July 2025
At the June 2025 meeting of the LCMS Northern Illinois District Board of Directors, a new collaborative initiative found its footing and gained financial support.
In the body of Christ, we are not called to serve by ourselves. Across our congregations, schools, and ministries, we witness the strength which comes from mutual support, shared responsibility, and Christ-centered collaboration. When lay leaders walk together—encouraging, equipping, and holding one another accountable—ministry becomes a shared calling rooted in faith and service. Partnerships in ministry are bearing fruit and pointing to the ways in which we are stronger together in our common mission.
One powerful example of this is the newly approved grant for Circuit 6W, where multiple congregations are coming together to
raise the “mission temperature” across their communities. With support from the Northern Illinois District through Kingdom Expansion Together Grant funds, these churches are launching an eight-month initiative designed to equip members to share the hope of Jesus more confidently and intentionally.
Rev. Dr. Chris James, pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Downers Grove, shared more about this collaboration: “The project is called Kickstart Your Mission Heart. The initial idea for the project came following the last regional pastors conference where Pastor Nate Guelzow from Multipi (a lay leadership ministry in Nashville, Tennessee) shared outreach and evangelism strategies equipping lay people to share the love of Jesus.
“As a pastor who is passionate about outreach, but regularly finds the time for reaching new people squeezed out by the needs of the flock, I see an incredible ministry value in equipping the people of God in our parish to share the love of Jesus with the people God has already placed in their lives.”
At the heart of this initiative is training the people of God to create and lead new communities where anyone can come to know Jesus. Pastor James commented, “… So many of our people would love to introduce their neighbors to the love of Jesus, but they have no idea where to start, and so their lack of experience grinds them to a halt. My prayer is that equipping the people of God to carry out the works that God have prepared for them in advance in Christ to accomplish, that more and more people would be welcomed into the kingdom of God.”
Through this approach, teams from each church will develop foundational discipleship habits that will yield a lifetime of spiritual growth. These teams will then return to their congregations ready to train others, extending the Gospel and expanding the reach of the local church. Their training won’t just build skills—it will foster Spirit-led, lifelong habits of faith.
Pastor James added, “If I could dream a little, the goal would be for this to catch on from circuit to circuit throughout the Northern Illinois District… There’s a genuine hunger for Jesus in our community. Together, I pray we can feed them the Bread of Life.”
We celebrate this Kingdom-minded partnership and are extremely encouraged to see these congregations unite in purpose and mission. Seven churches, one circuit, working side-by-side to share Christ boldly—this is a powerful testimony to what it means to be Co-Workers for the Kingdom.
WITNESS: Encouraging personal witnessing, congregational engagement with their community, support of our NID partnerships and missions, and sharing in a world mission field together.