In 1988, Marty Schoenleber and his wife Stephnie were enjoying an exciting ministry in San Bernardino California with Campus Crusade for Christ. Marty was the administrator for the International School of Theology's (ISOT) extension programs and an instructor in communication. Stephnie was a trainer/discipler of women at the seminary as well as mother to two children.

A one credit Church Planting course changed their life's direction. Marty began to look at the possibility of planting and then pastoring a church that would be multi-ethnic and cross-cultural, with a decidedly contemporary flavor to ministry. At the same time, his desire was to pioneer ministry that would reach the unchurched community in a way that did not water down or compromise the gospel. In addition, Marty felt it was vitally important that the new church be a "church-planting church", a church committed to extending the Kingdom of God by regularly sending people from its congregation to plant new churches.

Throughout 1988, Marty and Stephnie prayed about the Lord's direction. About this same time, Marty's brother Karl, living in Naperville, Illinois, encouraged him to submit his resume to the Evangelical Free Church of Naperville (EFCN). In the process of that submission, Marty's conviction about planting a church took concrete form.

The Naperville Evangelical Free Church wanted to plant another church. Marty asked to be considered as the planter and suggested the village of Bolingbrook as the site. In March of 1989 a tentative time table was proposed for planting a church in September of 1990 and sent to the leadership of EFCN. The eventual planting of the church was delayed one year, but on October 13, 1991, New Song Church was born.

New Song Church quickly began to grow, and with it grew the diversity of lives represented at New Song and the significant changes taking place with those lives. Our diversity is reflected in a unique cross section of our community that includes Asians, Filipinos, African American, West African, Caribbean blacks, along side Puerto Rican and Mexican Hispanics, whites and numerous Europeans. There have been French men and women in our services, as well as immigrant Poles, Hungarians, and Russians. This is a powerful answer to prayer a fulfillment of the vision we started with when New Song Church was being conceived. Our desire has always been to create a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural church where people of all colors and nationalities would experience the love of Christ and the harmony of a united family of believers.

We have seen magnificent things happen in 16 years. Over 500 men and women have been trained one-on-one in the basics of the Christian life. About 220 of those individuals have reproduced what they learned in the lives of someone else. Between 20 and 25% of our growth has been through conversion growth. We have seen people become a vital part of the ministry who previously were involved in the gangs of Chicago. Dozens of marriages that were in chaos and despair have come back to reconciliation. Kids in the youth ministry are making life-changing decisions. And already, about 20 people have been influenced by New Song to pursue full-time ministry in our short history.

Our people have gone and helped to start churches in Naples, Florida, Joliet, Illinois, Redmond, Washington, Jakarta, Indonesia and two in Bolingbrook. We have been honored to have interns and students from three different seminaries come for training. Those interns have planted new churches in places as near as Worth and Schaumburg, Illinois and as far away as Sunnyvale, California, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Hiroshima, Japan and Oldenburg,Halle and (soon) Munich, Germany. God is doing a great work and it is humbling to be part of His Spirit's move.

Today, New Song continues to grow. Our diverse congregation represents about 20 countries throughout the world. Through our outreach plays and events, we have begun to reach Bolingbrook and surrounding communities. Our children's ministry has grown through our VBS programs and various summer camps. We have seen our youth grow up and travel to countries like Italy, Belgium, The Philippines and Japan on short-term mission trips. We continue to see our family grow more and more in their desire to live passionately for and like Christ. We give praise and thanks to our great God who has blessed us mightily!