Elgin paster joins WYLL lineup

I don't know if Pastor Elliott Anderson had been praying what many refer to as the Prayer of Jabez. Recorded in I Chronicles 4:10, the prayer goes, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory!"

But in fact Anderson's territory has just been enlarged. Up until a few weeks ago, worshippers at Elgin Evangelical Free Church were the only ones who heard their pastor's sermons regularly.

Beginning Aug. 23, however, Anderson's audience expanded potentially into the thousands or even more when he joined the program lineup at WYLL-AM 1160. His messages air on the Christian radio station Saturdays at 3:30 p.m., right after a Mundelein pastor and before a celebrity interviewer.

Anderson's program is funded by his alma mater, Judson University in Elgin. How that came about is an interesting story.

A year and a half ago, WYLL was looking to make some changes.

"They were asked by their parent company to get rid of as many infomercials as possible," Anderson said.

"They already had a lot of the big syndicated guys on there, so they thought, 'Hey, why don't we approach the small and medium-sized churches?'"

Letters went out, and the Elgin church liked the idea. The church elders put the project in their budget for this year, but this summer the congregation took out its sanctuary pews, replacing them with new chairs, laid down new carpeting, repaved the parking lot and made other improvements.

"We didn't have the cash flow to do (the radio program)," Anderson said. "At that point, Judson, through Billy Dean, director of enrollment, offered to pay the entire amount (around $10,000) to sponsor a year."

What's in it for Judson? Advertising, for one thing.

"It's a natural recruiting idea to get Judson's name out there," Anderson said.

But Dean said there's more to it than that.

"Judson's big on being involved with the community, and this was just one way we could give back," Dean said. "We feel very comfortable that (Anderson) is preaching in a way that would be honoring to God. He preaches the word."

Dean should know. He's one of the members at Elgin Evangelical Free. He said the proximity of the church to Judson University draws many of the students there, too.

They won't be able to catch the previous week's sermon on the airwaves, though.

"We went back in the archives and picked the most requested sermons, where people said they were the most inspired," Anderson said. "We're using those first."

The church's sound guy, Vic Rugh, fits into this story, too. He used to work in radio and wasn't satisfied to see this project stay on the back burner, so he challenged his pastor to pursue WYLL's offer even before there was funding.

Now that there is, Rugh saves the church money by doing all the editing and condensing himself.

"He's having fun doing it," Anderson said.

He marvels at how he and Dean and Rugh finally were able to come together to make this thing happen. "After thinking and praying about it for a year and half," Anderson said, "all of a sudden, everything got taken care of in two weeks."

What's in a name? A new sign has been ordered, the Web site updated, and the bank and utility companies apprised.

Community Baptist Church, on Elgin's Deborah Avenue in the Eagle Heights neighborhood, is now Elgin Community Church. It's a four-week-old change that Pastor Adam Hultstrand had long anticipated.

He said the new name reflects the congregation's changing demographics.

"I've been here five years," Hultstrand said. "Five years ago we were pretty much an all-white church, except for maybe one Hispanic family. We recognized that we would need to change, because that's not Elgin.

"We started praying and fasting, doing outdoor services, reaching out to the immediate neighborhood," he said. "Within six months the Lord started to bring us people from different backgrounds and different ethnicities."

But the Baptist name means one thing to one person and another to someone else, Hultstrand said.

"We kind of wanted a name that was just very open. We wanted to send a message to our community that we're a church for all people."

Hultstrand said average weekly attendance is 75, with swells to 120. These days, only about half of the attendees are white.

"We're so different, but the people here are so precious," he said. "We're trying to create a new culture in our church."

So they celebrate Black History Month as a multiethnic congregation. Worship with a gospel choir. Insert the Spanish language into the service now and again. And continue reaching out to the community and even across the world.

Although the congregation is primarily lower middle class, Hultstrand said, it managed to accumulate $1,500 over the past eight months to send to a Ugandan man caring for six orphans.

"We want to build a bridge to our community," he said, adding that Elgin has many fine churches that work together to serve.

He said the new name was also meant to reflect the unity that already exists among the denominations.

So Elgin Community Church it is.

"We really had the flavor of a nondenominational church, with people from all backgrounds coming," Hultstrand said. "We just needed our name to reflect that."

What's going on at your church or synagogue? Do you have an interesting program, new staff, big plans? Someone who deserves recognition or something a little out of the ordinary? Contact "In the Spirit" at cmchojnacki@yahoo.com.