Our Story
In September 1989 Willowbeech Presbyterian Church had her first Sunday service at the corner of Willow and Beech Streets. As a church plant with the help of Grace Presbyterian Church of Peoria, she offered a conservative, Bible-believing message. On May 17, 1992, our church was officially organized in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), which was growing rapidly around the nation as an Evangelical and Reformed network of churches. Covenant Theological Seminary, too, was flourishing in size as she promoted a message of God’s grace and our trained pastors whom we would call.
From 1993 to 2003 we became Christ Church, emphasizing the supremacy of Christ and fulfilling his purposes through God-centered worship, grace-centered truth, loving community, and compassionate missions. We were a lay-led church with one pastor, so volunteerism and unity were important. God blended our emphasis on the experiential nature of grace-centered truth through Christ-centered preaching and serious praying—experiential Calvinism.
We moved locations, bought land, built phase one of our campus, and adjusted to our growth—hiring a youth pastor and administrative staff.
We have been steadily growing the last ten years (2003–2013), and this meant the need for more space, staff, and enhancements to our campus. As the complexity increased, our need for clarity did as well. Efforts at soul care and K-Groups were seeking to apply the gospel for the transformation of lives. Spiritual formation groups were forming to make the gospel experience more vital in each season of life. Although God paid down our debt and provided for phase two completion (Kairos), a recent survey revealed that we needed to more clearly define and focus on the vision God has for Christ Church. Through the formation and mighty efforts of a vision team, God clarified the unique and compelling vision frame he has imprinted upon our hearts; a vision that was already there, just under the surface.
By combining our theology with the word gospel and our heart for the Spirit of God to change lives by experiencing grace with the word transformation, God gave us a much clearer and more compelling mission mandate; we exist to cultivate gospel transformation.
We want and intend for every member to belong, grow, and give in strategic ways that lead to a harvest of gospel transformation in every place God puts us, with every person we influence, and in every thing in creation we steward.
From nursery to Christ Church Youth (CCY), from Sunday worship to kGroups, from men’s and women’s ministries to spiritual formation groups, from budget items to officer leadership, we are now committed to bringing it all in alignment with cultivating gospel transformation.
As we begin the next decade, Christ Church is poised for a promising future. Come join us in this cultivation process where God causes the growth, and gospel transformation spreads in, out, and all over among the lives of people and the places we are called.
- See more at: http://christchurchpca.org/about#sthash.KNzhVmSZ.dpuf