FAITH-COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION

Dr. John Fuder

Dr. John “Doc” Fuder serves as the Director of Faith-Community Mobilization for Together Chicago and leads the Chicagoland United in Prayer movement.

Doc is the Founder and Director of Heart for the City and has a passion for equipping the broader body of Christ to engage more deeply in contextualizing the Gospel in their local communities. His passion to teach and train others to engage the city comes from his many years of experience in ministry in California and training students in Urban Studies at Moody Theological Seminary. Doc is the author of A Heart for the City, A Heart for the Community, Neighborhood Mapping, and the Chicago Neighborhood Prayer Guide.

Doc holds a B.R.E. from Prairie Bible College, an M.A. in Religion from Pepperdine University and a Ph.D. from Biola University. He and his wife, Nellie, have three children and two granddaughters and live on Chicago’s north side and are part of Park Community Church.

Paco Amador

Pastor Paco Amador was born in Mexico City and has been pastoring the New Life congregation in Little Village for 20 years. The Little Village version of New Life Community Church is a family of faith with multiple services and various English and Spanish efforts such as a street outreach, violence prevention, a robust welcoming ministry for new migrants, among several other efforts. “Our focus in Little Village is to be fully immersed in loving every one of our neighbors, serving each other’s needs and demonstrating through our lives the redemptive beauty of the King.”

Paco is currently working on a doctoral degree, has run the Chicago Marathon twice, has 5 daughters and 3 sons, loves bike riding through the various city neighborhoods. Pastor P and his wife Sylvia have been married for 30 years and can’t imagine a better place to live than Little Village.

Gineen Cali

Gineen graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a BA in Arts and Sciences. After college, she worked in the airline industry where she developed a passion for seeking out what is unique in people and places—in how others live and see the world. She has a gift of empathy, and a desire to help others find their strengths and connect with a supportive community: believing we are at our best when the weak and strong work together.

She holds a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology from Trinity International University, and has worked in nonprofit and private practice providing counseling, coaching, and assessment at various locations in the city: in the Loop, Rogers Park, and as part of Lawndale Christian Center.

Gineen and her husband Joe live on the Northside of Chicago, and partner with 20th District CAPS Faith-based Subcommittee and with the Chicago Police Department’s Custom Notifications initiative, and are a part of Chicagoland United in Prayer.

Elle Davis

Elle Davis, MSW, is a dynamic nonprofit leader with more than 20 years of experience in organizational management, program design, and building powerful partnerships that move missions forward. She is also a fierce champion of resilience after experiencing profound loss. Elle shares her story through her TEDx Talk, “Embracing Resilience as Your Superpower,” and her book The Art of the Bounce Back: 31 Days to Resilient Living.

Elle earned her Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in Social Work from Creighton University and New York University, respectively. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., where she is a charter member of the Chicago Metropolitan Alumnae Chapter.

At her core, Elle is a servant leader. She is part coach, part cheerleader, and all heart, committed to creating lasting impact. She lives in Chicago’s historic Bronzeville neighborhood with her daughter, Simone.

Kimberly Harshman

Kimberly Harshman did her Pastoral studies at Global University with Assemblies of God. After nearly 20 years in youth and children’s ministry, she felt a call on her life to make prayer and intercession her full time occupation. She participated in an internship with International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC), where she later went on staff as a full time Intercessor in the 24/7 Global Prayer Room. As an overflow of that prayer, she worked as the Prayer Coordinator for the anti-human trafficking organization, Exodus Cry. She coordinated global prayer watches for the ending of human trafficking and managed the Human Trafficking Museum.

Kimberly has brought her passion for prayer to Together Chicago by mobilizing Prayer Partners to pray for the Five Focus Areas of Together Chicago. Each week she gathers the Leadership Team’s prayer needs and emails them out to our Prayer Partners. She also leads the Together Chicago Prayer Partners Prayer Zoom two days a week.

Kimberly leads an initiative called Love Your School Prayer Corners, where Prayer Champions are signing up all over the city and suburbs to adopt a school in their neighborhood where they go and pray each week for students, teachers and staff. As an overflow of her prayer for the youth in our city, she helps lead our Intervention Connection Team, to provide resources and direction to youth who have been involved in gun violence and crime.

Support Kimberly’s Prayer Ministry

Scott Parker

Scott Parker is the director of the Night Church initiative under Together Chicago. He is a pastor and video producer. The owner of Change Media Group, his work amplifies voices and fosters social change through video. He founded Starfish Studios NFP, where he mentored young filmmakers to better understand how to tell their own stories.  A prayer planter and connector, Scott excels at building collaborative teams and mobilizing churches, performing artists and community leaders to engage those who are most likely to be the victims or perpetrators of violence through hotspot occupation in positive and disarming ways.

Bishop Ed Peecher

Chicago native. One of 7 children. Revolutionary.

After years of leading Chicago Embassy Church, in 2017 Ed became a spiritual advisor to Chicago business and government leaders and is currently Chief Church Liaison Officer at Together Chicago.

As a child of the 1960’s Civil Rights movement, Ed has been involved in community relations for nearly 50 years. As a young adult, he joined the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, to bring awareness to the national injustices debilitating the African-American community. In 1969, he was employed by AT&T and served the organization for many years. While at At&T, Ed started a bible study in its downtown headquarters after receiving the calling from Jesus Christ. In 1983 New Heritage Christian Center was formed and two years later Ed resigned from his Account Executive position to pastor full-time.

Ed holds a Certificate in Pastoral Studies from Moody Bible Institute (1975). He continues to guest-teach at several Bible Colleges and Seminaries. He has groomed many spiritual leaders, many of whom are serving as senior pastors locally and internationally.

Ed and his wife, Katie, have 3 children, two of which have proceeded them into eternity. 

Nate Tubbs

Nate Tubbs is a communications professional and community organizer with a passion for his neighborhood and collaborative partnerships within the city of Chicago. He has worked in the non-profit sector for many years in strategy formulation, marketing, project management, tech systems infrastructure, and graphic and web design.

Since 2015, Nate has organized a coalition of individuals and churches working to develop habits of united prayer and collective action in Chicago through Chicagoland United in Prayer. He has coordinated monthly meetings at locations across the city and seasonal actions that convene hundreds of churches and organizations, and thousands of individuals. Nate helped pioneer the Building Blocks of Peace spring training series which features local leaders as practitioners who model peacemaking and are committed to strategic locations (blocks, neighborhoods, police districts, schools). Nate helped create the annual Hands Across Chicago prayer and peacemaking event that mobilizes hundreds of people over Memorial Day weekend at dozens of locations across Chicago.

In 2021, Nate helped restart the Island Civic Association (ICA), a neighborhood association that brings residents together to improve the quality of life of The Island neighborhood in the Austin community on Chicago’s West side. He has served as President of the ICA for four years.

Nate co-created and co-stewards a community third space in his neighborhood called The Island Oasis Nature Play Garden, a NeighborSpace garden that provides space for kids to play, residents to gather and enjoy natural beauty.

He is a Chicago Peace Fellows graduate (2023), a nine-month training cohort and growing alumni network that creates a community of practice and peer support among community-based leaders in Chicago to promote peace at a grassroots level.

Nate serves as Chair on the Local School Council at GR Clark Elementary, a K-8 Chicago Public School. He has served on the LSC for eight years.

He convenes the Grounded Faith initiative in Chicago, a learning community that seeks to connect young adults and churches for the good of their neighborhood.

Nate and his wife and their three children live in The Island neighborhood, Austin community, on Chicago’s West side.