Photos & Highlights

Welcome Pastor Philip and Talitha Gardner!

As our new Associate Pastor with Immanuel, Pastor Philip will focus on youth, young adults and other areas during his immediate placement. As we continue to experience growth, Philip will also minister throughout the entire church body in various capacities. Pastor Gardner is a graduate of Emmaus Bible College in Dubuque, Iowa, where he received a degree in biblical studies and he is currently enrolled in the Master of Divinity program at Liberty University. Pastor Philip and Talitha have four great children,  Eian, Natalie, Caleb and James and they will reside in the church parsonage. We are very excited to have the Gardners join us as a part of the great things that God is doing at Immanuel Baptist Church!

Immanuel participates in Kankakee County Marriage Initiative.


Pastor Hank and several of Immanuel Baptist Church's members attended the Kankakee County Marriage Initiative on Sunday, February 14 at the Kankakee County Courthouse.
More than a 100 others attendees looked on as more than two dozen area pastors signed the initiative. As host of the event, Marriage Inc. exists to rebuild a culture of marriage in the hearts and minds of friends and families in Kankakee County and the surrounding region. Join their FaceBook Page for more informaton.
 

Prayers and Concern Expressed to the Melissa Williams Family.

Our entire congregation was deeply saddened by the news that Melissa Ann Contreras-Williams was killed in an auto accident on Friday, Feburay 5. Melissa, her husband Sammy, and her children, 13 year-old Samantha, 6 year-old Samuel, and 23 month-old Lincoln had been attending Immanuel for about a year.

The funeral guests croweded into the IBC Sanctuary until there was standing room only, with some standing along the back walls, some in the foyer and in the Cry Room. During the 1:00 PM Funeral Dinner, 192 places were set in the Fellowship Hall and 30 more across the hall with 4 food lines to facilitate the large group of family and friends. Thank you to Bonnie Hacker, Sherye Shreffler and many others who served food, set up and tore down the tables, place settings and chairs, directed traffic, shoveled sidewalks and performed countless other tasks to show a grieving crowd that Immanuel truly is the place that love is building!
 

Thanks to everyone who brightened the IBC Christmas Season! We are excited about the New Year!

If you saw the vehicle on the right traveling through town, it was not a UFO, but merely the IBC bus filled with carollers! From the Annual Women's Banquet, to the decorating the church (Hanging of the Greens), to the Christmas Carolling and the Beautiful Christmas Eve Service - Countless people helped in so many ways.  Thank you!

Loving God...So Easy a Caveman Can Do It...

Was the sermon title on Sunday, November 15 at the morning worship service.  Since unusual "visitors" are common at Immanual, you may want to visit us at 10:45 for our Sunday morning worship service.

Missionary Tim Carmical from Papua New Guinea presented a report at the Immanuel Men's Breakfast.

The eye-opening presentation included details of dangers from violence and illnesses, as well as staffing shortages at the New Tribes Mission outreach on that island nation.  Please keep Tim and Joan, and their two boys, Connor and Jonas as they leave for the field again in January.

Gumby Visits IBC
 

Gumby

stepped in on Sunday, September 23 to help Pastor Hank with his sermon. 

IBC Couples Celebrate 50th Wedding Anniversary

 Jack and Bonnie Hacker, (photo on right) recently experienced a beautiful 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration in the Fellowship Hall, hosted by their children. The Hackers were just one of six Immanuel Baptist Church couples who are celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary. Don and Mary Absher, Dick and Ginny Anderson, Jerry and Sharon Brave, Kip and Nettie Mills and Rodney and Sandy Pelletier also celebrate their milestone events this year.  The Kankakee Daily Journal ran a multiple page article highlighting how the faith and commitment to God and each other caused their marriages to more than survive but to florish for so many years.  The newspaper article may be still available in the Daily Journal archives at:  http://daily-journal.com/archives/dj/print_display.php?id=440266.

Welcome Home Charlie Company!

Immanuel Baptist folks waited along Route 50 along with hundreds of others to welcome home Company C, a National Guard force which just returned from more than a year of deployment. 

LT Colby Bowser, a former Intern at IBC was one of the 135 soldiers who returned.  Thank you men and women for your service.  Thank God for your safe return!  Welcome Back Colby!