Community Christian Church

East Aurora

Plainfield

This fall we finished a series called Love at Last Sight, which explored the topic of relationships from God's perspective. You may remember that a year ago we re-launched our Plainfield campus at the start of another series on relationships, called Making Love Stick. There were many reasons for the Plainfield campus re-launch to a new 24-7 space, including the fact that the Plainfield school district made a unilateral decision to not rent their facilities any longer. But the move was also about helping even more people find their way back to God.

With the move to a new location, the Plainfield campus literally doubled the number of attenders in a single weekend.   After the first service in the new space, one man approached Campus Pastor Brad Prunty and said, "This church just might save my marriage."  And now 12 months later, God has restored hope and health to that marriage! This is just one of many families that have been transformed thanks to your generosity.

Celebration Generosity

In the middle of our 24 months of Impact, we participated in two Celebration Generosity weekends. On those weekends, everything given is invested into the work of four missional teams. In total, just over 1.1 million dollars have been invested into church planting, community restoration, and eradicating poverty.

Because of your generosity: Some 100 churches or church sites were planted in the last 24 months, reaching upwards of 25,000 more people who were far from God. Community restoration work has expanded in East Aurora with the introduction of a new parent-mentoring program. Our presence in East Joliet tripled throughout the week through programs like Kid Pal and Kids Hope. In the Philippines, dozens of children have been rescued from the streets, and we've expanded our outreach through three church campuses. In Haiti, we've come alongside a local church and its congregation who were among the hardest hit by last year's earthquake.

Technology

Yorkville

For three years, our Yorkville Campus met in the beautiful, but cramped quarters of the Historic Courthouse in downtown Yorkville.  In the second year, it became obvious to the Yorkville team that the lack of space was limiting our potential for growth. So we decided to seek out affordable options that would accommodate three to four times more people! As part of IMPACT, your generosity has helped the Yorkville campus grow into this new facility right on Route 47. Since the grand opening, dozens of new families have come for the first time and stayed to find their way back to God - families like Jose Ramos who shared this during his recent baptism.

"Before coming to COMMUNITY I went through some pretty tough times.  I was dealing with some relational problems as well as economic challenges at home I lost my job and was about to lose my home.  Meanwhile, my wife was attending COMMUNITY and asked me to join her and the kids many times, but I refused each time.  Then one day I decided to pray to Jesus. I figured I had nothing to lose!  Shortly after, I accepted her invitation to attend church.  Since finding my way back to God at COMMUNITY, Ive become a new person! Ive been blessed!  And I even secured a new job and was able to keep my home."

Naperville Downtown

Church research statistics from the Barna Group and LifeWay ministries agree: there is a significant drop in attendance and participation as a young person in America moves from high school to college. Sometimes as many as half of the high schoolers who attend your church will drift away when they enter college. So when our Downtown Naperville campus moved to North Central College's Wentz Hall in September of 2010 as part of IMPACT, the hope was to be able to reach college students right there on the campus of North Central. Since the move, small groups have been launched, and lives are being changed right there at the college, thanks to your investment in IMPACT. Here's the testimony of one of Downtown's college attenders: "The beginning of this year was a rough one for me because I felt that there was something missing in my life, a spark that had been lost in some way. Fortunately, I had an amazing friend guide me back to church and it felt like I might have found what I needed. With a bit of soul-searching I found that God has his very own plan for me. Through Community I have not only found myself having a stronger connection with God, but I also have met more amazing people than I ever would have imagined outside of church."

Community Online

Lemont

Lemont has often been referred to as the "village of faith" based on the number of church steeples in that community, but like so many other communities in the western suburbs, only 2 out of 10 people attend church regularly. But a few years back an entrepreneurial group of friends set out to do something about that by starting a brand-new church to reach people far from God. And then last year, with a solid group of attenders and the financial wherewithal to expand their efforts in Lemont, this group partnered with Community to establish our 12th Campus. We opened the doors in March, 2011 with close to 400 people - that's 2% of the entire population of Lemont. And in the words of Campus Pastor, Dave Richa, he says, "It feels like we've established a beachhead."

Benevolence

Almost every week at one of our 13 campuses, we're made aware of an attender with a financial need that's beyond the support provided by our many small groups. In many cases it's a single parent who's caught between a rock and a hard place but it can also be a family who's experiencing job loss or serious illness. For situations like these, our benevolence team reviews the needs, meets with the families, and provides a short-term financial solution. The needs that are met range from the payment of a utility bill to the build-out of a single mom's basement. In March we were approached by a newfound single mom who was struggling to provide for her two children, one of which is confined to a wheelchair. She couldn't afford her current mortgage without a renter and she couldn't afford to leave her handicapped accessible home. The solution? Build out her basement so her sister could move in to help offset the housing expenses. To that end, a team was assembled to seek donations from local vendors and piece-by-piece build-out the basement. We're pleased to announce that the basement should be complete this fall. In total, Community has helped over 100 families facing financial crisis with more than $150,000.

Chicago

Check back soon for a video update about our new Chicago locations!