The Upper Room Bible Church

The group now known as The Upper Room Bible Church, met in five different locations between 1972 and 1979. It has met in the old West Lawn School building, 455 W Orleans, since 1979.

The church first met in the living room of Daniel and Lora Kupferschmid, 2 1/2 miles east of Paxton. It met there for two Sundays in 1972. Pastor Kupferschmid served as pastor from 1972 until 2006 and continues as Pastor Emeritus. The church is blessed in that the church founders, Pastor Daniel and Lora, continue to attend every Sunday.

The church then met in the Paxton Civic Center on East Orleans and was called, .Community Christian Chapel.. Next, it met for about 12 months in the building on the east side of Route 45 just north of the State Street Mall. Next the church met in an apartment above Dan.s Electric Service on 119 South Market -- and was first known as The Upper Room Bible Church.

The first building the church actually owned was the Paxton Theater, from 1975 through 1979. It ran both a school and a church in this location. The church used a smaller room for worship and the theater itself was used to show occasional first-run movies as well as Christian movies. The 350 person theater once sold out for the movie .The Adventures of the Wilderness Family..

Many years after the church had moved away from the theater, the historic building burned to the ground in 2007.

The church purchased the old West Lawn School building in 1980 and has been meeting in that location for almost 30 years. The church has subsequently sold the historic older portion of the building which was built in 1902.

The church was briefly associated with the Evangelical Free denomination in the 1990s through 2002, but now operates as a totally independent non-denominational church.

The Upper Room Bible Church currently seats 135 people. Attendance varies between 80 and 100 people, with a peak congregation of 132 on Resurrection Sunday 2008. The church has also become a regional church, with members coming from Thomasboro, Rantoul, Saybrook, Melvin, Sibley, Strawn, Gibson City, Piper City, and Catlin.

The current pastor, Kevin Heiser, succeeded Pastor Daniel on February 5, 2006 as the second pastor in the history of the church.

The Sunday morning schedule includes Sunday School (9:00), Fellowship Time (10:00), and Worship (10:30) -- with Wednesday Night services for Kindergarten - High School through the school year. [an error occurred while processing this directive]