Indianapolis Family Church
God’s Dream, One Family
Our community
The Indianapolis Family Church is a growing community at the heartland of America. With 47 families, we are small enough to be intimate, large enough to have a lot of fun together and faithful enough to believe that we can grow. Some of the areas of our strengths are the faithfulness of our members and their commitment to the growth of our community, a growing desire for collaboration between younger and older generations, a growing young adults and young couples’ community, a growing number of small group ministries based on interest and an active campus ministry on the Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis [IUPUI]. We take pride in our Hoosier hospitality and say shamelessly, “No one will love you like Indiana!”
Click here to watch a short clip of our community’s 2024 New
Year’s celebration.
Our Story
Indianapolis Family Church began in the early 1970s with several groups of young missionaries coming in segments from all over the world. For the past 50 years, our ministry grew out of the 2 story duplex at 404 E. 38th Street. The property at the time was where we held our Sunday Services, potlucks, workshops, Thanksgivings, Christmas parties, hosted missionaries and so much more. Although the property held many memories and a place of worship and congregation, the church building was not in a safe location and was occasionally met with dangerous situations. The parking lot was also too small and did not allow for easy access for our community. After careful consideration and extensive discussions, we concluded that a new location was needed in order to grow and we decided that it was time to sell our beloved property. Finally in 2023, with the help of a real estate agent, we were able to sell the property which we called home for many years. This, for us, was a bold decision that we felt would set our community on the path to creating the right environment for substantial growth.
The Last Two Years
For the past two years while on the search for a new property, we held our Sunday Services at a rental church. Although it was great for congregating with its big space, it was a shared space that was only allowed to be rented out for a few hours at a time on Sundays. Despite the lack of a church building, members made efforts to create fellowship throughout the week by holding weekly book clubs, weekly prayer meetings, monthly game nights and starting this year monthly community dinners in their homes and in other public places such as libraries and co-working spaces. Through these grassroots initiatives, our church community has been steadily growing, with new families moving to Indiana, new members joining and babies being born. In 2022, 5 second generation members received the Marriage Blessing and 4 out of the 5 spouses are planning to move/have moved to Indiana. In 2023, 2 new members joined our community. In addition to that our average Sunday worship attendance has increased from 35 in the summer of 2022 to 45 at the end of 2023. Financially, we have also seen our monthly income double and an increase from 40 regular donors in the summer of 2021 to 60 at the end of 2023. We are grateful for Heavens guidance and excited to keep growing as a community.
A Dream Slowly Coming True!
During our 2-year transition period, we have intentionally focused our efforts and prayers on finding “a beautiful and modern” building that will serve as the hub for all of our many family and faith-based activities, meeting the needs of all 3 generations of our community and offering an uplifting environment for new members. The search to find a new church building has not been an easy one, with countless visits to properties ending in contrasting opinions from the community, the conditions not being right or the budget being unrealistic. While our goal was to have our 2024 New Year’s celebration in our new home, we are excited to share that recently we came across a property that has captured the hearts of our community. After arranging two separate tours and receiving an overwhelmingly positive response from our community members, we placed an offer of $925,000 and it was accepted. On January 17, 2024, we entered a contract with the seller for a hopeful closing date on or before March 15, 2024.
Click here to see pictures of our potential future home.
Click here to see pictures of our potential church property and
survey results from our community.
Our Testimony
Our testimony is that God, as our pastor puts it in one of his latest sermon, is our Heavenly Parent who never forsake us. From the time we decided to sell our old church property, to finding a rental place for our worship service and now in the process of closing on a new property, we have felt totally guided and protected by Heaven. Finding a place for rent within our budget was a daunting challenge, but as we stepped forward in faith, we saw our financial situation gradually improve. Based on the current market, we were always $400,000 short of any property that came close to what we were looking for. However, when the time is right and all the conditions of our faith are met, God helps us realize our deepest longings. By God’s grace and miracle, we have raised about $700,000 towards our building fund and recently received a grand donation of $230,000, giving us a total of $930,000. We are ready to close on a $925,000 property without any debt! Our story teaches us that when we invest sincerely trusting Heavens guidance, we will always be victorious.
Click here to watch Pastor Hebangja’s latest sermon sharing his testimony with God and his experience through our building search process.
Be a Part of Our Story
As inspiring as our story can be, one last challenge remains for our community: to not completely empty our bank account after purchasing our new property. We are encouraged by our national leadership to have at least 3 months worth of expenses in addition to the property operations costs to ensure that our ministry can continue to operate normally. Your financial contribution will also help us build a stage and improve lighting in our worship area as well as equip our kids area. Therefore, we are taking the challenge to raise $35,000 before March 15th, our hopeful closing date. We are so close to our goal, and we will not give up. So we are reaching out to you to ask for your help. Your support, no matter the amount, can make a significant difference in helping us bridge this final financial gap and substantiate our dream into reality. If you are able to contribute and/or point us to other potential donors, we will dearly appreciate it. Please consider joining us in reaching our goal.
How To Give
To make a financial contribution, please visit the link below and
change the purpose of your donation from “Tithing” to "New Property
Fund" and then enter your information and payment method. You can also
write a check payable to HSA-UWC and mail it to our bookkeeper at 2201
E 46th St Suite 152, Indianapolis, IN 46205. Rest assured that all
donations are tax-deductible, and a receipt will be sent to you for
your records.
If you prefer to contribute in person or require any additional
information, please reach out to Pastor Hebangja Kisile using the
information below or to our bookkeeper, Naomi Ito, at
indybookkeeper@gmail.com. We would be delighted to assist you and
answer any questions you may have.
Click here to make a one time donation to our building fund
fundraiser.
Thank you!
We are very excited about this development and hope that our community
can finally own a « beautiful and modern building » that will best fit
our vision and support our work in Indianapolis. Although our search
for a new building comes to an end, this is truly only the beginning
for our community. We hope that you can join us even in this new
beginning. We are excited to continue growing and building a community
that God can find pride and joy.
We appreciate your continued support, prayers and love throughout this
journey and pray that the love that you have shown us may return to
you and your family abundant blessings and heavenly fortune.
May the blessings of peace, grace and abundance be with you always.
With love and gratitude,
Hebangja and Grace Kisile
Pastor, Indianapolis Family Church
phone +1616-516-8469
If you are inspired by our story and would like to support our
ministry by becoming a regular giving member, please click here.