Pastor Corey Brooks spent nearly a year on a Chicago rooftop. He wasn't just raising money for a community center — he was reviving the American Dream.
One rarely hears of the American Dream these days. The belief that anyone can move upward and achieve their own version of success regardless of what class or zip code they were born into has taken a beating in recent years.
"That is why it is so important for me to believe in the American Dream," the pastor told me."If I don’t believe in it, don’t talk about it, don’t model it, then how do they know the dream exists?" At that moment of jubilation, as he descended from the roof, he believed that building the community center would not be far off. He had no idea he would be in for a long 10 year haul of false starts.
I knew he was leaving out the many tragedies he encountered along the way, including an aspiring construction worker shot dead from behind as he walked to the mart on an errand for his mother. Most people would have cracked under the burden the pastor carries. Grooms’ words made me aware of how powerful the pastor’s faith was. When he decided to go back onto the roof on Nov. 20, 2021 — 10 years after his first rooftop journey — he had tried everything imaginable to raise the $35 million needed to build the community center debt free. He reached out to donors, talked to politicians, dined with VIPs, and, in the end, he realized that the only thing he had in his power was his faith.
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