Philo Road Church of Christ

 

April 26, 2026

The Philo Road Church of Christ seemed a good place to visit this morning. I was greeted at the door and followed others down a long hall to a low-ceilinged, simply-adorned assembly room. A friendly woman brought me a bulletin and a small zip-lock bag with communion elements in it. Hmm. A man named Jerry sat nearby and told me a little of his decades-long history with this congregation. He and his wife invited me to stay for the catered church dinner today.

Present were about seventy people, black and white, maybe 50% of them over 50 but some young adults and a handful of kids too. When I asked, I learned that Sunday School is available when the families with kids are here. Announcements included mention of a Caring and Sharing group, Illinois Christian Camp, a Bible Trivia Night fundraiser for mission work at the Illinois State Fair and some opportunities to serve. Looks like they also volunteer at Salt and Light thrift store which is just down the street.

Technology included screens, amplification, and live stream, but the congregational singing began with a pitch pipe. Happily, I did not need earplugs here. We sang some classic hymns, Come We that Love the Lord, They’ll Know we are Christians by Our Love, and Each Day I’ll Do a Golden Deed. It was nice hearing the separate male and female parts of this song. I didn’t know it had so many verses. After communion we returned our empty cup-and-wafer set to the zippy bags for easy clean up.

Churches of Christ leadership is male and they tend to use different leadership terms than those common in other evangelical churches, shepherds, for example, and evangelist. Today’s message was given by Evangelist Jon Smith, who, the church website reports, is a graduate of our own Urbana Theological Seminary. The current preaching series considers how people in the Bible respond to the resurrection with examples from Acts 19 today. The message emphasized the kindness of God. Has God been kind to you? How? II Peter 3.9 says God is patient with us and wants all to come to him. He offers mercy. Do not presume on that. But we must let go of the sin that keeps us from him. Kindness, extending God’s mercy to others, while not the goal of the Christian life is a product of it.

After another song, a big cheerful man, Porter Battle, took the stage. Listed as leading Shepherd’s Prayer, Battle seemed to know everyone. He heartily welcomed back about half a dozen or so who had apparently been away with travel or illness. He shared a verse key to his life, I Samuel 12.23: Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. He went through the congregation’s intercession list and closed the service with a prayer.

As people stood, someone called out for help setting up tables for the meal.

Faith United Methodist

 Statistics show that mainline denominational churches are flagging, but one wouldn’t know it from visiting Faith United Methodist on Prospect Avenue. True, there were more empty seats than filled in the beautiful sanctuary, yet a lot of life flowed through the building this morning, people chatting over hot drinks at café tables, kids emerging from classrooms, the choir settling into their places, friends connecting as they choose a seat.

FUMC has two services, a contemporary one with a Sunday School for kids, and after half an hour’s casual coffee time, a traditional service. During the second hour, middle school students are in confirmation class. There's a youth group. Communion is offered on first Sundays and at other times.

We began today with a prelude on the dramatic pipe organ, followed by a welcome, announcements and opening prayer. We sang a hymn, then shared greetings as people passed the peace. During one part of the prayer, concerns were listed on the big screen and we were encouraged to call out names of others needing God’s touch. People who’ve lost family members or homes by war were particularly mentioned. There was a period of silence and then the harmonious chancel choir of a couple dozen singers brought us the peaceful Ave Vernum Corpus, a sung meditation on the presence of Jesus.

Today’s scripture was Matthew 6.25-34 and the guest speaker, Rev. Paula Wallace, started with a story. She told of a seminary professor in her preaching class who dramatically asked, “Is there any word from the Lord today?” He asks this twice. Then he said, “You’d better well believe it, or you shouldn’t be preaching on Sunday morning!” Rev Wallace preached the word of Christ to us: “Do not worry.” Not an easy command to follow. Can worry add anything to our lives? It’s harmful in many ways and changes nothing, she said. We can pray our worries to God--perhaps like some Mayan children in Guatemala whisper their troubles into specially made worry dolls to relieve anxiety. Think of Philippians 4.6: Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God what you need and thank God for what he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand." Rather than determining not to worry, she encouraged unwavering focus on God as a positive alternative.

All were invited to take communion by coming up for a bit of bread dipped in the cup. Then after another hymn we were blessed to go out into the world.

Although not obvious to a Sunday visitor, I found a few other impressive things about this church. Their financial summary is posted on the website. And the facility is “a LEED certified “Green” building . . ..  the first church in Illinois to be so designated.” A Spanish-speaking congregation meets here too.

Four Vineyards--fall 2021

Just a few notes from Vineyard churches as we traveled in 2021.

October 10, 2021  South Suburban Vineyard in Flossmoor.  Shannon spoke, starting a series on Romans. Geno was away. The gospel has power. Think about it. Good worship band. Extended ministry time. Big interesting property. Masks required and worn by all. 

October 18, 2021  The Vine, Goshen Vineyard Church.  Enjoyed worshiping with Al and Debbie Kinsey taking a break since Covid from leading their own church. Tag team speakers of senior pastor and an energetic woman on staff. "Be careful what you say to yourself." Worship leader had a great voice. Less intense ministry time to the side, not front. Only a few people wore masks.

October 31, 2021  Vineyard Church, Indianapolis (formerly known as Community Church of Greenwood)   This was our church home for several years and Steve was on its board. Jim and Kristi Bricker were happy to see us and to share what had happened. Young, dynamic assistant preacher talked on supporting your local church and PSA atonement. Another gifted worship leader. Was there ministry time? Jim has always been seeker sensitive and low key about emotional appeal. Only a few people wore masks. 

November 4 & 21, 2021  Vineyard of Central Illinois.  We heard Jay Pathak, new national leader. Dynamic and funny with a meaningful message: confess. Extended ministry time. And today Daniel Goulet spoke well about bringing our darkness to the light. Worship band was the usual professional quality with rolling smoke, near dark auditorium, colored accent lights and bright white beacon lights. Strong appeal. Could have missed it, but I didn't notice anyone wearing a mask.  

Note about Vineyard sound

All four churches had uncomfortably loud services. Why do we do this? Other places I’ve visited recently are at normal level, but Vineyards are almost as loud as the theater. Yes, this may be an oldster complaint, but it’s backed up by the decibel meter on my phone going into the red zone. Normally it bounces it up and down across the edge of damage between 90 and 100 decibels, but this morning we ran more like 95 to 110. At least Urbana VC supplies ear plugs.

50 Churches!

Aside from a few months missed and a few multiple-congregation recordings, this is my 50th blog entry about visiting a church different from the two that I know well. It's been an enjoyable and beneficial adventure! More to come, although maybe not as regularly.

In the early fall of 2021, during the Covid epidemic, I recorded my first exploratory attendance at a church unfamiliar to me. "I decided to go big for the first of my proposed other-church visits today and went to the Wesley Center at UIUC." For a year, I sent a report of various visits to a few friends, but in early 2023 I decided to add them to my blog and to post monthly(ish) visits there as I continued. The February 22, 2023, entry called "Start Here" explains my reason for this adventure. 

Nearly all are local to Champaign-Urbana, but three churches that weren't and that I didn't include were visits in March of 2022 to the ancient sites of Philadelphia, Sardis, and Smyrna in Türkiye. What an opportunity! 

What conclusions can be drawn from visits to fifty churches? The church is diverse; the church is changing; the church is available. 

For more conclusions, last month I attended an Urbana Theological Seminary forum featuring political scientist and statistician Ryan Burge whose research focuses on the American church, past, present, and future. Sadly, his uncountable number of graphs, charts, and statistics show a fast decline in moderate congregations with a rise in more polarized churches, mostly conservative evangelical, and a rise in the number of people who select "none" for their religion of choice. You can find out more in Burge's books or on the internet: https://rap.wustl.edu/people/ryan-burge/

Word of Life Church, St Joseph, MO

This month’s different-church blog entry involved a six-hour drive to St Joseph, MO, home of Word of Life Church. Pastor Brian Zahnd has been one of the primary voices keeping me on the walk of faith for the last decade. Word of Life is a non-denominational Christian church founded by Zahnd and his wife Peri in 1981. A search describes WOLC as “a Spirit-led,
Bible-based congregation with roots in the Jesus Movement and charismatic renewal, focusing on an authentic expression of the kingdom of God.” I would add that since 2004, this fellowship has also cultivated a strong connection to the more ancient ways of faith as expressed by the church fathers, liturgy, and creeds. “We have rejected certitude and embraced mystery, while being guided by the creeds and ecumenical councils of the church,” says assistant pastor Derek Vreeland. To my way of thinking, values expressed here are a healthy mix of the evangelical and mainline traditions.

The building sits in front of a rolling hillside a couple of miles outside St Joe. Its grand glass entrance includes a very cool 3,000-pound rotating granite sphere. There’s a café, a well-stocked bookstore, a children’s wing and teen auditorium. We saw plenty of kids, teens, young adults, middle age people and seniors. Most impressive to the building is a prayer chapel made with stone imported from Jerusalem and featuring stations of the cross by a Canadian artist. Although the description of this facility sounds mega-churchy, WOLC has only one Sunday service with room to spread out in the 2,000-seat auditorium. We had no trouble afterward getting a few words with Zahnd and his co-pastor wife Peri.

As we entered the sanctuary, screens scrolled through an invitation to request prayer, a way to donate to physical needs in the community (rent, utilities, etc), an opportunity to help at the food bank, a link to invite a friend to church, notice of livestream prayer every Wednesday, and posting of the church website, https://wolc.com/ .

Worship was led by a smiley and talented young, redhead on guitar, further accompanied by piano, drums, lead guitar, bass, and another gifted singer. Come to the Table. Holy Spirit Lead Me On. Come, Holy Spirit. (The volume helped catch the focus of worshipers with no need of ear plugs.) There was a short time to mingle before Vreeland, the Discipleship Pastor, welcomed everyone and drew attention to the big contingent of teenagers (maybe a hundred?) just back from a weekend event together. Offering buckets were passed and announcements made, including notice of Palm Sunday baptisms and Easter Sunday special events.

Pastor Zahnd took the stage to talk about John 3:1-17, the story of Nikodemus coming to Jesus at night. He set the scene and explained that Jesus was inviting Nikodemus to a renewed life, born from above. Of course, as a teaching rabi, Nikodemus would have understood that this was metaphor. What was harder for him to understand was that Jesus spoke of the spiritual life as mystery, like wind. We can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit (v8 NLT). It’s not a formula; it’s more like a song. We’re born from above, born again, and again, and again. We are made in the image of God, but created from the earth. Without being born from above, we’re stuck in the kingdom of the world. War becomes the only way and political power the only real power. “Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘you must be born from above.’” Amen

Zahnd then stepped down to the Table of the Lord in front of the stage. He led in offering the elements of communion for “those who love him and those who want to love him more.” As every week, reciting the Apostles Creed follows and then a congregational prayer of repentance. "Come you who have much faith and you who have little." Come to the front; take the bread; dip it in the cup. The body of Christ broken for you; the blood of Christ shed for you. Amen.

Hessel Park Christian Reformed Church

January 4, 2026

What a beautiful warm sanctuary, the south side all glass. I could happily sit with the sun on my back this chilly morning. Up toward the skylight, cut-out gold stars waft gently. The service began with a prelude on the grand piano. We were welcomed by the happy news of an engagement in the congregation and then the call to worship.

As scripted in the bulletin, there were prayers, hymns, scripture readings and confession, add a few pauses of silence, times of sitting and standing. At one point, everyone got up to pass the peace. “The peace of the Lord be with you.” We heard a children’s sermon on New Year resolutions before the young teen was dismissed to her own program.

 

The message by Pastor Tim Bossenbroek was from Psalm 72 and began with an interesting, brief history reference to the Monroe Doctrine, its purpose and how it has been interpreted and used by various administrations including the current one. The situation at the time of the writing of this Psalm was one of violence, chaos, and revenge, not unlike what we see today. In contrast, God’s people following God’s ways seek a reign of justice, flourishing of the earth, and reaching out to the nations with shalom. Amen to that!

Offering baskets were passed. After another song and prayer of thanksgiving, we were invited to stand in a circle to receive communion. "Everyone who has been baptized in a Christian church is welcome to participate." A plate of bread was passed and then a cup for dipping the bread into. We sang a happy round of This Little Light of Mine and were dismissed with a charge to love and serve our neighbors and with a blessing. Several friendly folks invited me to stay for the snacks and fellowship afterwards.