Some initial research shows that new churches in Chicago seem to be few and far between. While churches on the North Side number into the hundreds, there are only about 16 churches that under 15 years old. Many of them are going multisite, but the established church (over 15 years) to new church (less than 15 years) is still close to 15:1 in West Town (Ukrainian Village), 35:1 in Logan Square, and 28:1 in Lincoln Square. This seems obvious, but the majority of the established churches are Catholic, then Baptist, then charismatic. Very few are Reformed in their doctrine. In fact, there are approximately only one Reformed church in each of those neighborhood areas, mainly A29, but also PCA. And again, no–zip, zero, none, nada–EPC churches.
This means only about 3% of the churches in these neighborhoods are new churches. According to the Redeemer Church Planting Manual, 33% of a cities churches must be under 20 years old for the number of Christians to be growing in a city. And if an organization is planting at least 2-3% each year, then at best they will be maintaining their numbers, but most likely declining.
If God truly loves the city of Chicago, as I firmly believe He does, then we must be planting more churches and making more disciples of Jesus Christ to affect long term change in the fabric of Chicago.
See how I mapped out the areas and churches below:
View Churches Chicago in a larger map