"Reaching the Indian population of the suburbs"
Evangel Indian Church was launched in September 2013 to minister to the spiritual needs of the Indian and Southeast Asian communities in the Western Suburban Chicago region, which has a relatively high population of South East Asians.
The mission of Evangel Indian Church is to connect people of Indian and Southeast Asian decent to the truth of Jesus Christ so they can Know God, Find Life, Discover purpose, and Make A Difference. The key insight is that the Indian and South East Asian communities do not have their larger network of families here in the US. So attendees of the Indian church become their adopted families where they want to spend time in fellowship after the weekly services and multiple times during the month through social events (house dedications, birthdays and anniversaries, picnics etc.).
Over the past five years, Evangel Indian Church has grown from a handful of families to over 80 adults and children covering multiple Indian language groups – primarily Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi and Telugu. Our current Pastors are Pastor Philip K. Philip and his wife Betsy Philip, who joined Evangel Indian Church in March 2018.
Evangel Indian Church focuses on two areas for growth - spiritual maturity among believers and winning non-believers to Christ. Key strategic initiatives for both growth areas are as follows:
Spiritual maturity among believers
Weekly teaching of God’s word through Sunday morning church services
Maturing believers from attendees to members and Dream Team hosts through Growth Track
Life Groups – Bible study groups where attendees learn from God’s word and from one another
Weekly intercessory meetings – Men’s and Women’s prayer conference calls to intercede for individuals, communities and churches
Annual family retreat during Labor Day weekend with anointed guest speakers
Holy Spirit Anointing and Healing meetings for those desiring to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit
Teen and Junior Bible Quiz preparation, participation and competition at the local and regional levels
Reaching non-believers for Christ
Christmas Mela – during Christmas, we invite our Hindu and Muslim to celebrate the birth of Jesus with special kids program, dance, music, games, food and fellowship. Last year, we had 90 guests come for this event
Easter celebration – Jesus is one of the gods for Hindus and a prophet for Muslims. We use this insight to attract non-believers to worship with us with special Easter program by kids and families where we show the love of God depicted through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus
Picnic – More than 100 guests have come to participate in this annual event of fun outdoor and indoor games, fellowship and food
Special outreach concert – this year on Friday June 21st evening, we are partnering with the famous Indian worship group, Yeshua Band, for an outreach concert at Evangel Church. This major initiative will reach many non-believers for Christ using music as the medium to convey the gospel message
Evangel church wide community initiatives such as Hands of Hope, Convoy of Hope and Samaritan Feet, Christmas Village and Candyland to serve our local communities
Evangel Indian Church is a Christ-centered church and is therefore thriving physically (weekly Sunday attendance, engagement in Life Groups), spiritually (salvations, rededications, Holy Spirit anointings) and financially (consistent growth in tithes and offerings). Everything is done for the growth and expansion of God’s kingdom on earth.