Chris Butler is a pastor and “serial organizer” hailing from the Southside of Chicago. He and his amazing wife, Aziza have six wonderful children. Pastor Chris leads Chicago Embassy Church Network, a mission-based network church in America’s third largest city and is an experienced organization builder. Pastor Chris got a very early start in community organizing when he joined a small neighborhood organization in Chicago’s South Austin community at age 12. By age 18, Chris had completed two organizing internships and launched his first organization, Organized Students of Chicago.

Pastor Chris has organized in several places and situations. He organized youth and young adults in Chicago’s Southland for then State Senator Barack Obama’s 2004 Senate Campaign, led the Field Operations for A+ Illinois (the organization blazed a trail for school funding reform in the state), spearheaded organizing efforts to improve school choice in Chicago through New Schools Chicago. In 2013, Chris founded Citizen Consulting Group Inc. an organizing and communications consulting firm where he helped launch organizations in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington State.

In 2016, Pastor Chris was installed as the Senior Leader at Chicago Embassy Church in the Englewood community of Chicago. Under his leadership, the congregation relocated to the Hyde Park community where it had been established in 1985 by Bishop Edward and Apostle Katie Peecher. In just over 5 years under Pastor Chris’ leadership, CEC completed its first missional church plant – The Gathering at McDonalds (in Jackson Park) – and established a campus in South Holland.

Having worked across the spectrum of organizations and types of engagement, Chris’ often lends insight and leadership on organization building and civic engagement to elected officials, organization heads, community organizers, and other faith leaders. Pastor Chris co-authored “Compassion and Conviction: The AND Campaigns Guide To Faithful Civic Engagement” with Justin Giboney and Micheal Wear.