Chicago District Evangelism Association
Chicago District Evangelistic Association (CDEA)
The Chicago District Evangelistic Association is a
church-planting ministry located in one of America's
greatest population centers. Northwest Indiana and the
Chicagoland portion of Northeast Illinois is home to
over 14 million people. It is also the home to millions of unchurched
people.
The CDEA is a grassroots association of individuals and
independent churches committed to planting new churches. We are not tied to any
formal denominational structure beyond a loose network of like-minded,
independent congregations. Our work is supported by hundreds of
congregations and thousands of individuals who voluntarily contribute to our task.
The CDEA is a single purpose ministry. Christians can be
involved in many good works, but none as basic as evangelism---the preaching
and teaching of the message and the life of Jesus for the purpose of bringing
people to a personal and eternal relationship with God. All other ministries
either lead to or rest upon this foundational work.
The CDEA has demonstrated through decades of faithful
service that the best way to impact a community is to plant a local church that
will not only reach un-reached people but will also reproduce itself. This
basic belief has led to CDEA's church planting church philosophy. Every new
CDEA church will reproduce itself not only in a local setting, but through the
planting of daughter churches.
The primary focus of a new CDEA church is unchurched people.
Our aim is to plant churches consistent with Restoration
Principles. While there might be many varied opinions what this means, we mean
churches that preach Jesus alone as the only Savior and the New Testament Scriptures
alone as the final authority in matters of Christian faith and practice.
The CDEA is committed to doing whatever it takes to plant a
church that will reach people for Christ for over 100 years. The CDEA legacy is
that in Chicagoland and NW Indiana today, 2 out of every 3 people who attend a
Christian Church/Church of Christ attend a church started by the CDEA.