St. Charles church begins multimillion-dollar capital campaign

Christ Community Church in St. Charles is kicking off an $11 million capital campaign with one goal of establishing a fifth campus.

No decision has been made about the location of the new campus - it could be in the suburbs, elsewhere in Illinois or even out of state, church communications director Todd Hertz said. The church also has campuses in Aurora, Bartlett and DeKalb.

"Because we've had such great experiences going into other communities, we are looking into where God might be calling us next," he said. "We are casting a wide net."

The church is relying on multiple Realtors to consider locations in Elgin, including the former Family Life Church building on East Chicago Street, as well as West Dundee and other suburbs, Hertz said. The church started 31 years ago and numbers about 5,000 congregants.

People can begin to commit donations to the "NEXT Campaign" during Sunday services. The campaign will wrap up in late 2017, he said.

The campaign also has other goals, including relocating its DeKalb campus to land the church owns across from DeKalb High School, and expanding office space in St. Charles and Aurora.

The church has expanded parking in Aurora by knocking down an old building that contained offices, Hertz said.

In St. Charles, the creative arts department - which builds visual props for services across all four campuses - needs more room, he said. "Literally every week, they are building sets on the St. Charles stage, then they hide them for services on Sunday and then bring them back out at the end."

Ten percent of the campaign's proceeds will be donated to community partners, such as homeless shelters or others, and ministry partners abroad, Hertz said. That's in accordance with the religious concept of "tithe," or giving 10 percent, which the church also applies to its yearly budget, Hertz said.

The "NEXT Campaign" has been taking shape among leadership for about two years, and the congregation began hearing about it from the pulpit about four weeks ago, Hertz said. The last church campus to open was Bartlett in 2011.

"A lot of it is, we feed God is saying, 'Now is the time. Now is the time where we have these things that are needs,' " he said.