North Park Theological Seminary Graduate Named to 2013 TIME 100 List

Rev. Wilfredo De Jesús is senior pastor of the country's largest Assemblies of God congregation.

Rev. Wilfredo De Jesús also featured in magazine's cover story this month

CHICAGO (April 25, 2013) — Rev. Wilfredo De Jesús, a graduate of North Park Theological Seminary, was named this week to TIME's list of the 100 most influential people in the world, along with other honorees such as singer Jay Z, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, actress Jennifer Lawrence, and tennis star Li Na. Earlier this month, De Jesús was featured in the magazine's cover story, "¡Evangélicos!," which noted rising numbers of Latino members in evangelical Protestant churches.

De Jesús is senior pastor, New Life Covenant Ministries, Chicago, the country's largest Assemblies of God congregation. He earned a master of arts in Christian ministry in 2006 from the Seminary, the graduate theological school of North Park University. De Jesús is known to his congregation and friends as "Pastor Choco."

Writing about De Jesús for TIME, Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, Calif., said De Jesús "embodies the true definition of what Christ said the church should be … Pastor Choco encourages others to go out into the community not just with words but with his own actions. Under his leadership, New Life is reaching out to the outcasts and forgotten in our society—the homeless, women suffering with addiction and prostitution, and young people in gangs," Warren wrote.

"But his influence spreads far beyond the Chicago area as vice president of social justice for the nation’s largest Hispanic Christian organization, the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference," Warren observed. "With Hispanics playing such a large role in the expansion of the evangelical church in the U.S. and their vast influence on the political landscape, Pastor Choco is and will continue to be a strong, ardent voice on the direction of our country."

Warren, a prominent U.S. church leader, is the best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life.

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