Practicing Hope: A Shared Resource for the Year of Practicing Hope
"A Year of Practicing Hope" is a new devotional created for 2026 in the Northern Illinois–Wisconsin Area. Featuring Scripture, reflections, and prayer, the boo…
Looking for a bit of a financial boost to help get a ministry off the ground?
Healthy churches look for ways to share God’s love with their neighbors in practical ways. The Northern Illinois Conference offers a number of grants that assist many kinds of ministries for your church’s context. Your church may qualify for one of the following. Some of the deadlines are coming up soon, so visit the grants web page now in order to plan ahead.
Creative Ministry, Congregational Redevelopment, and Social Reform Grants
These support ministries that engage the community in new ways, witness to the transformation of society, and experiment with new ways of being the church. Church apportionment giving makes these grants possible.
Town and Rural Pack/Town and Rural Keagy Grants
These are available to any small town/rural church in the conference. Funds are drawn from a trust specifically dedicated to small-town and rural churches.
United Methodist Volunteer in Mission Grants
For districts and local churches that will organize, fund, and lead youth and/or adult mission journey teams.
Accessibility Grants
Assists churches in making their service, activities, and facilities more accessible for people with disabilities.
Midwest Methodist Foundation Grants
Grants of up to $2,000 to churches and church-related organizations that are developing new or expanded creative ministries.
Learn more and apply for these grants here.
For more information, contact Rev. Fabiola Grandon-Mayer, Northern Illinois Conference Director of Connectional Ministries.
"A Year of Practicing Hope" is a new devotional created for 2026 in the Northern Illinois–Wisconsin Area. Featuring Scripture, reflections, and prayer, the boo…
Leaders of fourteen church bodies in the Chicago area who came together on Jan. 24 for the World Day of Prayer put faith into practice by urging the federal governmen…
A call went out this week for clergy to come to Minneapolis and protest what is taking place in the Twin Cities. I have given it a great deal of consideration and decided that…
Over 300 people gathered at Trinity United Methodist Church in Mount Prospect on Jan. 18 for the conference's annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, where they a…