Church Planting

Imagine a place in America where people have never heard the gospel. That place is Illinois. 13 million people live in Illinois. It’s a big mission field, because at least 8 million do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

• • Illinois used to have lots of churches. The countryside was covered with them.
    But many small towns have shrunk, and their mainline churches are disappearing.
  • Large traditional churches identified the ethnic neighborhoods of our big cities: Italian, Polish, Romanian, Latino, African American, and many more. Chicago alone has 77 neighborhoods, 200 suburbs, and as many language groups. But today the old churches are almost empty.
  • Illinois doesn’t know Jesus as it once did. And the number of people with no religious affiliation continues to rise.

IBSA has identified more than 200 places where new churches are needed. Now we need 200 or more churches who are willing to partner in that work.

Learn more about Illinois’ church planting contexts.

Learn how your church can participate

• PRAY for church planters and locations
• PARTNER with church planters
• PLANT a church in an Illinois community

Want to be a Partnering Church?

The Church Planting Team is always looking for churches that would be interested in being a partnering church. We have church plants from inner city Chicago to the most rural areas of our state that need prayer partners, mission teams, and financial support. If your church is interested in partnering, please click the link below or view a list of church plants already under way.

Learn More About Partnering.

Interested in being a Church Planter?

The call for all believers is to make disciples, but there are some who are called out to plant churches. If that describes you, then we want to help you in the process of finding your place within church planting, particularly if it’s here in Illinois. We have a Church Planting Guidebook that is immensely helpful as you set out to understand how you can become involved.

View & Download Guidebook

Discovery Tools is another highly valuable resource in helping you to examine your call and give basic insights into your gifting and the skills needed to be a successful church planter.

View & Download Discovery Tools