Jesus Is Lord Church Worldwide (JILCW)

• Formation: 1978
• Founder: Eduardo “Brother Eddie” Villanueva

Jesus is Lord Church Worldwide (JILCW), also known simply as Jesus is Lord Church (JILC), is a Protestant Christian church founded in Manila, Philippines, in 1978. What was initially a small Bible study group run by a college professor and some of his students grew into an international church with more than one million members. Its membership consists largely of Filipinos spread across Asia and as many as sixty countries, with church branches established in Europe, Australia, the United States, Canada, the Middle East, and Africa.

In addition to worship sites around the world, JILC has created several satellite ministries. The two main ministries are known as the Life Group Network (LGN) and Ministry Development Network (MDN). The church runs “life groups” set up by age that meet weekly to help people learn more about God and what the church believes about God. One group, the Christian Youth for the Nations (CYN), focuses on teens and encourages them to incorporate Jesus and Gospel-based principles into everyday life and activities.

The Ministry Development Network consists of a number of groups aimed at reaching out to people to share what the JILC believes about God and his plan for humanity. One section is known as the Worship Arts Network and incorporates music, dance, and theater to share the Gospel messages accepted by the church. The development network includes a number of technology-based divisions that create podcasts, social media posts, YouTube videos, and other electronic means of sharing the church’s message. This includes the ZOE Broadcasting Network Inc., which Eduardo Villanueva began in the late 1990s and on which he has sometimes hosted shows. JILC also runs a network of Christian colleges.

History

The church was founded in 1978 by Eduardo “Brother Eddie” Villanueva. Villanueva was born October 6, 1946, in Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines. He attended public schools and graduated in 1969 with a degree in economics and a minor in finance from the Philippine College of Commerce. He and his wife, Adoracion “Sister Dory” Villanueva, have four children, Eduardo Jr., Emmanuel Joel, Eleanor, and Edelisha.

Villanueva became an economics professor at the Philippine College of Commerce, which later became the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. During this time, he also joined a left-leaning movement seeking reform of the government and social justice policies. In 1973, in the midst of his activist undertakings, Villanueva reportedly had what the church’s website refers to as a life-altering encounter with God. A few days later, a long-standing legal battle over land that he was involved in abruptly came to an end when the others involved were arrested. Villanueva, who had been an atheist, became a Christian.

After several corporate jobs between 1973 and 1977, he returned to the university as a part-time professor. He shared his own life-changing experience with some of his students and began to lead a small Bible study group. After his wife also converted to Christianity, they began leading increasingly larger Bible study events. On September 9, 1978, with the help of fifteen of his students, Villanueva founded the Jesus is Life Foundation (JILF), which eventually became the Jesus is Life Church.

Villanueva advocated for change through people’s adoption of values and practices from the Christian Gospels. His activities increased his profile in the Philippines and raised awareness of the JILF and several related social justice-focused religious organizations. JILF grew despite attacks against Villanueva’s family related to his political positions and his church leadership. The addition of television, podcasts, and social media further increased JILC’s reach around the world by the early twenty-first century.

Villanueva organized a political party, Bangon Pilipinas, in 2004. The name means “Rise, Philippines.” He ran for president of the Philippines, coming in last. In 2010, Villanueva took a leave of absence from JILC to again run for political office. After an unsuccessful second bid for the presidency, he remained active in politics and, in 2018, announced his candidacy for a seat in the nation’s Congressional House. He returned to the church briefly to be part of its fortieth anniversary celebration in the fall of 2018. Villanueva was elected to the House of Representatives in 2019, serving as a Deputy Speaker from July 22, 2019, to June 1, 2022. Villanueva remained active in JILC, which celebrated its forty-fifth anniversary in 2023.

Beliefs & Practices

The JILC is an evangelical charismatic Protestant church with locations in about sixty countries. Evangelical means the church believes that people are born again, in a spiritual transformation, when they commit to following the teachings of Jesus Christ, and they are saved through God’s unmerited favor resulting from their belief in Jesus. Charismatic means they share the belief of Pentecostal churches that the Holy Spirit bestows special gifts on mature followers. Pentecostal churches especially believe the Holy Spirit can share the gift of speaking in tongues, or languages unknown to the speaker.

Like other Christian churches, JILC members center their beliefs, worship, and practices around the faith principle that they owe obedience, gratitude, and honor to Jesus Christ. They believe in a triune God, or one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They accept the Bible as God’s teachings for humanity. This includes the idea that sin came into the world through the actions of humankind; that God formed a plan for redeeming humanity through his grace, or unmerited favor, and Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross; that humanity can be saved by asking God’s forgiveness, giving up sinful behaviors, and accepting Jesus’s sacrificial offering on their behalf; and that those who do this are born again.

Jesus is Life Church practices include baptism, a Christian rite of initiation that involves the use of water to immerse or sprinkle the person to be baptized. This is intended as a symbolic washing away of sin. Members also practice the Lord’s Supper. This is a meal, usually symbolic, that reenacts Jesus’s last meal with his disciples the night before he died. After blessing both bread and wine, Jesus shared these with his disciples and asked them to do the same in his memory.

The church’s stated mission is to bring all people together into the Kingdom of God through the teachings and actions of Jesus Christ. In the Kingdom of God, all people act according to God’s will and teachings. JILC members believe that others can be transformed and know the power and love of God through their actions. Like most Christian churches, their teachings emphasize the love of God and others, faithfulness to God as demonstrated by caring for the world and the gifts provided by God and demonstrating excellence and integrity in their daily lives and actions.

Bibliography

“Bro. Eddie.” Jesus Is Lord Church Worldwide, jilworldwide.org/bro-eddie/. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

Buan, Lian. “Brother Eddie’s Jesus Is Lord Church Marks 40th Anniversary.” Rappler, 28 Oct. 2018, www.rappler.com/nation/215368-brother-eddie-villanueva-jesus-is-lord-40th-anniversary. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

“Jesus is Lord Church Worldwide.” Vimeo, vimeo.com/jilworldwide. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

“Our Church.” Jesus is Lord Church USA, www.jilusa.com/about. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

Villafuerta, Din M. “Jesus is Lord Church Celebrates 40 Years.” Inquirer, 30 Oct. 2018, globalnation.inquirer.net/170686/jesus-is-lord-church-celebrates-40-years. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

“Worship Arts Net (WAN).” Jesus Is Lord Church Canada, www.jilcanada.com/worship-arts-net.html. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.