A Church Rooted in the Kankakee Valley
Calvary Bible Church sits on the east side of Armour Road in Bourbonnais, Illinois, where two Sunday morning services fill the parking lot and the building behind it. Its mission is short and direct: "To glorify God in all that we do as we share the gospel of Jesus Christ with a lost and dying world." The congregation has held to that calling for nearly eighty years, and through three locations and many pastors the church has been characterized by some constants: Bible based, Gospel centered, Christ exalting, Spirit led, and mission minded.
The story begins in the late 1930s, when a group of interested Christians from Kankakee contacted the Chicago Christian Business Association about planting a church. Rev. Warren V. Lewis came to the city, surveyed the community, and held several meetings in a rented hall. The meetings were well received, the group moved first to a room over a clothing store and then to a portable tabernacle on a rented lot, and in 1940 the fellowship, first known as the Back to the Bible Tabernacle and later the Kankakee Gospel Tabernacle, officially formed. Six years later the fellowship became a membership and adopted the name Calvary Bible Church.
The little tabernacle gave way to a cement-block building in 1954, and that too was soon outgrown. In 1960 the congregation moved to a new facility on Fairview Avenue in nearby Bradley. Twenty-two years later the members found themselves on the move again, this time to 2587 East Armour Road in Bourbonnais, the building they still occupy today. Calvary began as an affiliate of the Independent Fundamental Churches of America and in 1984 changed its affiliation to the Evangelical Free Church of America.
Sunday Mornings on Armour Road
Two identical services are offered each Sunday morning at 9:00 and 10:30 AM. Worship is led by Interim Worship Leader Tommy Rankin alongside a band that uses a primarily modern musical approach. The music is described as a wide span of genres and generations, and the goal is "excellent music of the faith" that grows out of what the congregation has experienced together during the week. Services are livestreamed on YouTube, and giving is available online as well as in person.
First-time guests enter through the office doors on the east side of the building, while a separate children's entrance is on the west side. A welcome center staffed by hosts and hostesses greets newcomers, and the hospitality team also mans the doors as ushers and greeters and prepares coffee and refreshments in the foyer. For parents of infants and small children, a Family Room is available in the Early Childhood wing, equipped with a sofa, toys, and a TV streaming the service. The foyer itself has tables and chairs with the service shown on large screens, so parents can stay close to the room while still keeping an eye and ear on the worship gathering.
An Evangelical Free Confession
The statement of faith opens with a commitment to one God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - "infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons." The Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is confessed as the "verbally inspired Word of God... without error in the original writings," the complete revelation of God's will for salvation and the ultimate authority for every area of life.
The congregation teaches that human beings, made in God's image, fell through Adam's sin and are sinners by nature and by choice, "alienated from God, and under His wrath." Jesus Christ is confessed as God incarnate, fully God and fully man, whose atoning death and bodily resurrection "constitute the only ground for salvation." The Holy Spirit regenerates sinners, unites them to Christ, and equips them for service. The church is understood as the gathered body of all justified believers, expressed in local congregations that observe two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, which "visibly and tangibly express the gospel." The statement closes with belief in the personal, bodily return of Christ, the bodily resurrection of the dead, and the final judgment, when the unbeliever is assigned to "eternal conscious punishment" and the believer to "eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth."
Children from Infants through Fifth Grade
Children's ministry runs alongside both Sunday services. Infants through five-year-olds meet in a secure Early Childhood wing with a check-in kiosk, matching parent and child name tags, and a silent paging system. Workers are screened, and each age group uses a Bible-based curriculum designed for its stage. Parents of preschoolers and younger are encouraged to park on the left side of the building, where the children's entrance brings them straight to the check-in station.
Kindergarteners through fifth graders have their own Sunday School hour at 9:00 AM, where teachers work through Scripture from Genesis to Revelation using maps, timelines, memory verse music, games, and skits. At 10:30 AM those same children can head to Children's Church, a separate time of worship and teaching pitched to their level.
On Wednesday evenings during the school year, AWANA takes over from 6:00 to 7:30 PM. The club is divided into Cubbies (preschool and pre-K), Sparks (K through 2nd), and TNT (3rd through 5th), with game time, Scripture memorization, and a Bible challenge each week. Monthly theme nights and an AWANA Grand Prix pinewood derby keep things lively, and the children earn points throughout the year that they redeem at the AWANA Store twice a year.
Students and the Next Generation
Middle and high school students are gathered under the banner of Calvary Youth, led by Student Ministries Pastor Jon Kealey. The ministry is built around five commitments: full devotion to the truth of Scripture, the individual value of every person, authenticity before God and one another, unconditional love, and real discipleship that continues outside the church walls. Students meet on Sunday mornings at 9:00 AM and gather again on the second and fourth Sunday evenings from 6:00 to 8:00 PM for Abide and Evergreen, a time of coffee, fellowship, games, annual retreats, and in-depth study of God's Word.
For college-aged students, particularly those connected to Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, the church runs a college ministry focused on evangelism and discipleship. Jacob Morgan leads this work as a volunteer, and a regular Thursday evening Bible study meets at 6:00 PM at the church. The ministry aims to help students who know Christ read and apply Scripture, participate in genuine prayer, and use their gifts in the body of Christ, while also creating space to bring the reality of the gospel to students who do not yet believe.
Ministries for Every Season of Life
Women's ministry, branded with the REAL acronym, Reaching out, Encouraging others, Adoring God, and Learning together, runs a spring retreat at the church, periodic WOW (Women of the Word) Saturday gatherings with coffee and a Bible-based teaching time, and a December Cards and Carols evening that writes notes to shut-ins, missionaries, first responders, and service members before singing Christmas carols together. Lisa Navratil leads the team, which organizes itself around hospitality, food, music, decorations, teaching, small group leadership, and technology.
Men's ministry, called MIIM (Ministry to Men), gathers on the first and third Saturday of each month for breakfast, fellowship, and a Bible study with small group discussion. Monthly events and an annual men's conference round out the calendar. The stated goal is to produce men who "live the Word in all areas of life" and are prepared to share the gospel "beginning at home." Max Schmid leads the team.
Seniors have their own rhythm. On the first Wednesday of each month the ministry hosts a covered-dish lunch with chicken provided, followed by music, devotions, prayer, and games. On the third Wednesday the group gathers again with brown-bag lunches before watching a movie together in the sanctuary.
Small groups at Calvary Bible are deliberately allowed to form organically rather than being arranged from the top down. Life Groups meet in homes for fellowship, Bible study, and prayer. Bible Study Groups work through books of the Bible or study series. Prayer Groups lift up the church's needs, and Outreach Groups form around shared interests like biking, sewing, or fishing in order to draw the unchurched into gospel conversations.
Care for One Another
The Care Team sits at the center of the church's ministry to its own people. A hospital visitation ministry checks in on members during stays in the hospital, a meals ministry coordinates meal trains for families in difficult seasons, and a widow and widower care team visits and helps with household tasks. A benevolence fund, overseen by the Finance Team, provides short-term financial help to members and regular attenders who face unexpected needs.
The Hospitality Team, which includes ushers, greeters, hosts and hostesses, the coffee ministry, and a security team, works to make first visits welcoming and returning visits warm. Community-building events add another layer of connection: monthly game nights on the second Friday, a Ventine's Banquet, a camping trip, a church picnic, an outdoor service and ministry fair, a fall harvest party and chili cookoff, and a Thanksgiving dinner each year. Billy Eisen coordinates these events.
Reaching Beyond Bourbonnais
Calvary Bible partners with missionaries on four continents. In Africa the church supports Kim and Jan Cone among semi-nomadic tribal people, Berhanu Deresse and his son Gideon with Leadership Development Partnership Ministry, and Ben and Renee Kuwitzky with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Nigeria. In Asia the church prays for Karen, Matt and Alyssa Harris with Mission Aviation Fellowship in Indonesia, and Tom and Jan in the Middle East. In Europe the list includes Roger and Nancy Bowers with Pioneers in France, Erol and Tanja Ilijazovic with Eurasia Partners, Honza and Nada Kuklinik with Josiah Venture in the Czech Republic, and Dan and Donna Standridge with CrossWorld in Italy. In North America the church partners with Tom and Mary Ellen McElroy of the Navigators, Chuck and Cindy Harper with Western Indian Ministries, and Michael and Denise Lane with Evidence 4 Faith, while in South America it supports Onesimo and Marilda Arruda among the Terena Indians in Brazil.
Closer to home the church partners with Bible Witness Camp and Living Alternatives, the local pregnancy resource center. Matt Adamson leads the missions team, and several of Calvary's missionaries were sent out from the congregation itself. The same constants that have marked the church since its days as the Kankakee Gospel Tabernacle - Bible based, Gospel centered, Christ exalting, Spirit led, and mission minded - continue to shape its work today.