Our Leadership

With more than 25 years of church leadership experience, Fred delivers deep expertise and a passionate belief that stewardship is a biblical principal.

His financial leadership roles range from lay leader to executive staff member, including 12+ years as CFO and Executive Business Pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago. 

His experience includes:

• 30+ years as a CPA and Real Estate Broker, specializing in creative real estate transactions.
• Facilitating gifts of over $40 million of real estate assets.
• Negotiating more than $100 million in church mortgage financing.
• Developing and managing construction projects totaling over $70 million.
• Developing and managing a $40+ million annual budget for a multi site church with multiple nonprofits.
• Leading multiple stewardship campaigns, raising and managing in excess of $50 million for local church ministries.

John (Jay) Silvestri and his wife, Ammie, own an investment LLC that, in addition to real estate, invests primarily in equities, bonds and other fixed income instruments. Counted among the investments of this LLC are multiple church facilities, which allowed local congregations to find permanent facilities without taking on debt or relying exclusively on capital campaigns.

Jay was raised in South Florida and studied mechanical engineering at the University of Miami and Florida Institute of Technology, where he received his Master’s degree. He then moved to the Chicago area in 1991.

In 1994, he and three business partners formed an engineering software company focused on developing simulation software for the ground transportation industry. In 2015, they sold the company to a private equity firm, and Jay retired from the company a year later.