Illinois

“What if the birth was just the beginning?” is the theme of Willow Creek Community Church’s Christmas message this year. And to show that to the estimated 80,000 people attending their 12 services at the South Barrington location, they are adding a short film, scored to a 22-piece live orchestra, into the mix.

The film sets the birth and life of Christ in modern-day Chicago. A TV news anchor is the main character, and the trailer on the website opens with her announcing the birth of the Savior of the world.

Hundreds of volunteers from Willow Creek participated as extras in the film. Writer and Director Blaine Hogan, also a staff member at the megachurch, hired professional actors for the leading roles. more >>

Five Monmouth College students were accused of stealing items from a Nativity scene displayed at the Public Square in Monmouth, Ill.

Those arrested and charged with theft included Cathryn Sargent, Korri Crawford, Brittany Smallberger, Emily Triebel, and Samantha Bundy, all of whom were Illinois residents. The women were discovered at a local gas station in the city shortly after the Monmouth Police Department officers began their search for the suspects.

The investigation started on Thursday when authorities had noticed that several of the Nativity scene lawn ornaments in the downtown area were missing, with a few items knocked over as well. more >>

Being a college freshman is hard enough. Throw in being 1,850 miles from home and the new challenges of playing Division I softball, and there are plenty to stress out an 18-year-old.

Thankfully for Kristin Scharkey, she found a new community at Northwestern University in the form of Athletes in Action not long into that first year. Introduced by a former football player who was a key leader in AIA, Kristin started attending the weekly meetings and getting to know other Christian athletes.

“Being part of AIA was so helpful for me, having this community of people who believe like me and the accountability was so huge for me that freshman year,” says Kristin, a junior centerfielder who hails from Yorba Linda, Calif. more >>

WHEATON, Ill. – Under the slated skylight and within the clean, airy white walls of College Church on the Wheaton College campus, more than 600 people gathered Friday to remember and be inspired by the life of John Stott – the English Anglican clergyman who helped define and drive the global evangelical movement in the 20th century.

One by one, speakers eloquently, but with much sincerity and humor, recalled the humble, intellectual giant of the evangelical community who astounded and touched Christians around the world with his clear and authoritative exegesis of the Bible, and with the way he lived his life.

“He (John Stott) truly was, in some ways, the first person who spoke the word of God to me through his literature and I also heard him in person,” proclaimed Tim Keller, senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and whom Newsweek magazine described as a “C.S. Lewis for the twenty-first century.” more >>

WHEATON, Ill. – Hundreds of Christians inspired and impacted by the life of English evangelical theologian, preacher, and global thinker John Stott gathered at Wheaton College on Friday for his U.S. memorial service.

Intimate stories of a man driven until his last breath to live according to the will of God and make Him known were shared by friends, protégés and evangelical leaders. Stott died on July 27 at age 90.

The following is the biography found in the memorial service program pamphlet. more >>

A newborn baby was found inside a green reusable shopping bag on Sunday afternoon at a church parking lot.

On top of a parked vehicle at the Korean-American Gospel Presbyterian Church in Schaumburg, Ill., a member of the church discovered the bag on top of his trunk after finishing Sunday services, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The man believed only a teddy bear was inside the bag and left it at the church lobby hoping its owner would come back and claim it. more >>