Return to Your First Love: Worshippers, Arise — A Windy City Worship Night with Eric Little

Saturday, November 15, 2025 • 6:30–8:00 p.m.
Anthem Church | 3850 W. Montrose Ave., Chicago, IL

On November 15, Windy City Worship convenes a Chicagoland-wide gathering at Anthem Church for an evening titled “Return to Your First Love: Worshippers, Arise.” Led by worship pastor Eric Little, the night is an invitation to a simple, stubbornly biblical idea: the Church is not a building; the Church is God’s people, called to love, unity, and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Eric has a way of talking that sounds like a song finding its chorus. He is careful with doctrine and lavish with mercy, the kind of leader who can quote Paul and then pivot to the streets of Chicago without losing the thread. “Returning to the first love,” he says, “is remembering why we’re even allowed to be in the body of Christ in the first place.” He names the center plainly: Christ crucified and risen, His blood atoning for sin, His Spirit indwelling believers (cf. John 3:16; Romans 3:23–25; Acts 2; 1 Corinthians 3:16). From there, a reorientation: “The buildings and organizations we attend on Sunday morning are not the Church itself. The Church is God’s people.”

This worship night is designed to make that theological claim concrete—voices mingling across denominations, ethnicities, and zip codes under no banner but Jesus.

His framework for unity is rooted in Scripture and expressed through song. He cites Paul’s counsel to the early believers: “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit; sing and make music from your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19; see also Colossians 3:16). For Pastor Eric, this is not pageantry; it’s ecclesiology. “Music isn’t worship itself,” he insists. “It’s an expression of the worship already in you—a life surrendered, obedient, loving your neighbor, praying when the Lord says pray.”

The organizing thesis is as pragmatic as it is pastoral: cultures differ; music bridges. In a city often sorted by preference and divided by politics, a room full of people singing the same truth becomes a counter-culture. “It’s the language that breaks barriers,” he says. “It softens hearts so the gospel can be preached.”

There’s a humility to his emphasis. He never reduces worship to a set list or a sonic brand. The songs are scaffolding; the point is the Presence. “We live in a new covenant where God doesn’t dwell in temples made by man alone—He resides in us,” Pastor Eric says (cf. Acts 17:24; 2 Corinthians 6:16). That conviction gives Windy City Worship its shape: low-ego leadership, high-yield participation, a bias for Scripture, prayer, and testimony.

The Biography: From Street Corners to the Altar

Pastor Eric is a pastor’s kid who wandered. He laughs at the memory of becoming a “knucklehead” around age 13—rebellious without explanation, bent by forces he couldn’t yet name. The music stayed; the obedience didn’t. He picked up drums at six or seven, played for church, and then spent a span flirting with danger. “Street activity,” he calls it now, plainspoken and unadorned.

Then came a revival night in a small Alabama church. He hadn’t planned to be there—a stranger offered him a ride home if he’d first come to the service. He accepted for the ride, not the altar. The altar found him anyway. A preacher called him forward, prophesied over his life, laid hands on him, and Pastor Eric encountered the Holy Spirit in a way that reordered his loyalties. “From that day on,” he says, “I’ve been running to the Lord and for the Lord.”

He studied, yes. But don’t expect him to wave his degress as his sole credentials. “I got some academia,” he says modestly, “but it was the encounter that showed me His love and truth.” That mixture—Scripture in the head, Spirit in the bones—animates his ministry now: a worship pastor who treats the gospel like oxygen and the city like a field ready for harvest.

Windy City Worship was born from a baton pass, not a brand plan. In 2023, Pastor Eric connected with Chicago Worship Culture, a collective founded by Joshua Timberlake. Rather than compete, Pastor Eric served. “God was already doing something—let me partner with what He’s doing,” he says. Months later, Timberlake sensed it was time to hand leadership forward. He told him: it’s about the vision living, not the name under it.

Windy City Worship became the next chapter of that story—a community shaped by unity over logos, Scripture over silos, and collaboration over control. The aim is not to siphon members from local churches but to stitch together the Body across congregations and traditions, so the Church in Chicago can sing with one voice (Romans 15:5–6).

Pastor Eric is candid about the tensions. Chicago knows how to unify—around sports, ward politics, block parties—but not always around Christ. Some congregations, especially homegrown ones, can be skittish about collaboration, worried they’ll lose people “as if people belong to them,” he says. His corrective is gentle and sharp at once: “We’re to steward and shepherd, but everyone belongs to God.” Windy City Worship wants to be a safe place for the hungry and the hurt, a proving ground for Ephesians 4 unity and John 17 oneness.

The title for November 15 reaches back to Revelation 2:4–5, where Jesus tells the church at Ephesus, “You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” He hears that as both rebuke and rescue—an invitation to remember, repent, and return.

Practically, that means a room where prayer is normal, Scripture is read aloud, and worship is participatory. Expect ancient words delivered with a present urgency: the centrality of Christ’s atoning work (Hebrews 9–10), the gift of the Spirit (Acts 2), the reality that believers are now the temple (1 Corinthians 3:16), and the call to love one another earnestly (1 Peter 4:8). Expect truth spoken “in love” (Ephesians 4:15), even when it cuts across the grain. As Pastor Eric frames it: “Sometimes people don’t like truth. My prayer is that believers would hear it, take heed, and hold it close.”

He also insists on a crucial distinction: worship is a life, not a category. Music is a form of worship; obedience is its essence. “When the Lord says, ‘Pray for them,’ and you pray—that’s worship,” Pastor Eric says. Quiet time in Scripture and listening for His voice—that’s worship. The way you treat people—that’s worship. The songs lift the heart; the life bears the fruit (John 4:23–24; Romans 12:1–2; James 1:22).

What to Expect on November 15

A unified platform. Partners and friends from across the city will participate—organizations that share the aim of oneness in Christ. Among them, communities connected with Anthem Church (host venue) and others who have stood with Windy City Worship since its early nights, including leaders from ministries like New Life (Humboldt Park) and groups such as Run With Christ and Real Church (subject to final confirmations). The point isn’t which name appears on the screen. The point is that no banner stands above Jesus.
A flow shaped by Scripture. Expect prayer, testimony, and corporate singing guided by passages like Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16—not as performance notes but as a liturgy of love. The evening will move between joy and lament, intercession and praise, making space for the Spirit to convict, comfort, and commission.
Clarity about the Kingdom. Chicago’s divisions are real; Christ’s Kingdom is greater (Philippians 3:20). Expect pastoral exhortation that names our moment without bowing to it—setting hearts on things above and setting hands to the work below (Colossians 3:1–2; Micah 6:8).
Room to respond. This is not a spectator event. If you’re a believer, come ready to sing, pray, reconcile, and return to your first love. If you’re seeking, come ready to encounter the One who seeks you first (Luke 15).

Event Details

Date: Saturday, November 15, 2025
Time: 6:30–8:00 p.m. (doors open at 6:00 p.m.)
Location: Anthem Church, 3850 W. Montrose Ave., Chicago, IL 60618
Admission: For the latest on RSVP and seating, please check Windy City Worship’s social channels.
Social: Find Windy City Worship on Instagram and Facebook for updates and partner highlights.

(Note: The venue address is on West Montrose Avenue in Chicago; please refer to the address above when planning your visit.)

Why Now: A City and a Church at an Inflection Point

Pastor Eric believes we’re living in a moment that demands both courage and tenderness. He talks about the “called-out ones”—the ekklesia—and laments how easily Christians are numbed by lesser loyalties. Denominations are not the enemy; division is. Ethnic diversity is a gift; ethnic stratification is not. The corrective isn’t scolding; it’s remembering—the gospel that levels us at the foot of the cross and lifts us into one body (Ephesians 2:14–22).

He’s also unembarrassed about the role of beauty in discipleship. Music is not a trick; it’s a teacher. It postures the heart toward joy, as one conversation partner told him, and trains the body toward praise—much like fasting trains self-control or silence trains listening (Galatians 5:22–23; Psalm 42; Psalm 100). “It’s like fruit,” the friend said. “The sweetness of life.” Pastor Eric smiles when he repeats that line. He knows there are nights when worship feels easy and mornings when obedience does not. Both matter. Both are worship.

Too many efforts at unity die in meetings. Windy City Worship puts its convictions on a stage and in a circle, insisting that collaboration be visible, audible, and accountable. You’ll hear from community partners who share the vision. You’ll see leaders deferring to one another. You’ll sense a structure that protects participation and a spontaneity that protects surrender.

Crucially, Windy City Worship is not planting a new “church service” to compete with Sunday gatherings. It is practicing the gathering that Scripture commands and the Spirit empowers—so that, when those believers return to their congregations, they carry a larger love home. If a pastor reads this and bristles, Pastor Eric hopes they’ll reach out rather than retreat. This night is for you, too.

About Windy City Worship

Windy City Worship is a Chicago-based collective committed to uniting the Body of Christ across congregations, cultures, and neighborhoods through Scripture-saturated worship, prayer, and partnership. Emerging from a collaborative hand-off in 2023, Windy City Worship gathers believers to sing, intercede, and remember the gospel that makes us one—so that local churches are strengthened, seekers meet the Savior, and the city hears one song under one name: Jesus.