Elmhurst Christian Reformed Church

Elmhurst Christian Reformed Church God's Source of Shining Light and Living Water in the Western Suburbs. Drawing people to know Jesus, Becoming like Jesus, Serving as Jesus...

What I Learned This Summer, FinaleSeptember 11, 2026 • by Gregg DeMeyWhat I Learned This Summer - Finale: It’s All a Bar...
09/11/2026

What I Learned This Summer, Finale
September 11, 2026 • by Gregg DeMey

What I Learned This Summer - Finale: It’s All a Barrel of Monkeys

For the last few weeks, I’ve been writing about how the Synod of our denomination – the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) – has adopted an audacious 10-year strategic plan for church planting. The goal is that our denomination of about 900 churches would plant 1,000 new churches in the next 10 years. I noted last week that achieving this goal would take some miracles.

Specifically, there would have to be miraculous spiritual transformation in the discipleship culture of our denomination: moving from a model that seeks to form disciples primarily by means of classes and good information, to a model that makes discipleship based on relationships, imitation, and apprenticeship.

Consider the example in the New Testament between the Apostle Paul and Timothy.

Paul first met Timothy when he was a young man (see Acts 16:1-3). Then Paul immediately recruited Timothy to join a travelling band of church planters establishing new Christian communities across what is now modern Turkey and Greece. Two of Paul’s advisory letters to his protege even made it into the Bible, the books we call 1st and 2nd Timothy. Here’s a short example of what Paul wrote to help guide and encourage his apprentice:

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

–2 Timothy 2:1-3

Paul not only discipled Timothy, but encouraged and empowered him to turn around and do exactly the same thing for those that Timothy was led to. Jesus intended discipleship in his name to be a ministry of relational multiplication.

About a month ago, our Strategic Planning Team spent some time praying for the Up, In, and Out ministries of the church and asking God to give us new dreams and visions for what he was inviting us to do. One of the team members, Amy West, had a vision planted in her mind of an old game called “Barrel of Monkeys” as we were praying about discipleship. If you’ve never played as a kid, the official rules read as follows:

"Dump red monkeys onto table. Pick up one monkey by an arm. Hook the other arm through a second monkey's arm. Continue making a chain. Your turn is over when a monkey is dropped."

What a perfect image for how Jesus intended genuine Christian discipleship to happen! God really speaks in the most surprising ways! Imagine what would happen if every kid and adult at Elmhurst CRC were “hooked” to somebody who just a little bit further ahead of them in some part of the spiritual life – AND – if every kid and adult were also reaching behind them to bring someone younger or newer to the faith just a step further down the path of Jesus.

If you’re wondering how to put this principle into practice, I want to invite you to linger after this Sunday’s worship service and purposefully wander through our annual ministry fair. The ministry fair will have booths and tables representing the dozens of ministries happening at ECRC over the next nine months. If you’re not currently “hooked” to somebody or something that is drawing you deeper into Jesus’ ways, this might be your chance to discover it! And if you’re not currently serving in a way that has you “hooked” to somebody that you can help, lift, and encourage, this is your moment to take a step of discovery and try something new!

– Pastor Gregg

Ten-Year Strategic Plan for Church Planting in the CRCNA report:
https://www.crcna.org/sites/default/files/Agenda_Supplement-Resonate_Global_Mission.pdf

09/11/2026

Many of our fall and mid-week ministries are starting this week (some already have)!

SHE: Single Mother Support Group is one of them. Listen in as Tracy Williams, SHE Director, shares what moms can expect at a SHE Single Mother Support Group meeting.

Know a mom, family member, friend, or colleague who might benefit? Invite them—and share this post with them! Elmhurst Sisters Helping Each Other (SHE) kicks off this Sunday @ 12:15 pm. 149 West Brush Hill Road, Elmhurst.

09/09/2026

“Conviction isn’t condemnation. The Holy Spirit exposes what needs to change so we can repent, draw near to Jesus, and go deeper with Him."

The Spirit of Wisdom and Guidance | Pastor Gregg DeMey
John 16:7–15 | elmhurstcrc.org/sermons

Happy Labor Day! 🇺🇸Our weekday devotionals, delivered via text Monday–Friday, resume today! Sign up to receive your dail...
09/07/2026

Happy Labor Day! 🇺🇸

Our weekday devotionals, delivered via text Monday–Friday, resume today! Sign up to receive your daily dose of Scripture as you prepare for the weekend message. Text the word “devos” to 630.748.8172 – and that’s it! Your devos should start the following day.

Already subscribed? Your morning texts should have automatically resumed this morning!

09/06/2026

The Spirit of Wisdom and Guidance

What I Learned This Summer, Part 4September 3, 2026 • by Gregg DeMeyLast week I wrote about how the Synod of our denomin...
09/04/2026

What I Learned This Summer, Part 4
September 3, 2026 • by Gregg DeMey

Last week I wrote about how the Synod of our denomination – the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) – adopted an audacious 10-year strategic plan for church planting. The goal is that our denomination of about 900 churches would plant 1,000 new churches in the next 10 years. How would that even be possible?!?

A couple of quotes from the report that Synod adopted:

Ten years is a long time from now. To help us know that we are making progress toward this vision and to clarify what we need to do in order to get there, we need “vision with teeth” for the next five years, followed by a strategic “reset” for the five years after that. The focus for these first five years will be to build the foundation, to gain clarity on ownership for the five core strategies that make up this strategic plan, and to test and learn from pilot projects to discover what works and is scalable.

It will be primarily in the second five years that we anticipate seeing exponential growth as these core strategies scale and multiply across our denomination.

For the first five years, we need vision that includes indicators of success. We need something that is specific and time-bound. We need a measurable slice of this vision that will give us strategic focus. We need something that will stretch us toward our ten-year vision while at the same time being achievable and reasonable for us to go after together. As the visionary-leadership consultant Michael Hyatt

has put it, “Vision must be big enough to stretch people but not so gigantic that it feels absurd.”

What could provide this kind of strategic focus for the next five years? We believe an aspirational vision to plant 150 new worshiping communities across North America by 2031 will hit that sweet spot of stretching us without feeling unreasonable. To put this into a strategy statement for the next five years, we offer the following: If every classis in the CRCNA has a sustainable church multiplication pathway in place that helps local churches (1) make disciples, (2) develop leaders, (3) equip planters, and (4) plant new churches, then 150 new worshiping communities will be established across the U.S. and Canada by 2031.

I do have a little personal experience where something like this happened on a local level. Fresh out of Seminary, Sarah and I moved to Sacramento, California where a group of CRC churches (called a “Classis”) decided to step out in faith together and plant a new church on the east side of Sacramento where the population was rapidly expanding at the time. An entrepreneurial young church planter, my friend Rev. Kevin Adams, was eager to embrace this challenge and moved to Sacramento with his family. After a year of prayer, organizing, and building relationships, a new church was born:

Granite Springs CRC. I arrived a few years later, and already – after less than five years of existing – Granite Springs was dreaming of how to plant more churches. The excitement of new conversions, rapid growth, and spiritual renewal was contagious. The momentum began to grow!

Over the next five years a network of church planters developed, we started coaching up interns and pastors in training, and soon we needed both hands to count the church plants that had sprung up from our young, fledgling church. That’s the story that our denomination envisions multiplying in every corner and cranny of our churches all over North America. Could it happen?

The CRC has a long way to go. Our shared culture and behaviors would need to change drastically.

It would take some miracles! Do those still happen? I’ll write more in next week’s blog about the possibility of these miracles and how they might even impact us right here in Elmhurst, Illinois.

- Pastor Gregg

Ten-year Strategic Plan for Church Planting in the CRCNA
https://www.crcna.org/sites/default/files/Agenda_Supplement-Resonate_Global_Mission.pdf

09/01/2026

“Because when the church of Jesus shows up, we bring Jesus with us. We’re not the VFW. We’re not the American Legion. We’re the church of Jesus. We have inside of us the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. Right? So we show up.”

Clothed with Power from on High | Rev. Jeff Klein
Isaiah 61:1–4 | elmhurstcrc.org/sermons

08/30/2026

Clothed With Power From on High

What I Learned This Summer, Part 3August 28, 2026 • by Gregg DeMeyEarlier this summer, the Synod of our denomination – t...
08/29/2026

What I Learned This Summer, Part 3
August 28, 2026 • by Gregg DeMey

Earlier this summer, the Synod of our denomination – the Christian Reformed Church in North America – met in person at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from June 12–18. Every Synod is a unique, one-off mix of delegates from around the USA and Canada tasked with providing leadership and oversight for the nearly 900 churches in our denomination.

I was last there as a delegate in 2021 along with one of our deacons at the time, Jennifer Stolzenbach. This year, Erin Pacheco’s husband, Moe, was a delegate representing our region in Northern Illinois.

The most interesting and potentially impactful decision made by this year’s Synod was to adopt a 10-year strategic plan for church planting (For the very curious, you can peruse the plan below) Why church planting? Two big reasons readily occur to me

1. Our denomination is - and has been - in decline for decades. There are 189k members of the CRCNA today; down from a high water mark of 316k in the early 1990’s when we had the grand vision of growing to 400k by Y2K!

2. More importantly, our denomination has struggled to implement the essential Christian behaviors of identifying emerging leaders and practicing a form of relational discipleship (think, “What did Jesus do? How did he train leaders?”) that inevitably leads to the red hot spiritual center that grows and multiplies churches.

In his address at Synod 2026, General Secretary Zach King outlined four "pivot points" to help the denomination embrace this audacious church planting mission. He noted these shifts mirror the spread of the gospel in the book of Acts, especially as it was modeled by the early church in Antioch. The four pivot points are:

A. Embracing Communal Prayer: A shift toward prioritizing prayer and spiritual practices to drive transformation.

B. Intergenerational Discipleship: A move toward connecting younger disciples with older, more mature believers to grow leaders.

C. Reforming Mission and Vision: Updating the church's vision statement to clearly emphasize the work of the Triune God and reflect its Reformed identity.

D. Focusing on Ministry and Mission: An overall shift toward outward-facing ministry, sending people out to carry the love of Jesus Christ directly into their communities. Specifically, adopting a church planting goal of starting 1,000 new congregations in the next 10 years.

I offer my personal “Amen!” to all four of these. In fact, we are striving locally at ECRC to make progress along parallel tracks. We’re just about to open a new prayer room (pivot A) on September 13 and introduce a prayer workshop, and our Strategic Planning Team (pivot C) has been diligently working behind the scenes for months now.

The goal of pivot D, to plan 1,000 new congregations is an audacious one. Is that even possible? So glad you asked! Come back next week to this same space as I attempt to tackle that very question.

Pastor Gregg

Report Referenced: https://www.crcna.org/sites/default/files/Agenda_Supplement-Resonate_Global_Mission.pdf

SERVE WEEKEND IS ALMOST HERE! 🙌There are still opportunities to serve, connect with others, and make a difference in our...
08/27/2026

SERVE WEEKEND IS ALMOST HERE! 🙌
There are still opportunities to serve, connect with others, and make a difference in our community. Find an opportunity and sign up: elmhurstcrc.org/serveweekend We’d love to have you join us!

08/23/2026

The Gifts of the Spirit

What I Learned This Summer-Part 2August 21, 2026 • by Gregg DeMeyIn mid-July, I was able to spend a couple of great days...
08/21/2026

What I Learned This Summer-Part 2
August 21, 2026 • by Gregg DeMey

In mid-July, I was able to spend a couple of great days with a group called “The Adaptive Leaders Cohort” which convened in Evins Mill, Tennessee – about an hour west of Nashville. This was a group of a dozen church and non-profit leaders from all over North America (from California to Philadelphia, I was the only Illinoisan there, although there was an Iowan repping the Midwest, too).

The theory behind “Adaptive Leadership” is that there are changes - both personal and organizational - that prove resistant to implementation because our systems have various “immunities to change” that rightfully promote stability and consistency. This is even true of changes that are deemed to be preferred, necessary, or desirable. These few days were designed to help us leaders identify our own obstacles to changes that we aspire to by asking pesky questions such as:

- What are the hidden barriers to not moving forward?
- What fears must we face? What losses are we prepared to endure?

- What cost are we already paying by not changing? Are we OK with this stagnation tax?

- What would need to change about my attitude, mindset, and behavior to live into the changes that I’m being called by Jesus to implement?

- What new things would living into this vision of change make possible?

These are great, tough questions for me personally – and – great, tough questions that are timely for ECRC’s current strategic planning process.

One unexpected encouragement from this experience was the positive feedback about the life of Elmhurst CRC offered by other attendees. One individual from Las Vegas is a frequent watcher of our Sunday LiveStream because he finds our worship services inspirational. Another from the East Coast was amazed that we were able to tackle the particular political topics in our “We’ve Got Issues” summer sermon series and had been watching along. Another from South Carolina knew of our Farmers Market and Little Lambs Preschool Ministry and wanted to hear more. Good job church! Evidently, we’ve somehow developed a shining reputation (in a Gospel way) in wider Reformed circles as we creatively serve our neighbors! (And thanks to Sheri Van Spronsen Leppink and our Communications Team, Kyle Olson and Billy Heschl, of our Technical Team, who humbly get the good word out in innovative ways.)

And speaking of service, this Sunday’s worship experience will offer the opportunity to go deeper in the realm of the Holy Spirit as we seek to identify and implement the spiritual gifts that God’s Spirit has given us, both personally and corporately. A few details that will help us along the way: You’ll receive a name tag on the way into worship this Sunday. Naming is important! Later in the service, you’ll be invited to add to your name tag what you believe is your primary spiritual gift, given to you by God for the betterment of the Body, Jesus’ Church.

If that sounds a little nervy, you might benefit from taking a spiritual gifts assessment in advance. You can find it here on our website. Our staff would love to debrief the results with you, too! Additionally, immediately following worship, Pastor Jason Turner will be facilitating a Spiritual Gifts Workshop to walk you through the spiritual gifts assessment and help with its application.

This is such an essential topic for the health and the life of the church! God’s brilliant vision for the church is that we are all specialized cells, designed by him to both receive and contribute to the functional wellbeing of the Body. I have high hopes that this weekend will empower many of us to discover and activate the unique powers that God has put inside of us for the sake of others.

– Pastor Gregg

08/20/2026

Back-to-School Prayer 🙏

Yesterday was a full day of back-to-school prayer at Elmhurst CRC. It was one of several days of prayer, reflecting different school start dates, with people gathering to pray over students, each represented by a rock bearing their name, as they begin a new school year.

Over the past couple of weeks, students have also been invited to engage with interactive prayer stations in the ECRC lobby—to remember that God made them “uniquely you” (Psalm 139:14), that God carries their burdens (1 Peter 5:7), and to count their blessings (1 Chronicles 16:34).

What a fitting way to begin a new school year. ❤️

Wherever you are today, we invite you to join us in praying for students of all ages as they begin a new year.

“Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of children. Thank you for the joy and challenge they bring to each day. As they go back to school this year, please keep our children safe from harm—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Help them grow into the people You created them to be. Give them joy in the daily things and strength when they face hard challenges. Help them to be examples of Your love to others, and help us to be godly examples for our children. Give us your peace when we feel anxious or overwhelmed. Most importantly, equip us to raise our children so that they will know your great love and follow You all of their days of their lives. Amen.“

08/18/2026

“So according to Jesus, how do you know if it's working? How do you know if you're connected to Jesus? If you're really following him, if you are attached to the true vine, there will inevitably, naturally, be good fruit coming for your life…You will not be known by how nice you are. You will be known by your fruit.”

How to Know if You're Really Following Jesus | Pastor Gregg DeMey
Galatians 5:22–25 | elmhurstcrc.org/sermons

08/16/2026

The Fruit of the Spirit

Serve Weekend is just two short weeks away!Join us Saturday and Sunday, August 29 & 30, as we go out to be the hands and...
08/16/2026

Serve Weekend is just two short weeks away!
Join us Saturday and Sunday, August 29 & 30, as we go out to be the hands and feet of Jesus, serving our neighbors and community.

Saturday Serve opportunities include My Brother’s Kitchen, Feed My Starving Children, Englewood Family Outreach, and more!

Sunday Serve opportunities include Cook for a Cop, Brush Hill Road Cleanup, Loaves and Fishes, Bethshan Christian Services, and more!

Browse all the projects and sign up today at:
elmhurstcrc.org/serveweekend

Address

149 W Brush Hill Rd
Elmhurst, IL
60126

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Tuesday 8:30am - 4pm
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Thursday 8:30am - 4pm
Friday 8:30am - 12:30pm
Sunday 9:30am - 11:30am

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