Van Kicklighter, associate executive director for the Church Planting Team, will transition out of his role at IBSA April 1. He has continued to serve in the capacity three years after being diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a cancer of the blood cells.
“In these three years, because of the prayers of many of you along with good medical care, the cancer has been managed,” Kicklighter told staff in February. But the cancer and treatments have made it difficult to keep the same pace and workload. “And I care too much about the need for us to increase the pace at which we impact lostness and plant churches in Illinois to allow anything, including my health, to slow us down,” he said.
Kicklighter has led IBSA’s church planting focus twice, most recently since 2011. He also has served with the Missouri Baptist Convention and the North American Mission Board, and planted churches in Oregon and Nebraska. He and his wife, Robin, are active members of Western Oaks Baptist Church in Springfield. The IBSA staff honored the Kicklighters with a luncheon in March.
“Under Van’s leadership over the past eight years, IBSA has seen almost 150 churches planted,” said IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams. “He has been a thoughtful and passionate advocate for pushing back the lostness of Illinois through church planting, and for casting vision for the hundreds of places that still need a New Testament church here.”
Our state is one of the most significant mission fields in the world, Kicklighter said. “With the third-largest city in the country and the second-largest group of international college students, Illinois is a strategic place from which the gospel can go forth.”
Eddie Pullen, IBSA’s church planting director, will begin serving in an interim leadership role April 1, when Kicklighter transitions to disability status.
“I am grateful for the way Illinois Baptists and IBSA coworkers have prayed and cared for Robin and me during some very challenging seasons,” Kicklighter said.
“This has been a rich blessing for us and one we are very thankful for.”