Pastor: First Baptist Church of Greenville, IL

Pastor (Part-Time, Parsonage Provided)
First Baptist Church of Greenville, Illinois
American Baptist Churches USA · American Baptist Churches of the Great Rivers Region
Greenville, IL 62246 (Bond County, about 50 miles east of St. Louis on I-70)

Who We Are

First Baptist Church of Greenville turned 190 years old this September. We are a small, older congregation, with about 50 people in worship on a typical Sunday. When we asked our people what they love most about this church, they did not name programs. They named each other. "It feels like family" was written, in some form, on survey after survey. We are warm, we care for one another well, and we have a lay core who serve far beyond Sunday morning.

Our strongest witness happens outside the sanctuary. Community Table, our dinner church, averaged 74 people per gathering in 2025. That is more than attend Sunday worship, and it includes children who come with their parents and have become part of our life. Our Community Clothing Closet served more than a thousand people last year. We also run a Sunday bus ministry, support the Monday-evening Core Community ministry, provide Christmas gifts for Core Community families, and join ecumenical efforts with other Greenville congregations. In 2025 we hosted five Global Servants from three countries.

Sunday worship is traditional to blended, led from the piano. We are an American Baptist congregation in a strongly evangelical county. That shapes how our neighbors hear what we say, and a pastor here will need to be comfortable with that.

Where We Are Honestly

We want to be straightforward with you, because we believe honesty is the first hospitality we can offer a pastor.

Our former pastor served us faithfully for fourteen years and concluded his ministry at the end of 2025 to accept a regional denominational role. We are grateful for that pastorate. We also know we are in a different place now than when it began.

About two-thirds of our people are over 60. Very few households have children at home. We long to reach younger generations and to grow. We are also learning that growth is not something a pastor delivers to a congregation. If renewal comes, it will require change in us, not only in our pulpit. So we are not looking for a savior. We are looking for a partner. We want a pastor who will preach faithfully, love us well, and help us discern together, with open eyes, what God is calling this church to be in this season.

Our Community

Greenville is the county seat of Bond County, a rural community of about 7,000 people, with roughly 10,000 in the surrounding ZIP code. The cost of living is well below the national average. The town is home to Greenville University and FCI Greenville, a federal correctional institution, and both shape the community in real ways. Greenville is stable. It is also investing in itself, with a new downtown plaza project, park improvements, and an extended TIF district. More than half of Bond County residents belong to no religious body. There is real need here, including senior isolation, food insecurity, grandparents raising grandchildren, and the opioid crisis. There is also real civic capacity to partner with.

The Position

This is a part-time pastorate of approximately [24] hours per week, including Sunday. It is well suited to a bi-vocational pastor or to someone seeking a sustainable, focused ministry. Core responsibilities are:

• Preaching and leading Sunday worship.

• Pastoral care and visitation for a congregation that is largely older, including homebound members.

• Treating Community Table as a worshiping community in its own right, not an afterthought, including attention to the children and families it reaches.

• Equipping and encouraging lay leaders. We govern through a single Ministry Board, and our ministries are lay-led.

• Leading the congregation in honest discernment about its future.

What We Hope For in a Pastor

• A thoughtful, people-oriented pastor who is at home in a small, relational church.

• Someone with a heart for the practical needs of our community.

• Someone who can hold together a congregation's grief over what has changed and its hope for what might come.

• Ordination recognized by, or compatible with, American Baptist Churches USA. Candidates from other traditions are welcome to inquire.

Compensation

• Cash salary: $35,000 (a portion may be designated as housing allowance).

• Parsonage provided (utilities not included)

• SECA (Social Security) offset

• Employer-contributed retirement fund, disability, and life insurance (MMBB)

• Accountable expense reimbursement

• Paid vacation and continuing education leave

• Medical insurance is not provided.

How to Apply

The American Baptist Churches of the Great Rivers Region is helping First Baptist Church by posting this position and screening candidates. All interviews and call decisions are made exclusively by the church's Pastoral Search Committee and congregation.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Applications will be reviewed as they are received.

Questions can be directed to Rev. Dr. Rob Kirbach, Associate Executive Minister of the American Baptist Churches - Great Rivers Region, rob@abcgrr.org, or by phone (217) 726-7366 x13.