International Community Evangelical Free Church is a group of people who strive towards knowing Jesus better.

 The history of International Community Evangelical Free Church dates back to the year 1968. At that time, there were very few Christians in Chicago who came from India. Mr. Isaac Wilson suggested and started a fellowship in his home, which included worship followed by food and fellowship. The people who attended the fellowship were from different Indian language groups, but mostly from South India.

In 1973, this fellowship was incorporated as a church and Rev M. J. Thomas was installed as the first pastor. Even when the membership was small and finances were meager, he encouraged the church to set apart 10% of church giving/offerings to support missionaries.

One of the first missionaries we supported is a linguist. She had the Bible translated for a remote primitive tribal group in India. Today they have the New Testament and some portions of the Old Testament in their language. Literacy classes were conducted for those people to enable them to read and write. Today they have a church with one of their own as a pastor and are also carrying out their evangelistic work. We are delighted that we had a small part in that ministry to the Bison Horn Madiya people group.

Rev. Devasahayam Godwin was the next pastor from 1976-1986. During his time, the church grew in size, with many membersaccepting Christ as their Savior. He also started the children’s sunday school and men’s and women’s fellowships. When the children grew up, a youth fellowship was started and this prepared them spiritually for their future. 

In the 1980’s and 90’s, the church went through some trying times, which helped to motivate us to seek an affiliation with a like-minded evangelical denomination. After significant prayer and research, the church decided to join the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) (link to efca.org), a growing denomination of over 1,500 churches which was formed in 1950 by a merger of the Swedish Evangelical Free Church and the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Free Church Association.

The church was first incorporated with the EFCA as Indian Community Evangelical Free Church (ICEFC). Our church’s name was later changed to International Community Church to signify our desire to embrace all nations with the grace and truth of Christ and to be a congregation that reflects the diversity of nations that will be represented in heaven.

For many years, the church met on Sunday evenings at a rented church in Westchester. In 2010, when the members expressed the desire to have a morning service, the church moved to Lombard and worshipped at the Seventh Day Adventist Church. In April of 2019, we moved to the chapel at Grace Community Church in Lombard. Grace Community has been a great host church and a partner in ministry.

In June 2019, the church appointed Wayne Kriemelmeyer as Senior Pastor. He came on board to build up and strengthen an already solid church, focusing ICEFC on bringing more folks into a loving relationship with God, growing and maturing as Christians, reproducing disciples, and serving each other and our community. In summary, the purpose of International Community Church is to Love God, Grow Spiritually and Serve Others.