What We Believe
About
Living Word Christian Center is a Word of Faith, non-denominational, full gospel church. Our mission is reaching and harvesting lost souls for Christ and teaching the Body of Christ how to effectively apply God’s principles to have victory in every area of life. Living Word is a place where people can come to learn to use the Word of God as the Covenant of God, thus building a relationship with God, and not just being religious.
God is raising up churches that are equipped and committed to managing the great end-time harvest of souls that are coming into the Kingdom of God. As Veronica and I have stepped out in faith to fulfill the call God has placed on our lives, He has blessed this ministry tremendously. We have grown from a storefront church with a handful of members on the west side of Chicago to a fellowship of well over 20,000 people. And this is just the beginning.
The Lord has given us a vision for building His Kingdom which has resulted in the manifestations of the: Living Word Bible Training Center, Living Word World Missions Center, Faith Ministries Alliance, Living Word Christian Academy, The Joseph Center©, Joseph Business School, Royal Christian Bookstores and Cafes, Forest Park Plaza, and in Tuskegee Alabama, Washington Plaza and Tuskegee Christian Center. As you explore our website, you will see some of those ministries that make up Living Word Christian Center and the impact that they have had on individual’s lives. My prayer is that your heart will be encouraged and your faith ignited by these testimonies of God’s goodness. Our desire is that you will want to go after everything God has promised for you and everyone who believes. God is no respecter of persons. What He has done here at Living Word is His desire for the Church globally. And God is able to do “exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power [faith] that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20).
Thank you for spending time with us and allowing us to share with you the goodness of God and what He has done in our lives and wants to do in yours. God Bless you. We look forward to seeing you at Living Word Christian Center.
In His Service,
Dr. Bill Winston
Pastor
History
The history of Living Word Christian Center dates back to 1988 when Bill and Veronica Winston conducted small evangelistic meetings at the Quality Inn Hotel located just west of downtown Chicago. Still living in Minnesota, they traveled to Chicago on weekends to hold two-day “Faith Crusades,” where the crowds would sometimes average less than 20 people. Pastor would teach the Word of God, and Sister Veronica would play the guitar for praise and worship. It was not long before the Lord spoke to Pastor Winston to leave Minnesota and move his young family to Chicago permanently. He obeyed and with only $200 — but filled with the Word of God — they moved to Chicago in the fall of 1988. Pastor Winston’s original visin in moving to Chicago was to start a Bible training school. However, as God directed his steps, he was led to start a church and founded Living Word Church of Chicago in 1989. With less than 50 members, the church began meeting in a humble store front located on Chicago’s West Side, at the corner of Lake and Pulaski streets. A year later the church moved to the nearby suburb of Forest Park, at 7306 West Madison Street. With this move in 1990, the church name was changed to Living Word Christian Center.
But the church move was not without its challenges. After signing the lease, more than half the membership decided not to make the move to Forest Park. With a large monthly lease and only a handful of members. But with God as Pastor Winston’s source, not people, Pastor Winston faithfully confessed God’s Word for increase and church growth. New members steadily came each year, and the church’s growth soon led to the need for a still larger worship center. From 1994 through 1997, while searching for a permanent location, the church held its services at the Chez Roué Banquet Hall not far from Madison Street.
The ministry eventually purchased the Forest Park Mall, a 33-acre shopping mall that had been in decline for several years. With about 5,000 members, the church held its first worship services in a vacant home improvement store within the mall on December 31, 1997, New Year’s Eve night.
Today, Living Word Christian Center is a 20,000-member multi-cultural church that holds its services in a state-of-the-art worship center.
Mission Statement
To empower Believers through teaching, preaching, and demonstration of the uncompromised Word of God, to fulfill their highest calling, and to change this world through Jesus Christ.
The Lord has given us a vision for building his kingdom which has resulted in the manifestations of the:
Living Word Bible Training Center
Living Word World Missions Center
Faith Ministries Alliance
The Joseph Center
The Joseph Business School
Royal Christian Bookstores and Cafe
Forest Park Plaza
Harvest 365 Resturant
Washington Plaza
Beliefs
This church accepts the Holy Scriptures as the revealed will of God, the all-sufficient rule for faith and practice, and for the purpose of maintaining general unity, adopts the following statement of fundamental truths:
1 We believe the Bible to be the inspired and only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
2 We believe that there is one God; eternally existent in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
3 We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in the blessed hope of His personal, visible, future return to this earth to receive to Himself His blood-bought Church that it may be with Him forever.
4 We believe that the only means of being cleansed from sin is through repentance and faith in the precious blood of Christ.
5 We believe that regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for personal salvation.
6 We believe in the redemptive work of Christ on the cross and that it provides healing of the human body in answer to believing prayer.
7 We believe that, according to Acts 2:4, the baptism with the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, is given to Believers who ask for it.
8 We believe in the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian enables them to live a holy life.
9 We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost, the one to everlasting life and the other to everlasting damnation.
10 We believe in water baptism by immersion and observance of the Lord’s Supper.
Beliefs
This church accepts the Holy Scriptures as the revealed will of God, the all-sufficient rule for faith and practice, and for the purpose of maintaining general unity, adopts the following statement of fundamental truths:
1 We believe the Bible to be the inspired and only infallible, authoritative Word of God.2 We believe that there is one God; eternally existent in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
3 We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Rice, His virgin birth, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in the blessed hope of His personal, visible, future return to this earth to receive to Himself His blood-bought Church that it may be with Him forever.
4 We believe that the only means of being cleansed from sin is through repentance and faith in the precious blood of Christ.
5 We believe that regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for personal salvation.
6 We believe in the redemptive work of Christ on the cross and that it provides healing of the human body in answer to believing prayer.
7 We believe that, according to Acts 2:4, the baptism with the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, is given to Believers who ask for it.
8 We believe in the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian enables them to live a holy life.
9 We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost, the one to everlasting life and the other to everlasting damnation.
10 We believe in water baptism by immersion and observance of the Lord’s Supper.
Vision
Our Vision is to build a church without walls that empowers believers to fulfill their highest calling in God in every area of life!
The Lord spoke to Pastor Winston some years ago and said “train them up and send them out,” and for more than two decades the Living Word Bible Training Center has faithfully fulfilled this mandate.
Tuskegee Christian Center is a Word of Faith, non-denominational, full gospel church.
From one-on-one evangelism to correspondence/ministry in local prisons, to supplying food or supplies to areas under prayerful direction, to deliverance from addictions, to ministering to Pastors, to reaching the world through television, radio, internet, and crusades, we are touching and changing the world for Jesus Christ.
Participants will be empowered to take methods and teachings endowed from God and to apply them to other areas of their lives.
The Believers Walk of Faith is the international television and radio broadcast of Bill Winston Ministries. The Believers Walk of Faith program is currently airing in major television and radio outlets worldwide.
Living Word Christian Center is a place to serve and be served. God has a place and a purpose for every Believer. At Living Word, there are hundreds of places in which a person can serve using their God-given gifts, talents, and abilities
The Joseph Business School (JBS) is an accredited, world class, state-of-the-art business school that uses practical and biblical principles to empower adults to develop indispensable skills as successful entrepreneurs and business leaders.
At Living Word Christian Center, God has provided us with a multi-faceted platform of education and training vehicles in which we can empower, equip, and train up Believers so that they can fulfill their highest calling in God and change this world through Jesus Christ.
