Former St. Jude property in Joliet to remain a church after Victory City purchase

Joliet — The Diocese of Joliet has confirmed that Victory City Church has purchased the property of the former St. Jude Church and school and will use it as a new center for its ministry.

St. Jude was closed in June and placed on the market in September for $1.75 million, a price Victory City paid for the 7-acre parcel.

The property, located at 2200 McDonough St. in Joliet, includes the 600-seat church, the former kindergartern through eighth-grade school, as well as a chapel, rectory, convent and gymnasium, all of which Victory City intends to use.

“We will be keeping all the St. Jude buildings,” Victory City lead pastor Dr. Rusty Railey said. “We are going to be doing a lot of renovation though.”

Victory City closed on the deal for the property with the Diocese of Joliet on Jan. 27. Railey said he hopes to have the buildings ready for use by the congregation in the fall.

Victory City currently has a church at 1741 Essington Road in Joliet.

One of the factors taken into consideration by the Diocese of Joliet in its decisions to close certain churches was their size and the amount of work the facilities needed. Most of the churches that were shuttered, including St. Jude, were in need of maintenance or renovation.

Railey said one of the first priorities for Victory City will be replacing the roofs on the sanctuary and school buildings of the St. Jude property, which now will be known as Victory Church South.

The interior of the church itself also will be remodeled to closer match the style of the existing Victory City Church, which will allow it to be used for other community events.

“We have basically outgrown our current location,” Railey said. “We were planning on building a new sanctuary on our current 36-acre property, but when St. Jude became available, we realized that would be a lot quicker way to expand than the four to five years new construction is going to take.”

Victory City is affiliated with the Assemblies of God and is the largest non-Catholic church in the city of Joliet, with about 2,000 worshipers attending its services each weekend.

The church also runs a preschool and offers after-school programming, tutoring, Bible study groups and social organizations for all members of the community.

“They could have chosen the other route, but I think people seem very happy that it’s not being torn down and that it’s going to stay a church.”

—  Dr. Rusty Railey, lead pastor of Victory City Church

Railey emphasized that the St. Jude purchase does not signal a move for the church, but it is an expansion to increase its capacity and provide more services to the community. The planned construction of a new sanctuary on the Essington property still is expected to happen by 2030.

“Part of our master plan is always doing more for the community,” Railey said. “This new space means we have more room to journey with people and help them with whatever life stage they find themselves at.”

Among the plans for the St. Jude property are expanded service offerings in both English and Spanish, increased educational capacity, and the creation of community athletic teams that could use the gym.

In the longer term, Railey also suggested that the church may explore the option of expanding the school in the St. Jude space from just preschool to offer a K-8 or K-12 education. It also may create a community workout space in the gym, although Railey noted those plans are hypothetical and need to be given more consideration by the congregation’s leadership.

“We always work really closely with the community and the city,” Railey said of the planned updates. “We want to be a solution for the community, not a problem.”

As part of its work with the city, Victory City has previously offered its Essington buildings to be used as relief centers after storms, including last summer, and said it would do the same at the new campus.

“Our churches aren’t fortresses,” Railey said. “We’re not gating them off. If there’s a problem, we want to know how we can solve it.”

To that same effect, Railey noted that most of the services provided by Victory City Church are offered for free or at a low cost to make them accessible to everyone.

Railey said other interested buyers had proposed demolishing the buildings and erecting a warehouse on the property, something he expressed gratitude to the Diocese of Joliet for avoiding by choosing Victory City.

“We love our Catholic friends,” Railey said. “We are very aligned with the Catholic Church from a mission perspective of helping people. They could have chosen the other route, but I think people seem very happy that it’s not being torn down and that it’s going to stay a church.”

St. Jude is the first of the shuttered Joliet and Crest Hill parishes to be sold by the Diocese of Joliet. The former St. Anne and Sacred Heart churches also currently are for sale. Revenue generated by the sale of the properties will go to support the newly merged parishes into which each closed church was folded.