Easter gives rise to new church in Schaumburg

Easter, both spiritually and seasonally, is a celebration of new life.

And this particular Easter saw the birth of a new church in Schaumburg.

City Harvest Church, an affiliate campus of the 25-year-old Family Harvest Church in Tinley Park, held its first Sunday morning service at the Schaumburg Marriott.

And that's where most of its weekly services will be, apart from occasional scheduling conflicts like this coming Sunday, April 18, when the group will be at the nearby Renaissance Hotel in Schaumburg, Assistant Pastor Jacques Jacobs said.

The hotel conference room may not have been the most obvious setting for the church's maiden service. A chandelier looked down upon a space perhaps better suited to a chamber of commerce meeting.

But the walls vibrated with the rhythms of hymns performed by a singing group and a small bass-heavy musical combo, while some of the approximately 100 guests swayed and raised their arms in response to the music.

Children were gathered in a separate room, getting ready for an Easter egg hunt.

City Harvest Church may be the closest campus to the mother church in Tinley Park, but it isn't the first. Over the past quarter century, nine other campuses have sprung up in Indiana, Texas, Florida, Europe and South Africa.

Jacobs said the new campus he will oversee was created in response to the long travel times some members were facing to get to Tinley Park. Also, Schaumburg has proved a strong source of sales for the books and teaching materials written by church founder and Senior Pastor Robb Thompson.

Several books were stacked on a table at the back of the room where the service was held.

Jacobs himself was born and raised in South Africa, where he began running a youth ministry at the campus there.

Thompson was so impressed with what Jacobs was doing with the program that he brought him back to the U.S. in 2000.

Since then, Jacobs has married Thompson's secretary, and the couple are now awaiting the birth of their first child, even as the new campus he will oversee is getting started.

Jacobs describes the church as nondenominational, Bible-based and with a very contemporary focus.

Sunday's service reflected a desire to keep things contemporary. As Thompson, who arrived Sunday from Tinley Park to deliver the sermon, spoke to the worshippers, he stood before a podium on which sat an Apple laptop computer. Nearby was a screen one might use for a PowerPoint presentation. Reference was made to blogs and Twitter feeds.

The new church's worshipers included regulars from the Tinley Park church, including Rick Wagner, his wife Bette and his 22-year-old daughter Courtney.

Rick Wagner, a Glen Ellyn resident, said he had been traveling to Tinley Park for eight years. "Before 355 extended, it would take us an hour to get there," he said.

But for Wagner, it's not about convenience.

"I like the contemporary service. We have a very good staff for very sound, basic, principled teaching," he said. "(Thompson) is really committed to an accurate and complete translation of Scripture. The only doctrine is based on the Bible. We don't come up with our own ideas."

He said this even involves translating from original Greek texts.

"We make large mistakes by hanging on to what we'll just call religion," Thompson said. "The only thing that we know about God is what he has revealed to us. And he has revealed himself to us by the Scriptures. And so we take the Scriptures and we actually teach the people according to the way that God wants them taught."

Although he would welcome the kind of growth seen at the Tinley Park church, Thompson said he is motivated by the desire to help people on a personal level.

"Sometimes bigger is not always better," he said. "My desire is only to be able to bring a help to the community, help to the families, help to the teenagers, and see some really good things happen up here in the Northwest suburbs."

Music, he said, plays a large role in worship because it gives people an opportunity to express their love for God, as well as their musical talent.

The church places a big emphasis on young people and families, but also education, social circles and business ethics, Jacobs said. Music at the services is rock- and pop-based, but with spiritual lyrics.

The church's worldwide ministries also reach out to those in need, including building children's homes and hospitals in Africa and a project to feed street children in the capital of Uganda.

The plan for the new Schaumburg campus is not to build or buy a building, as the intention is to engage congregation members with these types of ministries, rather than burden them with financial expenses, Jacobs said.

The church's services will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Sunday at either of the two Schaumburg hotels. For more information on the church, visit cityharvestnorth.org, e-mail jj@cityharvest.org or call (708) 614-6000.