Chicago | The first weekend in August will be remembered for several events in Chicagoland: big baseball rivalries, Lollapalooza concerts, and the arrival of Southern Baptists for Serve Tour. A total of 973 volunteer participants from 11 states and 67 SBC churches partnered with church planters and pastors in the city and suburbs for two days of hard work. The plan was to open doors for the gospel. The teams reported 62 salvations—and lots of goodwill.
“It was such a joy to partner with Chicagoland Baptists and IBSA,” said Sammy Simmons, National Project Director for Send Relief, a ministry of the North American Mission Board (NAMB). Simmons returned to Illinois where he pastored at Immanuel Baptist Church in Benton, to join the event he helped coordinate in his new capacity.
“I love the fact that churches across Chicago formed relationships and made commitments to serve again, and people from Southern Illinois are making commitments to return,” Simmons said. “I believe leaning into compassion ministry creates many open doors for having gospel conversations. I pray for a day when God moves and there are no longer nine million lost people in Illinois.”
Simmons was met in Chicago by IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams, along with IBSA Missions Director Shannon Ford, and local ministry partners from the Chicagoland Baptist Association and local Send City coordinators.
Teams from the churches worked on 47 projects, from feeding homeless people to block parties, to renovation for church plant facilities. Simmons reported 1,030 gospel conversations, with 4,108 people served; 2,703 meals were distributed, and Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief (IBDR) packed 1,477 lunches for the volunteers. At the construction sites, 154 hours of work were reported.
“God is doing a gospel work here,” said Jorge Rodriguez, pastor and planter of Grace Family Church in Rogers Park. “And having the crews come in just brings more light to what God is doing.”
Members of Rodriguez’ multi-ethnic congregation teamed up with crews from Cornerstone Church in downstate Marion and Bloomfield Baptist Church in Kentucky. They spent Friday preparing New Field School for opening day, assembling new furniture and cleaning the cafeteria, which is the also the space where Grace Family Church meets on Sundays.
Maria Oke from Nigeria has been a member of the church plant for two years. “Our folks here in the church are just like the folks in Rogers Park—the most diverse group in Chicago.”
She was giving instructions to the work crews and passing out trash bags after lunch. “The people came from Kentucky to help us clean the grounds and wipe the walls and sweep; it is inspiring. We met the principal and the administrators of the school, and it encourages the relationship with the church and the school,” Oke said.
“The principal told me, ‘I don’t know much about Southern Baptists, but I like what you guys are doing,’” Rodriguez said.
The scene was much the same all over town—locals and visitors all sharing the compassion of Christ. At Elmwood Park Community Church, Ford reported a line formed long before the food bank opened. Volunteers assisted by restocking shelves and helping people in need with their free shopping. “The joy of those who receive partners to work with them, coupled with the enthusiasm of those who came to serve, was wonderful to see,” Ford said.
The teams gathered each morning at one of four ministry hubs: Ashburn Baptist Church Chicago, Chicago West Bible Church, Starting Point Community Church, and Faith Tabernacle Baptist Church. On Saturday evening, they assembled at Armitage Baptist Church for worship and to share reports on ministry.
“I don’t know which encouraged me more—that more than half of the churches participating in the Serve Tour weekend were from Illinois, or that almost half of them were from other states,” Adams said. He and his wife, Beth, manned a mobile grill and served burgers on the first day. On the second day, they led Simmons on a tour of work sites.
“Chicagoland is our state’s largest, and in many ways most daunting mission field, and many of the pastors and churches there are doing truly heroic work,” Adams said. “In just these two days, I personally saw churches feeding the desperately hungry, teaching job and language skills in Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods, serving and befriending local law enforcement, improving church properties to make them more attractive and useful, caring for exhausted and grateful migrants, and in all these compassion ministries, faithfully sharing the gospel and making disciples.
“I also gratefully watched hundreds of sacrificial Baptist volunteers who, while they were serving, were also able to see up close and personal the ongoing needs and great opportunities of their fellow churches in Chicago,” Adams said.
Planning for Serve Tour began more than a year ago, and so did communication among some of the teams. Two people familiar to Illinois
Baptists, Rory Wallington from Broadview Missionary Baptist Church and Nelda Smothers from Metropolis First Baptist Church emailed from their respective ends of the state. Then they teamed up to serve homeless people with Reborn Church in West Garfield Park. The pair reported bringing one person to Christ—a kingdom experience repeated more than 60 times.
The Chicago event was one of six in the 2023 schedule, including international outreach in Athens, Greece; Nairobi, Kenya; and Bangkok, Thailand.
“I believe we’re going to see long lasting impact from this weekend in Chicago during the Serve Tour,” Ford said.
Adams agreed. “I believe this weekend will be the beginning of some great future partnerships and ministries.”