Our Congregation
What best defines us as a congregation is the covenant each of us made when we joined this family of faith and which we reaffirm regularly in worship as an Affirmation of Faith:
The Community Protestant Church Covenant
As members of the faith and family of Jesus Christ,
we covenant to watch over one another in Christian love,
to love each other come what may
and to remember each other in prayer and concern,
to nurture and support each other in times of difficulty
and to rejoice together in times of joy.
We will be open and accepting of all who come, slow to take offense,
and always ready for forgiveness and reconciliation.
We promise to grow in love and understanding of the Lord,
and to live our faith in our daily lives.
Recognizing that God has a hand in the course of world events,
we have a responsibility to look to God
for guidance in our own actions.
We believe that the mission of the church is
to proclaim the gospel to all people, to advocate peace and justice,
in our community and in the world.
We accept God’s call to be a church
and dedicate ourselves to faithful service,
giving our time, our energy, our resources.
Depending upon the continued guidance of the Holy Spirit,
as did those who have come before us, we work and pray together
for the transformation of the world into God’s holy creation.
Our History
Community Protestant Church was founded before Mundelein was “Mundelein.” When it was clear that the new railroad would be constructed more than two miles East of the Ivanhoe church, a town started to be built around the tracks in a small, new village that took the name of Rockefeller in honor of the railroad magnate. In 1889, 16 settlers met and agreed to form the Rockefeller Church Association, to organize as a Congregational Church, and secure a pastor.
The early church met for many years in Miss Amelia Holcomb’s schoolhouse near the tracks and what is now the intersection of US 45 and IL 176. After the Great Depression and World War 2, a campaign was launched for the construction of a new church building. The congregation would sell produce at a roadside stand from what was known as “The Lord’s Acre” – a parcel of land that a member provided and members worked to raise money toward the project. A few years later, the new building would go up at our present location at the corner of Prairie Ave and Hawley Street. The town and the church grew quickly through the great suburban migration and baby boom that followed. A new Christian Education wing was added to the original building in 1958.
We’ve always been congregational, which means that we are not controlled by any outside authority, either financially or doctrinally. We don’t have bishops who dictate what will be preached or by whom nor does our denomination own our property. We are in a covenantal partnership with our denomination, the United Church of Christ, which means that we share in pooling resources, in mission, in cooperating toward goals of justice and peace. But in our system it is repeatedly said that when the denomination speaks, it speaks to the local congregations and not for them.