In 1944, under the leadership of Trinity Lutheran Church in Decatur, mission work was begun in the Brush College area of the eastern part of Decatur. In the spring of 1946 the Mission Board of the Central Illinois District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod purchased property for a church building on Brush College Road. In September, 1946 a worship service was conducted in the Brush College No. 1 School, where Sunday School was already being held, and forty people attended the first service. Plans for the building of a temporary chapel were begun at this time, but the project was delayed because of the excessive cost of construction in the immediate post-war period.