Though they do not yet have a building, an area group of churchgoers has a lot of faith — and they are hoping to use it to start a new church to serve several local communities.

The Village Church, a new faith organization out of the Emmanuel Bible Church in Berwyn, is planning a new church in North Riverside. The group hopes to have space for the church within the next year.

Members of the group are conducing a demographic and ethnographic study in the core towns the group hopes to reach: Brookfield, Riverside, North Riverside, Westchester, Berwyn, La Grange Park, Forest Park, Broadview, Berwyn and Lyons, said Jon Vales, a youth mentor at Emmanuel Bible Church and one of 12 core members of the Village Church team.

“One of our first desires is to learn about the communities we will be working with,” Vales said.

“People have the idea that churches don’t know anything about the community. We want to learn what the needs of the community are and how we can best help meet those needs. Then next year, by the time we have a church building, we can put what we learned into practice.”

A survey of seven questions will be sent to community leaders, such as principals and teachers.

“We want to learn about the attitudes and culture of the people in each community,” Vales said.

“What are the dreams of people who live in the community? What are the needs that aren’t being met? What is the economic situation in the community, and how will that affect their needs?”

If others want to take the survey, they can send an e-mail to village-church@att.net.

The idea for the new church was the creation of Gus Bageanis, the youth and young adult pastor at Emmanuel Bible Church.

“I live in North Riverside, and I saw the need in the community,” Bageanis said. “We wanted to start something new and fresh in those communities.”

While the church will be open to people of all ages, Bageanis expects a strong youth and teenage member population.

“My job right now is with youth, and it is going well,” Bageanis said. “We will probably have a lot of high school age and young adult people that are part of it. We’re excited to reach all ages, but we’re also excited because most churches seem to struggle reaching the younger generation, and we don’t anticipate that being one of our main issues.”

Bageanis hopes to have the surveys completed by Dec. 13, and compile a report by Jan. 1.
After that, the main concern is fundraising.

“We are starting from ground zero,” Bageanis said. “We need to raise $300,00 over the next 10 or 11 months ... Right now, we are very raw, but great things are coming together.”