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by Karen Kogler
August 2007
Ablaze! covenant congregations in the Northern Illinois District Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod:
- Cross, Yorkville
- Immanuel, Batavia
- Immanuel, Downers Grove
- St. James, Chicago
- Trinity, Lisle
- Zion, 99th and Winston, Chicago
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“We like to think our churches are visible,” said Elvin Harms, a member of Immanuel Lutheran, in Batavia, Illinois, in the far west Chicago suburbs. “They’re not. So we have to bring the church to the people.”
A video produced by Trinity Lutheran Church in Lisle, Illinois, helped give Harms this conviction. In it, people on a golf course were asked if they knew the location of the nearest church. Person after person said no, they didn’t know of any churches in the area, while Trinity’s sanctuary was clearly visible in the background, across the street from the golf course.
As chairman of the Batavia congregation, Harms was involved two years ago when they looked at a demographic study of their area provided by Lutheran Church Extension Fund.* Sugar Grove, to their west, was predicted to have a great population growth over the next 5 years. But the nearest Lutheran churches were north and south, not west. “I realized there’s big gaping hole there,” Elvin recalls.
“At the church’s planning retreat last winter, we decided to set goals ‘outside of the box’ and to initiate looking at a church plant somewhere to the west. It wasn’t right for us to do it on our own, in terms of cost or how it would affect neighboring churches. So we contacted churches in a circle around the area we were targeting and invited them to a meeting. We’ve now had two meetings. There’s agreement that there is a need in the Sugar Grove area. We’re looking at how to bring it to fruition.”
Congregations that are partnering, or considering partnership, with Immanuel, Batavia, are Lord of Life, La Fox; Cross, Yorkville; St. Luke’s, Montgomery; St. Pauls, Aurora; and Immanuel, Hinckley.
“Igniting Lives for Christ -- N.O.W.” is the church’s mission statement. N.O.W. reminds members that they ignite lives for Christ through nurture, outreach and worship. And the other initial letters, ILC, are the initials of the church’s name.
“Last month a significant step was taken by our leadership at a council meeting,” Harms reports, a step that fits with that mission statement. “We agreed to be an Ablaze! Covenant Congregation.”
Ablaze! Covenant Congregations (ACC) agree to aim to plant up to four daughter congregations by 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. ACC (see info on the LCMS website) is part of the church-planting goals of Ablaze, the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod outreach movement. The overall goal of sharing the Gospel personally with 100 million people worldwide includes also the planting of 2,000 new churches in the United States. Immanuel is one of six ACC congregations, so far, in the Northern Illinois District (see sidebar).
Harms realizes that churches planting churches is a new way of doing things for most churches today. To his sister congregations, he says, “Think outside the box. Open up to what the Spirit is telling you to do. We’re hearing there’s a need out there.”
“We’re reminded that we were planted 125 years ago by St. Paul’s Lutheran in Aurora and that we were involved in the planting of Lord of Life, LaFox, 25 yrs ago.”
“I guess it’s all part of the Great Commission.”
*To obtain a demographic study, contact Sue Green at the Northern Illinois District office, (708) 449-3020 x3117 or sue.green@ni.lcms.org.
Page Last Updated: 8/21/2007 11:31:56 AM
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