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Mobilize Me

  • Jim Queen
    Chicago, Illinois

    Jim Queen: 61
    Mission: Associational missionary for Chicago Metropolitan Baptist Association; evangelism through community ministry
    Prayer request: A new ministry center; church planters who understand the urban context; construction workers for church projects
    Nothing excites Jim Queen more than seeing Christians and churches develop a fresh vision for reaching the people around them for Christ. As executive director of the Chicago Metropolitan Baptist Association (CMBA), Queen spends much of his time dreaming of ways Chicago churches can touch their city with Christ's love and His message of salvation. His wife, Karen, manages the CMBA office and coordinates the women's ministry.

    "I want to help create a passion in our churches and in the hearts of Christian people for the lost," Queen says.

    Sometimes Queen helps cultivate that passion by suggesting new ways churches can impact those around them for Christ. Other times he discovers existing church strategies that are working well and spreads the word.

    Last year one church opened its doors to serve a Thanksgiving meal to all who wanted to come. Those attending heard the gospel as they waited for their meal. More than 20 said they wanted further church involvement. The event helped the church establish credibility and build a bridge to people who normally stayed on the other side of its walls.

    Queen says building credibility and prayer are the two most important strategies for churches that want to reach the more than 8 million people of the Chicago metro area. He has helped lead efforts to establish a network of prayer coordinators in Baptist churches throughout the city. Queen believes that prayer activates people to share Christ and paves the way for faith-sharing opportunities. In his own life, he creates opportunities to talk about God by offering to pray for those he meets.

    "I have never met anyone who said, 'No, don't pray for me.' It seems to be a way God is opening doors," he says.

    Queen's strategy paid off recently while getting his hair cut. For some time, he had been offering to pray for his barber. During his most recent visit, the barber asked Queen questions about Jesus, and Queen shared the gospel with him. The barber later thanked Queen and said what a help their conversation had been to him.

    "Jim has created a climate of prayer," says Phil Miglioratti, a pastor who serves as prayer coordinator for the CMBA.

    NAMB recently chose Chicago as one of its Strategic Focus Cities from 1999 to 2000. Local, state and national Southern Baptist resources will be targeted at Chicago in an effort to use media, church planting and evangelism to introduce the people of the city to Christ.

    As Chicago churches face challenges from poverty in the inner city to hectic schedules and materialism in the suburbs, Queen feels an urgency to which he prays Chicago churches will respond. "There's a spiritual hunger in our nation, and the question is who's going to fill it. I hope that in Chicago we will fill it with the gospel."

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