Although Antioch Community Church, in Waco, TX, has only been established since 1999, it is part of the realization of a dream born years ago in the hearts of the leaders of ACC who desired to see the church function as a center for training and sending workers to fulfill the Great Commission as seen in the church in the book of Acts.

In 1987, a year-long intensive discipleship training school called Master’s Commission was established at Highland Baptist Church by Jimmy Seibert. The curriculum included nine months of Biblical ministry training in Waco, TX and a three month mission outreach overseas. In 1991-1992, four Master’s Commission graduates received additional training in cross-cultural missions and were sent out to start a church in Ulan Ude, Russia. The team began by starting cell groups and a weekly celebration service.

In 1996, the church was successfully planted and turned over to national leadership. Svet Mira, or Light of the World, continues to flourish today and is involved in training and sending its own church planters. In 1993, another wave of church planting teams located in nearby cities… including Irkutsk, Siberia and Ulan-Bator, Mongolia.

In April of 1995, the organization, which had incorporated in 1993, was renamed to Antioch Ministries International (AMI), and the Master’s Commission school changed its name to Antioch Training School (ATS).

While AMI’s President, Jimmy Seibert, and the other ministry leaders were gaining valuable ministry experience on staff at Highland Baptist Church, the training and sending process continued to flourish under AMI. In 1999, the Elders at Highland blessed Jimmy and any current church members to join him in planting a church in Waco with a specific ministry vision for reproducing cell-based churches around the world.

Antioch Community Church’s (ACC) first public service was held June 6th, 1999 in a local fairgrounds exhibit hall with approximately 400 people. At the same time, ACC began renovating an abandoned grocery store to use for its celebration services and offices. During that time of renovation, services were held in different locations throughout the city, culminating with three months of “church on the parking lot” complete with “bring your own lawn chair” to sit on.

In 1998, AMI sent out its first U.S. church planting team to Boston, Massachusetts. Since then, other teams have landed in downtown Dallas, Knoxville, Portland, Seattle, Belton (TX), and Antioch Community Church: Wheaton (IL) with a burning desire to see reproducing churches established in these unreached areas.

So, ACC in Waco has continued to grow both as a local church (up to 2000 attenders in 2006) since 1999 and as a worldwide church planting organization since 1992. Currently we have 194 adults serving full-time in church planting efforts around the world, almost all having been trained at and sent out by Antioch.

Antioch Community Church in Wheaton started in August 2004 with a team of 7 church planters led by Jonathan and Amy Gulley. From the beginning, their desire was to plant a church that would Love God, Love One Another, & Love Those Who Don’t Know Jesus. It only took a few weeks to start the first small group, called LifeGroup. Months later they began their first Sunday Service in a clubhouse at Amli apartments in Danada Square. Quickly after, ACC:W had to move to Illinois Institute of Technology in Danada Square. After packing out the IIT (Rice Campus) for a few months in 2006, they moved to the Wheaton Grand Theater in downtown Wheaton, Illinois. Over the past few years, ACC has planted two other churches; one in Colorado and another in India. Recently, Antioch has grown as a church family and has moved into Longfellow Elementary.

Click HERE to learn more about our church in Wheaton, our Core Values and Relational Resolves.

Any questions, comments or concerns can be sent to admin@acc-w.org