Founder/Senior Pastor

The Way Church of Joliet

Joliet, Illinois

Edward L. Winfrey Jr. is a life long resident of Joliet, Illinois. He is the first born of three sons to Mr. & Mrs. Edward Sr. and Shirley Winfrey. He is a graduate of Joliet Central High School and attended Moody Bible Institute and Trinity International University for his undergraduate studies.

In his formative years, Edward was actively involved in the youth ministry of Mt. Zion Baptist Church where he also began serving and teaching youth as a young adult. In February of 2002 he announced the call of God on his life to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and delivered his first sermon. In March of 2003 Edward was appointed to serve as Youth Pastor of Mt Zion and in December of that year was ordained by the late Rev. Dr. Isaac Singleton Sr..

Edward is a bi-vocational pastor, working as a Training Leader for ExxonMobil where he has been employed for 25 years. He also serves as Founding and Senior Pastor of The Way Church of Joliet where their motto is Loving God and Loving People Along The Way. God has blessed Pastor Winfrey to not only minister in churches, but also in less traveled areas such as maximum security prisons, homeless shelters, senior centers and even as far as Uganda, Africa on mission.

Pastor Winfrey’s greatest blessing is his family. He is happily married to Michelle, his beautiful wife of 24 years. They have four daughters, Britnie, Megan, Myah, Makaylah and one grandson, Jeremy.