Missions Committee

The Missions Committee leads the presbytery's work of spreading the gospel at home and abroad. It plants new churches, strengthens existing ones, welcomes churches into the presbytery, and supports Illiana's missionaries (SR 8).

Who Serves

Members are elected by the presbytery under the general committee rules: at least two Teaching Elders, two Ruling Elders and two more from either office. The committee ordinarily meets at least four weeks before each stated meeting.

Supporting Missionaries

• Supports the presbytery's missionaries and keeps in contact with them on the field

• Updates the presbytery on their work

• Serves as the presbytery's link to Mission to the World (MTW), the PCA's global missions agency

Planting New Churches

• Recruits church planters for work within the presbytery

• Recommends locations for new mission churches

• Nominates provisional sessions for mission churches that are not overseen by a mother church

• Endorses and processes requests for financial help from Mission to North America (MNA)

• Prepares each mission church to become an established congregation, including making sure it has at least two resident ruling elders ready for approval

Strengthening Existing Churches

The committee supports church revitalization across the presbytery, helping congregations in seasons of need find new health and vision.

Receiving New Churches

When a church seeks to join Illiana Presbytery, the committee acts as a commission of the presbytery.

• Meets with the church's session and diaconate and examines each officer on his commitment to the PCA's standards: the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, and the Book of Church Order

• Reviews the church's constitution to make sure it agrees with the standards and practice of the PCA

• Receives the church, counsels it on further steps, or declines to receive it

• Leads a service of reception that includes the congregational covenant, a declaration of membership, and the affirmation of elder and deacon vows

Campus Ministry

The committee oversees, supports and promotes Reformed University Ministries (RUM) and other approved campus ministries.

Eligibility

Illiana Presbytery established a seminary tuition scholarship to help support men who have been called by God and examined by the Presbytery to plant Reformed and Presbyterian churches within the bounds of Illiana Presbytery. By removing financial barriers to seminary education, the Presbytery invests in the next generation of church planters.

More information is available here.

All submission for the scholarship should be turned into the stated clerk at clerk.illiana@gmail.com