Investing in Kingdom Mission 

For Church of the Savior in Wheaton, Illinois, investing 5% in local mission paid off—in the life of their very first church plant.  

The plant, Christ Our Peace, is located in Oak Park, a diverse Chicago suburb 35 minutes east of Wheaton. Their story began four years ago when Church of the Savior started placing 5% of their annual operating income into a local mission fund. They did this faithfully every year—honoring Bishop Todd’s request for C4SO churches to invest 5% in the diocese and 5% in local mission—with a slight twist.

 “We knew we wanted to plant a church but we weren’t ready, so we asked Bishop Todd if it was OK to save the 5% in a fund for a church plant [instead of immediately investing it], and he agreed,” says the Rev. Kevin Miller, Rector of Church of the Savior. “At the time, my wife Karen [Associate Rector] and I were new to the church and still building trust with the congregation, making it too early for us to plant.”

Kevin, Karen and their vestry thought they might plant in Wheaton or a nearby suburb; Oak Park was not on their radar. But then they met Sandra Richter and her husband, Ian, who lived in Oak Park and began attending Church of the Savior in 2014. Over the next few years, Sandy served as the church’s Pastor of Adult Formation while pursuing ordination as a deacon and discerning next steps in her calling. She was passionate about three things: pastoring, Church of the Savior, and Oak Park. But she couldn’t quite figure out how they fit together.

In 2019, Kevin and Karen were having one of their regular mentoring conversations with Sandy and Ian. “I said, ‘Sandy, why wouldn’t you think about planting a church in Oak Park?’” Kevin recalls. “Right away I saw the look on her face—she just lit up.”

“We felt an amazing amount of joy that God would allow us to do this in a place that we already love,” Sandy says.

Using the funds Church of the Savior had saved, Kevin paid Sandy to devote a few hours each week to the plant, now named Christ Our Peace. At the end of September 2020, she stepped down from her role as Pastor of Adult Formation to dedicate 12 hours a week to building a core team and developing vision and values. Since Christ Our Peace’s timeline is uncertain, financial support from Church of the Savior has been a huge gift. 

“We don’t have to worry about our finances,” she says. “Stepping down from my role at Savior doesn’t impact our growing family.”

Kevin is glad to see Sandy’s pastoral gifts come to fruition. “She’s one of the most gifted shepherds I’ve ever met,” he says. “Sandy would pastor and gather people even if she weren’t ordained and commissioned as our church planter … She’s gifted by God to do this.”

Sandy brings her gifts of pastoring and gathering to the core team that has met since January, collaborating on a vision for engaging their multi-ethnic community. “The quality of our core team is really solid … God has brought us together in this moment for a reason,” she says. “We all care deeply about racial justice and are trying to wait on the Lord for what that means for us.”

Because of COVID, most of their meetings have been online, though Sandy hopes to eventually rent space in one of the many historic churches in Oak Park. She has built many relationships with secular and de-churched residents in her progressive, community-oriented neighborhood. Some of her neighbors are wealthy and able to use their resources to avoid asking deep spiritual questions, but as COVID has peeled back the layers, others are showing a new openness to talking about spiritual things. 

“My friends on the fringe of faith are open to me caring for them and praying for them in ways they haven’t been before,” Sandy says. 

During a September 26 worship service, Church of the Savior officially installed the Richters as their first church planters, blessing and commissioning them for the work they have set out to do. Church of the Savior will remain involved for three to five years, shouldering most of the administration so Christ Our Peace won’t have to focus on structural issues. Kevin and Karen will continue mentoring Sandy and Ian, and Kevin will also help Savior stay connected to Christ Our Peace.

“Part of my role is making sure Savior’s congregation knows what’s going on with the church plant and inviting them to attend there if they want to,” Kevin says. “Our hope is that [Christ Our Peace] will become a fully functioning new C4SO church here in the Chicagoland area. When you build up 5% year after year, it’s not going to break the regular budget to get a church plant up and going. It’s been a blessing, and I love C4SO’s vision for investing in local mission.”

 Learn more about Christ Our Peace.

Learn more about Church of the Savior.