At your service

od is doing a gospel work here,” said Jorge Rodriguez, pastor and planter of Grace Family Church in Rogers Park. “And having the crews come in just brings more light to what God is doing.”

The crews were Southern Baptists from across the region who heard the Chicago version of the Macedonian call—at least for a weekend. Serve Tour deployed workers and their witness to churches and schools and parks all over Chicagoland to bring helping hands, compassion ministry, and the gospel.

“Chicagoland is our state’s largest, and in many ways most daunting mission field, and many of the pastors and churches there are doing truly heroic work,” IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams said. Serve Tour brought them some back up.

“In just these two days, I personally saw churches feeding the desperately hungry, teaching job and language skills in Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods, serving and befriending local law enforcement, improving church properties to make them more attractive and useful, caring for exhausted and grateful migrants, and in all these compassion ministries, faithfully sharing the gospel and making disciples.”

In Rogers Park, members of Rodriguez’ multi-ethnic congregation teamed up with crews from Cornerstone Church in downstate Marion and a Kentucky church that has partnered with Rodriguez for several years, Bloomfield Baptist Church. They spent Friday preparing New Field School for opening day, assembling furniture, and cleaning the cafeteria, which is also the space where Grace Family Church holds Sunday worship services.

Maria Oke from Nigeria has been a member of the church plant for two years. “Our folks here in the church are just like the folks in Rogers Park—the most diverse group in Chicago.”

She was giving instructions to the work crews and passing out trash bags after lunch. “The people came to help us clean the grounds and wipe the walls and sweep;

Continued from P. 9 it is inspiring. We met the principal and the administrators of the school, and it encourages the relationship with the church and the school,” Oke said.

“The principal told me, ‘I don’t know much

In Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, more than 40 ethnicities and nationalities call Armitage Baptist Church home. The church hosts services in English and Spanish. On Serve Tour weekend it served as a base for 67 Disaster Relief volunteers who prepared sack lunches for event participants, then fed dinner to 500 at the Saturday evening celebration.

Lisa Harbaugh, a member of First Baptist Litchfield and an IBSA staffer, was there on her first callout. She called it “a great bonding experience with the volunteers I talk to and work with over the phone and email.” She said, “It was great getting to see them serving in action” and “hearing them tell their stories about sharing the gospel.”

IBDR Chaplain Coordinator Jennifer Smith had been collecting notes of encouragement just for the event by students from Sandy Creek Association Camp and WMU Kids Camp in South Carolina.

“It was so much fun to make those sandwiches and sack lunches, sticking those notes in with them,” Harbaugh said, “knowing the workers were going to get those notes of encouragement.” about Southern Baptists, but I like what you guys are doing,’” Rodriguez said.

For high school student Madison Lee from Marion, her first visit to Chicago was eye opening. “The city is a lot bigger than I thought, and there’s a lot more people than I thought—but I really like it.

“Earlier this summer I had a calling at church camp” to a mission project, she said. “We learned how God is going to call you out of your comfort zone, but it’s all for a reason.” As Madison and the Cornerstone crew scrubbed walls in the cafeteria, their concern for this community at the opposite end of the state from their own was clear.

The teams gathered each morning at one of four ministry hubs: Ashburn Baptist Church Chicago, Chicago West Bible Church, Starting Point Community Church, and Faith Tabernacle Baptist Church. On Saturday evening, they assembled at Armitage Baptist Church for worship and to share reports on ministry.

“I don’t know which encouraged me more—that more than half of the churches participating in the Serve Tour weekend were from Illinois, or that almost half of them were from other states,” Adams said.

He and his wife, Beth, manned a mobile grill and served burgers on the first day. On the second day, they led NAMB Director Sammy Simmons on a tour of work sites.

“I also gratefully watched hundreds of sacrificial Baptist volunteers who, while they were serving, were also able to see up close and personal the ongoing needs and great opportunities of their fellow churches in Chicago,” Adams said.

The Chicago event was one of six in the 2023 schedule, including international outreach in Athens, Greece; Nairobi, Kenya; and Bangkok, Thailand. Planning began more than a year ago as NAMB and its Send City leadership team in Chicago partnered with IBSA and Chicagoland Baptist Association to identify the sites—and facilitate what they hope will be long-term relationships with local churches and church planters.

“I believe we’re going to see long lasting impact from this weekend in Chicago during the Serve Tour,” IBSA Missions Director Shannon Ford said.

Adams agreed. “I believe this weekend will be the beginning of some great future partnerships and ministries.”

DR volunteers painted the church’s gym and staffed a shower trailer for those staying at the church, including more than three dozen volunteers from Marion.

“Having access to fully outfitted medical and dental trailers was an amazing blessing!” said Nathan Carter, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in downtown Chicago. NAMB brought two fully outfitted medical units. “I told people in our church that this is one of the benefits of being part of something bigger like the SBC. They were impressed.”

The church is located near hospitals and medical schools. “We staffed the mobile medical unit with doctors from our church,” he said, while the dental office was staffed by people from other churches. “It was packed both days and we had to turn some people away. One Venezuelan migrant that arrived at the local police station the night before was able to get needed dental work.”

Carter, who also leads the Chicagoland Baptist Association, said Serve Tour was a great success for local churches. “One person who was served has come to our church the last two Sundays and even midweek service! It was great for people from our church and met a real need in the community.”

PARTNERS—Mornings began with teams meeting for prayer and assignments in one of four hubs across Chicago. At Starting Point Church, IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams and pastor Jonathan de la O welcomed the teams and prayed with them before they hit the streets.

Along the streets of the Ashburn neighborhood, about four miles southeast of Midway Airport, volunteers scraped paint on the graffiti-laden, exhaust-stained viaducts. By the end of Saturday, several gleamed brightly with a fresh coat of white paint. This was just one of 12 hub projects that provided a boost of encouragement for local pastors and a wave of goodwill within their local communities.

The following Sunday morning, Tommy Thompson, lead pastor of Ashburn Baptist Church, shared the impact of the weekend. “We had almost 200 people serving at our Ashburn Church hub. This was a wonderful reminder of what we can do together, when we all have a hand in (the work) and we all chip in to help.”

One of those local church projects served by the Ashburn hub was in nearby McKinley Park. Volunteers helped with needed building renovations then served tacos in the park in partnership with Iglesia Ciudad de Gracia, a young church plant.

The wave of partners meant much to Pastor Victor Loera, “We are so grateful for their partnership. We pray God would bless them everywhere they go.”

At Elmwood Park Community Church, a line had formed outside the building long before the food bank opened. Volunteers inside assisted by restocking shelves and helping people in need with their free shopping. “The joy of those who receive, coupled with the enthusiasm of those who came to serve, was wonderful to see,” said Shannon Ford, IBSA Mission Director.

Serve Tour volunteers spent most of the day laying landscaping fabric and mulch at the church, which sits near the center of this diverse village connected on its eastern border to the city of Chicago. For volunteers like Aubrey Shelby, member at Rochester First and an IBSA staffer, it was a taste of an international missions experience close to home.

“I had never been on a mission trip before, so I took Shannon’s advice that this was a great place to start,” Shelby said. “We had gospel conversations with some of the residents who were wait- ing for the food pantry to open. Once the residents started coming through the lines for food, I honestly felt like I wasn’t even in Chicago anymore. I heard Russian, Spanish, Polish, and Ukrainian all being spoken! It opened my eyes to the people who immigrate into the United States every day. It was a privilege to work alongside the church.”

The Austin neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side is known for broken homes, drug addiction, and spiritual darkness, and no one knows this better than Pastor Maurice Gaiter, of Empowerment Community Church.

Gaiter grew up in Austin and spent years as one of the most prominent drug dealers there before becoming a follower of Jesus. “I used to ruin families in my neighborhood, but now I get to show them that Jesus Christ is a life raft in a dark place,” Gaiter said.

During the outreach, volunteers prepared burgers and tacos for residents who often don’t know where their next meal will come from. As teams took food door-to-door, they discovered opportunities to share the gospel.

In an encounter with Gaiter, one young man said that his cousin was brutally killed in gang violence, and he said that he really needs God. The pastor shared his testimony and prayed.

“We believe and trust that the Lord will make a way,” Gaiter said.

“And I know that the Lord will make a way because I was in their shoes thirty years ago. And if God can save me with two broken hands, addicted to heroin, nowhere to go, lost and terrified, I know he can do it for them.”

“Your partnership is needed now.” That sentence jumped out as I looked over this year’s Mission Illinois Offering materials. This time of year always reminds me of the things that unite Illinois Baptists: the shared prayer that more people will come to know Jesus; the shared burden for our communities in need of transformation; and the shared mission to engage with how God is working in our state.

My partnership is needed now. So is yours. We’re accustomed to hearing about needs around our country and around the world, but the stories happening closer to home are sometimes easier to overlook. That’s why I’m grateful every year for the Mission Illinois Offering. It’s a critical reminder that our Illinois mission field is full of vibrant stories and servant-hearted leaders. It’s a call to action.

What would it look like for me, a regular member of an IBSA-member church, to partner with people like me across our state to really engage our shared mission field? Here are a few ideas to consider:

Pray every day. During the week of September 17-24, dedicate a few minutes every day to pray for Illinois missions.

If it’s helpful, choose a time with significance—2:17 or 6:18, for example, or the area code where you live. Pray on your own, with your family, or with prayer partners over the phone. At the end of the week, consider praying intentionally for Illinois missions throughout the year. Go to missionillinois.org/prayer-guide for specific ways to pray.

Make connections. The needs in our towns are different, but many of the big themes are universal: changing communities, the need for strong leadership, neighbors with deep physical and spiritual needs. As you watch this year’s missions stories, think about your own neighbors, your church, your town or city. What commonalities do you see between your community and the ones on screen?

On paper, a church ministering to refugees in Chicagoland may seem worlds away from yours. But there are people with the same kind of needs right where you are. When we connect the dots, engaging our shared mission field becomes a more accessible endeavor year-round.

Invite the next generation. Look no further than a Vacation Bible School offering for missions to see how quickly kids get on board. Like us, the next generation is motivated by compelling stories of how God is working. Consider how your church might use existing children’s ministry to introduce Illinois missions. Devote one morning of Sunday school to learning about one of the missionaries featured this year. Show the video; invite kids to pray. Putting a name and a face to a big concept like “missions” is invaluable for all of us, especially kids.

Plan a trip. As you watch and pray through this year’s missions stories, consider how you and your church might partner directly with other churches and leaders in Illinois. Even the most seasoned among us are stopped in their tracks when they witness gospel-fueled ministry that is actually changing a community. Where could a family or a team go to partner with another church in reaching their neighbors? Start planning now.

Our Illinois mission field is something we share all year, every year. Let this week be a jumping off point for a new level of engagement.

Trends from nearby and around the world drive past the Giant Cross at the intersection of Interstates 57 and 70 at Effingham every year.

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Illinois children (birth-age 5) speak English at home.

– IECAM 2021

32 planters are starting new churches in partnership with Illinois Baptists.

America’s #1 iconic food is the title given to Twinkies by Time magazine. Invented in the Chicago suburb of River Forest in 1930, Hostess first filled them with banana cream, then moved to vanilla during WW2.

Walmart started selling frozen deep-fried Twinkies in 2016.

220+ Abes are members of the Association of Abraham Lincoln Presenters.

One of their mottos:

“Ready, willing, and Abe L.”