History
Matt Sweetman is the lead pastor of Destination Church. Matt and his wife Heather moved their family to Chicago in April 2009 and Destination Church immediately started gathering in a living room on the north side of Chicago. Having an existing connection with others in the city who wanted to help, things were quickly underway.
Much work was done throughout the first summer to get the word out. By September 2009 Destination moved to a Cafe close to the Addison Brown Line and started public Sunday morning services with a goal to increase the core group and build towards a launch date. After 6 months of steady growth Destination had to move again.
In February 2010 Sunday meetings moved to ComedySportz Theatre by the Belmont ‘L’ Station, right in the heart of Lakeview. With a soft launch on Easter Sunday 2010, Destination continued to build momentum towards a larger launch in the fall of 2010 with an impacting series titled YOU, SEX & GOD.
Having filled up ComedySportz Theatre by the end of the next summer is was time to move again. On Sunday August 28, 2011 Destination started meeting at Inter-American Magnet School, just East of the Addison Red line. This venue has provided excellent space for the children’s work and a larger auditorium for our Sunday gatherings.
Destination Church also gathers in midweek Small Groups in addition to our Sunday meeting. It’s been an exciting ride. You should come along and check out what God is building.
Matt’s Bio
I was born in 1979 in Brighton, England and became a Christian early on. After a powerful encounter with God I had an unquenchable zeal to share the gospel at school. I preached the gospel to my class and held weekly prayer meetings and Bible studies. A number of friends found faith in Christ through this awakening. This experience has shaped me forever.
By the age of 18 I found myself backslidden and apathetic for God. Thankfully God spoke to a friend who called me and offered me a position working with a youth group at a church. God turned my life around and called me immediately back to serving his purposes. I remember weeping before the Lord after I received that phone call. I remembered His goodness.
I always knew I had a calling on my life. I knew that I was destined to lead and create something new. In my 20’s I created a feature length movie, released a couple of songs on a joint album and taught myself web site design and development. I’ve always been drawn towards challenge, innovation and entrepreneurship. I’ve been self-employed for several years and have excelled in various industries.
Heather, my wife, grew up in the Midwest with church planting parents. Her father has planted 3 churches and sent out multiple leaders to start new churches. This kind of attitude and adventure is on both sides of our relationship. We are a missional family.
God clearly spoke to me at work one day about starting Destination Church. The Holy Spirit whispered to me “I’m with you all the way!” It was a broad promise but it was all I needed. After passing a comprehensive church planter assessment I took the plunge and left behind a successful marketing career in Kansas City and headed to St. Louis for an intensive year of training. Sometime after that God spoke to my wife and I independently about moving to Chicago after our year of Church Planting Training.
And here we are. My wife Heather and our three kids, Jones, Macrae and Paisley, have found Chicago as our new home and now we know that God had always planned for us to be in this city to start a new church. He has already joined others to help us pioneer this work and perhaps he is calling you as well?
