Apostolic Faith Church Welcomes You!

The year was 1915 and Elder A. R. Schooler, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, was the leader of a small group who met in a home near 30th and Dearborn in Chicago for weekly worship and Bible study. Soon, the modest congregation journeyed from the home to a two-story, four-flat building at 3813 South Indiana Avenue, their new place of worship, The Apostolic Faith Church.

The year 1919 marked a time of growing racial injustice and prejudice in the South, and a young man named John Silas Holly left Louisiana and journeyed to Chicago for a better life. Little did he realize that the new "life" he sought would be one dedicated to his being a disciple of truth in 59 years of unwavering service to God and mankind. Young "Johnny" was baptized into the faith and received the gift of the Holy Ghost in 1919 and entered into the ministry in 1920, serving faithfully and fervently at the Apostolic Faith Church under Elder Schooler. In 1924, he was named the assistant pastor and in 1931, upon the departure of Elder Schooler, was appointed pastor by Bishop G. T. Haywood, Presiding Bishop of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, the religious organization that would later elevate him to the office of Bishop in 1953, a position he held in honor for over 26 years.

Elder Holly’s journey in Pentecostalism led him down many roads, but he was not alone in his ministry, for in February 1922 he married a lovely, young school teacher, Effie Genoa Gordon, who would labor by his side throughout their 57 years of marriage. God did not want Sister Holly to live in the shadow of her husband’s great ministry; He anointed and favored her as a "midwife in Zion" through prayer and altar work, as well as in her world-renown gracious hospitality and excellent culinary skills.

It was through the tireless and often unremitting leadership of Bishop and Sister Holly that the Apostolic Faith Church completely remodeled the four-flat building into a two-story church structure with a 500-seat auditorium. This building project served as a spiritual and natural victory through the faith of the pastor, his wife and the small congregation, for not only was the job completed, but the mortgage on the property was paid off in a short time... all during the height of The Great Depression.

God continued to shower His grace, mercy and divine favor upon the Apostolic Faith Church, even on October 16, 1979 when Bishop John Silas Holly was "called home" to be with the Lord. Bishop Holly’s prophetic words still ring true "...

I have never seen a Holiness Church go down because it lost its pastor, God always has someone to take his (the pastor’s) place..."