The Illinois Home Missionary Society was founded in 1871 at the annual meeting of the Congregational General Association of Illinois and was incorporated in 1873. The Society existed under the auspices of the American Home Missionary Society and shared its mission to aid the spread of Christianity throughout the states and territories by organizing churches and commissioning ministers for congregations that lacked the financial resources to supply their own. The American Home Missionary Society had been active in Illinois since 1826, and the founding of the Illinois Home Missionary Society was part of a larger push for greater financial and administrative independence for the state-level organizations.

In 1878, the Illinois Home Missionary Society underwent a major administrative reorganization, assuming auxiliary status under the national organization. This change allowed the Society to gain even greater control over its funds and policies and to become completely financially self-sufficient with excess funds passed on to the national organization. As a result of this reorganization, the 1873 corporation was dissolved in 1880 and the Society was reincorporated. Between 1878 and 1911, when it ceased to exist, the Illinois Home Missionary Society issued 1340 commissions.

On the advice of the national council, the Illinois Home Missionary Society turned over its operations to the Congregational Conference of Illinois in May 1911. Its assets and work were subsumed by the Conference, but there was little turnover in personnel, since the board of directors of the new organization retained most of the former members of the old Society's board.