The Northern Illinois Conference recognized five churches with the One Matters Award. The United Methodist Church’s Discipleship Ministries created this award in 2015 to encourage congregations that in the previous year increased baptisms and professions of faith from zero to at least one. Each person matters! 

Discipleship Ministries offers a commemorative plaque and a $1,000 award to one church in each annual conference, as nominated by the conference’s director of connectional ministries.  

Northern Illinois Conference, wanting to recognize more churches, makes four additional awards, funded through the conference budget. (This is another way in which your apportionment giving directly assists congregations.) 

The Northern Illinois Conference is one of the most diverse conferences in the connection. In celebrating these churches and telling their stories, the conference hopes to inspire all of its churches to consider how to be the hands and feet of Jesus and share God’s love and hope with everyone. (Read the full stories here.)

Lake North: Kingswood United Methodist Church, Buffalo Grove and Deerfield. Joining with the the former Christ UMC, Kingswood created campuses in Buffalo Grove and Deerfield as well as online. They have baptized many infants and two adults this year (after their professions of faith). The church confirmed a robust class in 2023 and expects to 11 youth in this year. Several new members joined the church by transfer, and several others came as restoration of faith professions.

Lake South: First United Methodist Church, Downers Grove. They celebrated the confirmation of 18 youth, who were accompanied in the service by their mentors. More than 30 adults in the congregation agreed to be confirmation mentors and nurture the faith of the church’s children. For two years, mentors participate in confirmation classes alongside the young students and offer them their guidance, support, and presence. Through this and more, the laity are living out their baptismal vows—and in doing so, they have grown in relationship with the congregation and their larger community. 

Prairie Central: Batavia United Methodist Church. They received 12 new members by profession of faith or transfer. In-person worship attendance increased 25 percent over the last year and online worship attendance increased 23 percent. They continue to tell their story around tables—eating meals, ice-cream sundaes, apple nachos, root-beer floats, pancakes, and more. Each is an opportunity to invite friends, family, neighbors, and others to be a part of the story. 

Prairie North: Marengo United Methodist Church. They received 12 new members, including three via confirmation and seven through baptism. Three of the baptisms were for a family that first came talk with the pastor about a wedding, having never really attended any church before. They were so moved by the worship and the connection with the people that they eventually joined the church, and brought their children for baptism a few years later. A mother who had begun sobriety visited the church as part of that work; she found the church to be so loving and caring that she joined and had her three children baptized. A family who was caring for a child who had been diagnosed with leukemia experienced supported from the church in many ways. When they were able to return to church, they had their other child baptized. 

Prairie South: Ashton United Methodist Church. This struggling rural church had a weekly worship attendance of about 25 people, with two youth regularly attending and a few who came a couple of times a year. The church was changed in June 2022 when one of the teens who regularly attended worship died in a utility-terrain vehicle accident. They church reached out to his high-school classmates during this time of grief. Church members started regularly to attend the students’ sports games and other activities. They invited the teens to movie nights and created a youth room in their church. The high-schoolers started coming to the church not only for the games and movies but also for Sunday worship. And then their parents came. When the church announced they were starting confirmation classes, 16 people, most of them high-school students, signed up. Today, weekly worship attendance has more than doubled to 55 to 60 people, including 20 youth. 

If you have questions about the One Matters Awards, please contact Rev. Fabiola Grandon-Mayer, director of connectional ministries (fgrandon-mayer@umcnic.org) or visit the One Matters page.

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