SENIOR PASTOR Opening First Church of the Open Bible

Freeport, IL

Fall 2021

Christian School, Day Care, and Church Facilities

CONGREGATION First Church of the Open Bible is located on 5 acres of land on the westside of Freeport. It has been a mainstay in the community for over 72 years. It was chartered with Open Bible Churches on December 20, 1949. The church supports all the programs of Open Bible and ranks in the top 10 churches for missions giving. The church is conservative with demonstration of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It has blended worship of both contemporary and hymns. The church enjoys the rich teaching of God’s Word and has a desire to grow spiritually and numerically. The church By-Laws and Constitution were updated October 2009. The church selected a combination of Model A and B. This model is pastoral election by congregational membership vote.

The average church attendance is 55 on Sunday mornings. The church, daycare and elementary school are all debt free.

The church currently offers Sunday School, Sunday worship with children’s church, small groups, and a midweek Bible Study.

Sanctuary Platform

CHRISTIAN CHILD CARE and SCHOOL Open Bible is well known and respected in the community for its quality Child Care Center. It has served the families and children of Freeport since 1973. The Child Care is licensed for children ages 2 years to 12 years through DCFS (Dept. of Children & Family Services). This is a full-time (11 hours a day-5 days a week), year round, child care facility with 150 children and 35 staff. There is a full-time Child Care Director, full-time Asst. Director and a part-time maintenance man. Since 2001, Open Bible Learning Center-Elementary School has been teaching children kindergarten-6th grade. This is a private, Christian school. It is licensed through ACSI (Assoc. of Christian Schools International). The school averages 50 students and 5 teachers. There is a part-time elementary/church secretary.

Pastor’s Office Childcare Classroom

School Classroom Gymnasium

COMMUNITY Freeport is the county seat of Stephenson County with a population of 24,000. The city is 20 miles south of Wisconsin, 25 miles west of Rockford, and 115 miles west of Chicago. It is a very family friendly community with excellent public and private schools. The high school is proudly known as the “Freeport Pretzels.” Freeport is named “Pretzel City” due to the early German settlers who baked the pretzels here. Beautiful parks and recreation areas include Krape Park, a wooded park with a waterfall that offers many activities for the family; walking/hiking trails, Yellow Creek for kayaking and paddle duck rides, disc and mini golf, playgrounds and kid’s castle, carousel rides, miniature golf, duck ponds, band shell for “Music in the Park”, ball fields and tennis courts. Read Park features a Family Aquatic Center and a skate park. Freeport has many excellent ball fields and offers many sports programs (including Little League) for kids. One of the larger parks in Freeport, it also features a large pavilion, basketball courts, children's playground, shuffleboard courts, tennis courts, and softball fields. It is also home to Little Cubs Field, a replica of Wrigley Field in Chicago. Freeport has two wonderful public golf courses, Farmer’s Market and “Music on Chicago” (summer concerts downtown.)

Downtown at Dusk Krape Park ATTRACTIONS Freeport is home to the Lincoln-Douglas Debate of 1858. “Debate Square” memorializes this event with a bronze sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas and history boards displayed throughout a walking path. Next door is another tourist attraction; Union Dairy. It is a working old fashioned ice cream shop. Other attractions: Freeport Art Museum, Little Cubs Field (a smaller version of Wrigley Field), Illinois’ oldest Carnegie Library (renovated in 2017) which is now City Hall. Freeport is located 30 miles west of Rockford, IL , 100 miles west of Chicago and 20 miles from the Wisconsin border. Freeport is 50 miles from Galena, IL which is a beautiful tourist town and 65 miles from Dubuque, Iowa. EDUCATION & EMPLOYERS Freeport has Highland Community College, one of the top community colleges in northern Illinois. Large local employers are; Freeport Health Network and Ferguson Cancer Center, Honeywell, Kelly-Springfield Tires, Titan Tire, Farmers Insurance, Newell Rubbermaid, Furst-McNess, MetLife Insurance and Anchor Harvey.

PASTOR PROFILE This is a full-time ministry position. Regional and church leadership have identified the following characteristics that are desired in a successful candidate:

1. Evidences the maturity, capacity, and integrity to Senior Pastor a multi-staffed church. 2. Exhibits skills of preaching and teaching the Word, leadership and administration. 3. Enjoys building relationships with the congregation and community. 4. Embraces Holy Spirit in both personal life (fruit) and ministry (gifts). 5. Empowers people to reach the community and world with the gospel. 6. Engages with diverse generations and all aspects of ministry. 7. Equips leaders to lead and people to serve. 8. Excels in casting a vision for ministry in the church and community.

APPLICANTS Applicants should submit the following attachments to Bruce A. Pfadenhauer, Regional Executive Director, at bruce@openbiblecentral.org by October 31, 2021:

• Cover letter expressing why you are interested • Resume including references • Philosophy of Ministry • Family Photo • Links to two or three online sermons • Pastoral applicant questionnaire (unless credentialed with Open Bible)

Applicants may be asked to give permission to have a credit and criminal background check. The new pastor will be expected to agree to sign the Pastoral Covenant of Relationship with Open Bible Churches.

If you have questions, please contact bruce@openbiblecentral.org or 515-282-6491. This profile can be viewed on the regional website: www.openbiblecentral.org