Victory Apostolic Church Celebrates with the Black History Month Worship Experience ft Lieutenant Governor of IL, Juliana Stratton

Victory Apostolic Church started with a call from God to Elder Andrew Singleton, Jr. in 1996 to start a church in the southern suburbs of Chicago. Elder Singleton and his family obeyed that call and went in similar fashion to Abraham, not knowing where they were going but trusting God to lead the way. God blessed Elder Singleton. He sent others who had also felt the call of God, to assist in planting Victory. These are the seven founding families and first twelve members of Victory Apostolic Church: Harold and Jackie Matthews, John and Bonnie Matthews, Jeffrey and Brenda Varnado, Marcellus and Stephanie Lanfair, Gwen Benton, Isaac B. Greene, and of course, Pastor and First Lady Brenda Singleton. On August 4, 1996, the first service of Victory Apostolic Church was held at the former Ramada Inn in Harvey, Illinois. Elder Singleton informed the congregation that in two months, Victory Apostolic Church would be moving into a leased, renovated church facility in Homewood, Illinois. However, a zoning issue occurred which Victory lost. But the church continued to grow. In December 1996, the Lord led Pastor Singleton to begin negotiations for the purchase of the former Tivoli Restaurant which was located in Chicago Heights, Illinois, one block east of 196th Halsted. Again, the Pastor verified the zoning and received approval from the Zoning Board and Planning Commission of Chicago Heights, Illinois only to be initially denied for political reasons by the City Council. The church prayed and prevailed, and on the fourth try, the request for a special use permit was brought before the City Council for approval. Final approval was granted on June 10, 1997. On August 31, 1997, we declared victory; our first service was held in our completely renovated $500,000 facility with a membership of 100. From 1998 to 2005 - Victory went through several renovations including one costing $1,000,000 in 2002. Services increased from one to two; and then to three Sunday worship services by 2004. This exponential growth forced Victory to begin searching for land to handle its growth on a long-term basis. 2005 - Began a $3 million capital campaign to build a $16 million dollar new church in Matteson. The Harris Bank committed to finance $11 million. 2006 - In October Victory sold its former facility, to Christian Concepts International Ministries, Inc. in a sale/ leaseback arrangement which ended when we moved into our new church. 2007- We began site work and in November we hired our general contractor, Henry Bros. Company. 2008 was a very challenging year for Victory as we were faced with the challenge of overcoming a nearly $2 million dollar project shortfall. Work nearly halted in the midst of loan renegotiations with the Harris Bank and raising additional money. 2009 - God blessed us to persevere and on February 22, 2009 we relocated our ministry to our state of the art worship facility with a 2,500 seat sanctuary. From all sources Victory raised $6 million of the total $20 million dollar project cost. To God be the glory! Eighteen years from inception, the church membership has experienced tremendous growth from 12 members to almost 3,000 members.