Welcome to Calvary English Chapel! We are a Christ-centered, family-oriented, missions-focused church located in Wheeling, Illinois. Comprised largely of second-generation Korean-Americans, CEC draws its members from throughout the greater Chicagoland area. We hope that this website will serve as an introduction to our church. And we welcome you to come worship with us!
Mission Statement
Calvary English Chapel exists to glorify God by winning lives for Christ, nurturing them toward maturity in Christ and equipping them for the service of Jesus Christ.
Core Values
- Worship: Acknowledging our Creator & Savior as worthy.
- Word: Acknowledging that God reveals Himself through Scripture.
- Prayer: Acknowledging that we are utterly dependent on God alone.
- Fellowship: Acknowledging God’s perfect design for us in the context of the local church.
- Evangelism/Missions: Acknowledging our role in expanding God’s Kingdom.
Denomination and Governance
Calvary English Chapel is part of the North American Presbytery, a non-geographic English-speaking presbytery of the Korean American Presbyterian Church denomination (KAPC).
Our Staff
Pastor Michael Chang | Senior Pastor
Pastor Michael moved to the United States from Seoul, Korea, when he was 10 years old. His family settled down in Overland Park, Kansas, and at the age of twelve, he made a promise to God to become a pastor. He attended the University of Kansas where he attained a B.F.A. degree in Industrial Design and met his wife, Seung.
Following college, he worked in the design field for three years. It was during those times through difficult life circumstances that God reminded him of the pledge he made to Him many years ago. He enrolled in Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, for a semester and then transferred to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.
After moving to the Chicagoland area, he began working part-time at Calvary Presbyterian Church as the pastor of its children’s ministry. Since receiving his Master of Divinity from Trinity, he has become a full-time staff worker at Calvary and currently pastors the Calvary English Chapel. Pastor Michael and his wife have two wonderful daughters, Faith and Joy. He enjoys playing sports (basketball & golf, in particular) as well as reading and watching martial arts movies.
Favorite Bible verse: Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Pastor Mark Lim | Associate Pastor
After having spent his elementary years in Minnesota and his teenage years in Southern California, God eventually led Mark to the greater Chicagoland area to attend Wheaton College where he received his B.A. in Philosophy and Biblical Studies. While attending Wheaton College, he met his wife, Debbie, a Chicago born native. Rather than returning to Southern California, Mark decided to attend Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for his M.Div. and Th.M. While in seminary, Mark had served as a part-time college pastor at Calvary English Chapel (CEC) from 1999-2004. After completing his graduate degree, Mark and Debbie headed west to a small town in Arizona to work in his family’s business. While working in the hospitablity industry was a profitable experience for him personally, the Lord eventually called Mark back to CEC in 2006 to serve as a full-time pastor overseeing the singles ministry and missions. Then in 2013, Mark and his family moved to NE Asia, together with three other families sent by CEC, to help establish and operate an English language school. After completing their 3 year term, the Lim’s returned to Chicago in 2016, where Mark has resumed his previously held pastoral position. Mark and Debbie have 4 children, Elliot, Maggie, Annie and Miles. They are thankful to be back home, excited to do life again with their covenant community and grow old together in the faith.
Favorite Bible verse: Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Pastor Joe Chun | Associate Pastor
Joe was born in the Southern California but grew up in the suburbs of Boston, MA. He now considers the greater Chicago area as home.
Joe received a degree in sociology from Davidson College, and went on to receive an M.Div from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Prior to serving at Calvary Joe has served in various ministry roles, including youth pastor, English ministry pastor and worship pastor. Joe and his wife, Peggy, have three children, Noah, Naomi and Natalie.
Favorite Bible verse: Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Daniel Kim | Youth Ministry
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Peggy Chun | Children’s Ministry
Having grown up at Calvary, Peggy is delighted to return to CEC to serve in the children’s ministry. After graduating from college, she taught science for five years at a local high school. Desiring to be equipped for ministry and possibly missions, Peggy went to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and there received her M.Div. and M.A. in Educational Ministry. It is in seminary that she also met her husband, Joe. They are happy to be serving together at the same church and have three children, Noah, Naomi and Natalie. Before returning to Calvary, Peggy was a children’s pastor in Boston and also a stay-at-home mom. Peggy enjoys singing, being creative and planning family adventures.
Favorite Bible verse: Jeremiah 29:10-14, “This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
Our Story
Calvary English Chapel (CEC) held its first service in 1992. It was planted to provide a ministry for English-speaking second-generation Korean-Americans that attended Calvary Presbyterian Church (CPC), a Korean immigrant church originally planted in Des Plaines, IL. Today CEC and CPC worship alongside each other as two separate churches in partnership.
CEC has grown in the past twenty years, and it now includes a growing college, youth and children’s ministry. However, the church believes that ministry still needs to be personalized for each individual, and small group meetings and dedicated pastors for each age group help to achieve this.
For the past twenty years, several important questions have shaped the ministry and vision of CEC:
How can we preserve the faith of Korean Christians who are increasingly acculturated to American culture and English language, but who are not yet assimilated to the mainstream church? How does an ethnic church meet the particular needs of its congregation while also staying true to the identity and calling of God’s universal church? And what role does this church play in expanding God’s Kingdom?
Pastor Michael Chang is the senior pastor of CEC. He has served at Calvary for over twenty years. During this time CEC has sought to create a unique ministry that meets the challenges of an immigrant population undergoing change and transition. As the church has grown, its ministries have become more specialized for the particular needs of families, single adults and college students. CEC is also seeking to make an impact on local and overseas communities through outreach and missions.
At CEC, we continually look to God as the author of our story. We are excited for what’s to come, and we welcome you to come and be a part of it!
What We Believe
Calvary English Chapel Statement of Faith
Calvary English Chapel holds to the reformed tradition and is part of The Korean American Presbyterian Church.
We hold these twelve articles as a summary of the important teachings in Scripture and of The Westminster Confession of Faith.
Article 1
The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and duty.
Article 2
There is but one God and He alone is to be worshipped. He is a Spirit, self-existent, omnipresent, yet distinct from all other spirits and from material things; infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, holiness, justice, goodness, truth and love.
Article 3
In the Godhead, there are three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
Article 4
All things visible and invisible were created by God by the word of His power, and are preserved and governed by Him so that, while He is in no way the Author of sin, He works all things according to the counsel of His will, and they serve the fulfillment of His wise, good, and holy purpose.
Article 5
God created man, male and female, after His own image, in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, with dominion over the creatures. All men have the same origin and are brethren.
Article 6
Our first parents, being free to choose between good and evil, and being tempted, sinned against God; and all mankind, descending by ordinary generation from Adam, the head of the race, sinned in him, and fell with him. To their original guilt and corruption, those capable of so doing have added actual transgressions. All justly deserve His wrath and punishment in this present life and in that which is to come.
Article 7
To save men from the guilt, corruptions and penalty of sin, and to give them eternal life, God, in His infinite love, sent into the world His eternal and only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom alone God has become incarnate, and through whom alone men can be saved. The eternal Son became true man, and was and continues to be true God and true man, in two distinct natures, and one person forever. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary, yet without sin. For sinful men, He perfectly obeyed the law of God, and offered Himself a true and perfect sacrifice to satisfy Divine justice and reconcile men to God. He died on the cross, was buried and rose again from the dead on the third day. He ascended to the right hand of God, where He makes intercession for His people, and whence He shall come again to raise the dead, and to judge the world.
Article 8
The Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, makes men partakers of salvation, convincing them of their sin and misery and enlightening their minds in the knowledge of Christ, renewing their wills, persuading and enabling them to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered them in the Gospel, and working in them all the fruits of righteousness.
Article 9
While God chose the people in Christ before the foundation of the world, that they should be holy and without blemish before Him in love, having foreordained them unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, unto Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on them in the beloved; He makes a full and free offer of salvation to all men, and commands them to repent of their sins, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, and to live a humble, holy life after His example, and in obedience to God’s revealed will.
Those who believe in Christ and obey Him are saved, the chief benefits being that they receive justification, adoption into the number of the sons of God, sanctification through the indwelling of the Spirit and eternal glory. Believers may also in this life enjoy assurance of their salvation. In His gracious work, the Holy Spirit uses the means of grace, especially the Word, the sacraments and prayer.
Article 10
The sacraments instituted by Christ are Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is the washing with water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and is the sign and seal of our union to Christ, of regeneration, and of the renewing of the Holy Spirit, and our engagement to be the Lord’s. It is administered to those who profess their faith in Christ and to their children.
The Lord’s Supper is the partaking of the bread and of the cup as a memorial of Christ’s death, and is a sign and seal of the benefits thereof to believers. It is to be observed by His people till He comes in token of their faith in Him and His sacrifice, of their appropriation of its benefits, and of their future engagement to serve Him, of their communion with Him and with one another.
The benefits of the Sacraments are not from any virtue in them or in him who administers them, but only from the blessing of Christ and the working of His Spirit in them that by faith receive them.
Article 11
It is the duty of all believers to unite in Church fellowship, to observe the sacraments and other ordinances of Christ, to obey His laws, to continue in prayer, to keep holy the Lord’s Day, to meet together for His worship, to wait upon the preaching of His word, to give as God may prosper them, to manifest a Christ-like spirit among themselves and toward all men, to labor for the extension of Christ’s kingdom throughout the world, and to wait for His glorious appearing.
Article 12
At the last day, the dead shall be raised, and all shall appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and shall receive according to the deeds done in the present life, whether good or bad. Those who have believed in Christ and obeyed Him, shall be openly acquitted and received into glory; but the unbelieving and wicked, being condemned, shall suffer the punishment due to their sins.
Contact Us
Church Office
The church office is located at:
720 McHenry Road
Wheeling, Illinois 60090
Any correspondence should be sent there or to the Administrative Assistant.
Office Hours
Tuesday–Friday: 10am–4pm
Saturday: 9am–12pm
Phone
847.459.3482