbrella in both Spanish and English. New Life has planted churches across the city (Pilsen and Oakwood) and around the world (Camden, New Jersey and Chimbote, Peru). There are also several churches that have come under the ministries leadership in the past few years, creating a global network to advance the Gospel and reach the lost.
In addition, Rev. De Jesús has extended the church beyond the four walls and into the community. Outside of the church's thriving youth group and children's ministry – New Life operates an affordable private school (Salem Christian School), a free residential program for at-risk youth (Axis Teen Center) and an intensive discipleship program for college age students (Chicago Master's Commission). Under De Jesus' direction, New Life has launched several non-profit entities that help those who are hurting in a practical, tangible way. Among these are the Chicago Dream Center, New Life Family Services, Camden Dream Center, New Life Foundation, and over 110 ministries under the New Life umbrella. These organizations operate multi-faceted programs: food and clothing pantries, transitional shelters, residential recovery and job training programs, mobile soup kitchens for the homeless and shut-ins, gang and at risk youth intervention, human trafficking advocacy, world missions and humanitarian relief, after school tutoring and sports programming, mentoring, prison outreach, immigration advocacy, and much more.
While serving in ministry, Wilfredo De Jesús received a Bachelor's Degree in Communications from Trinity University and a Master's degree in Christian Ministries from North Park Theological Seminary. Rev. De Jesus is the Vice President of Social Justice for the nation's largest Hispanic Christian organization, The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference which serves 18,000 churches and close to 15 million born-again Christians. From 2004-2010, Rev. De Jesus served as a commissioner on the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals. He is sought after as a motivational speaker at various church and community events, conferences and school assemblies. De Jesus possesses a passion to save the lost and is committed in providing necessary services to the community. He currently resides in Chicago with his wife Elizabeth and their three children, Alexandria, Yesenia and Wilfredo, Jr.
Under the pastoral leadership of Rev. De Jesus, God has shaped New Life Covenant into a vibrant and caring church, one that truly lives out its mission to become a "church for the hurting." As he often makes others understand, his accomplishments are based on a life dedicated to God and His purposes. In other words, whatever the accomplishment, to God be the Glory!