A Family of Christ-Followers in Greater Lafayette
On the east side of Lafayette, alongside State Road 26, a 46-acre campus anchors a church that has quietly grown into one of the most far-reaching ministries in Greater Lafayette. Faith Church describes itself as "a family of followers of Jesus Christ who desire to honor God by applying His sufficient Word to all areas of life." From that flagship location, the work has branched out west to West Lafayette and north across the Wabash, and it has spread far beyond Tippecanoe County through a church-based seminary, a biblical counseling movement that draws nearly two thousand people a year, a Christian school, a Hispanic church plant, residential care programs for men and women, and a missionary sending agency.
What started in 1964 as a daughter congregation of Kossuth Street Baptist Church has grown into a multi-campus fellowship with several hundred acres of ministries under its care. The pastors summarize the mission in five commitments: Growing Stronger, Reaching Out, Serving Together, Meeting Needs, and Strengthening Others.
Three Sunday Mornings, Three Campuses
Faith Church gathers each Sunday at three campuses that together serve the whole of Greater Lafayette. The East Campus at 5526 State Road 26 E in Lafayette holds three morning services at 8:00, 9:30, and 11:00 a.m. The West Campus at 1920 Northwestern Avenue in West Lafayette meets at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. The North Campus at 2000 Elmwood Avenue in Lafayette also meets at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m., and is the home of a fully Spanish-language service at 11:00 a.m. for the Hispanic community.
Each service runs about 75 to 85 minutes. Pastors greet visitors at the door, ushers help anyone who needs a seat, and a countdown timer in the lobby marks the minutes until the service begins. Worship music is described as relevant and blended, drawing on both classic hymns of the faith and newer songs. Each week a pastor teaches through a passage of Scripture, usually as part of a longer sermon series that can be followed in the sermon archive. Prayer is taken seriously; during each service the pastors pray for members of the body and the surrounding neighborhoods, and visitors are invited to submit prayer requests through a form on the church's pages. After the service, a visitors' tent is set up across from the auditorium where a pastor is available with a small gift and answers to anything they would like to know.
What Visitors Wear, Where They Park, and What They Find
Faith Church is clear about what newcomers will see: "You'll see everything from shorts and a t-shirt, to suit coats and collared shirts." Members of the East Campus are encouraged to use the large east-side lot, where both east entrances have greeters and a welcome desk. At Faith West, the main lot and entry are behind the Faith West Community Center building. At Faith North, visitors are asked to park on the Elmwood side of the building, where greeters wait outside the main entrance; the rest of the lot belongs to the adjacent Market Square shopping center.
No one is asked to give money on a first visit. "Giving is an act of worship for our regular attenders and members, but not for visitors and those who are not Christians." Visitors are not required to identify themselves to anyone, though the church is honest that those nearby will probably say hello. American Sign Language interpretation is available at both the 9:30 and 11:00 services at Faith East; visitors simply let the Welcome Desk know and an interpreter will meet them before the service begins.
A Heritage Rooted in Biblical Counseling
What sets Faith Church apart from many congregations is the place biblical counseling has held in its life since 1977. That year, the church officially established Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries to train lay people and pastors to counsel others from Scripture. The program grew into an eleven-week training offered three times a year and, in 1985, expanded into the Biblical Counseling Training Conference that draws nearly two thousand participants annually.
The counseling ministry's influence is woven into nearly every other part of the church. Faith Bible Seminary, established in 2005, offers a M.Div. and a MABC (Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling) and counts the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors among its certifying partners. Lead pastor Dr. Rob Green teaches New Testament at the seminary, serves on the Council Board of the Biblical Counseling Coalition, and is a fellow with the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. Dr. Brent Aucoin, the president of Faith Bible Seminary and pastor of Seminary and Soul Care, is also ACBC-certified.
Counseling is offered freely to the community. On the North Campus, the Hispanic ministry shares that counseling in Spanish is "completely free."
Children from Infants Through Fifth Grade
Faith Church takes its ministry to children seriously, with programs at every service and most Wednesday evenings of the school year. Infants from birth to 23 months receive nursery care. Preschool and K-5th grade students attend age-appropriate classes with creative teaching designed to help children apply the truth of Scripture in daily life. A secure check-in system uses unique labels for each child that change with every visit, and only an adult bearing the matching label can pick up a child.
Children's classes meet at every East Campus service (8:00, 9:30, and 11:00 a.m.), at both West Campus services (9:30 and 11:00 a.m.), and at North Campus with limited childcare at 9:30 and a full program at 11:00. Wednesday evening classes for children run from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. during the school year at the East Campus. Trey Garner oversees Children's Ministries and is supported by a team of volunteer class leaders and assistants, plus nursery servants and special-needs aides.
For children with special needs, the church works with parents to design the right fit. Each campus is wheelchair-accessible, and an online Ministry Care Assessment helps the team prepare for a child's visit. Some children thrive in typical classrooms with a personal aide; others do best in a dedicated class with one-on-one attention.
Teens, College Students, and Young Adults
4:Twelve Student Ministries serves students in sixth through twelfth grade. On Sunday mornings, the group meets at the East Campus in the MPR (9:30) and the LOFT of the East Community Center (11:00), at the West Campus in the PBF Room (9:30-10:50 a.m.), and at the North Campus in the N-Zone of the Northend Community Center (11:00). On Wednesday evenings, all three campuses join at the East Community Center from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. The student ministry also offers a June mission trip that trains teens to lead a Vacation Bible School and serve the greater Lafayette area.
The college ministry centers on a long-standing student organization, Purdue Bible Fellowship (PBF), which meets at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday nights at the Faith West Community Center. Pastor Ross Reeder oversees college and student ministries at Faith West, where a 1-on-1 Conversation Partners program pairs international students with church members on Sunday mornings from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. Aaron Birk oversees international ministries and Faith West more broadly. Career-class ABFs at 9:30 a.m. at the East Campus and a young-adult class at 11:00 a.m. give college-age students a place to study the Bible between services.
Men, Women, and Seniors
The men's ministry centers on Point Man Groups, personal accountability groups that meet in the early mornings at Panera, IHOP, Cracker Barrel, the Senior Living Community Clubhouse, and other locations across Lafayette and West Lafayette. Mark Buono serves as the Men's Ministry Director and chairs the Board of Faith Bible Seminary; he coordinates Men of Faith Breakfasts and oversees the Point Man program. Greg Wetterlin is the Pastor of Men's Ministries and Director of Restoration Men's Ministries.
The women's ministry organizes its life around outreach, discipleship, and compassion. Janet Aucoin and Jocelyn Wallace host the Joyful Journey Podcast; a spring seminar, leadership training each summer, and a Taste of Christmas in November round out the annual calendar. Bible studies are offered on most days and locations, including weekday studies at the Northend Community Center, on the east side of Lafayette, in Monticello, and at Faith East. Mentoring, Mom2Mom, Precept Bible studies, and Women's Leadership Training give women ways to grow and serve. Campus liaisons connect women at each location: Rachel Jones at Faith East, Katherine Butterbrodt at Faith North, and Michelle Bonora at Faith West.
For seniors, Caleb's Kin is the 55-and-older fellowship of Faith Church, named after Caleb of the Old Testament who at 85 asked for his mountain. The group meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 10:00 a.m. at the Senior Living Clubhouse, with monthly activities such as bowling, hymn sings, mystery trips, and picnics throughout the year. Singles are served by the Adult Bible Fellowships at all three East Campus services, and by CEOs (Christians Encouraging Others), a monthly breakfast group at the Literato cafe on the Faith West campus for women who attend alone.
Adult Bible Fellowships and Faith Groups
Adult Bible Fellowships, or ABFs, are the church's main Sunday-morning small-group ministry at the East Campus. They meet at each of the three morning services and range from the Sonrise class taught by Pastor Brent Aucoin to the Career class for singles between 18 and 34, the Bereans class for adults over 35, the Family class for parents and children together taught by Pastor Trey Garner, and Home Builders, a class focused on Christ-centered marriages. No registration is required; anyone can drop in.
At the West and North campuses, the equivalent is Faith Groups, smaller communities that meet throughout the week in homes and at the church. Each Faith Group is built around community, scriptural application, accountability, prayer, and outreach. Members study the same shared resources, including the Heart of Change videos by Brent Aucoin and recommended books like Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller and A Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent.
Hispanic Ministry: Un Servicio en Español
Faith Church's Hispanic ministry, Ministerio Hispano, gathers each Sunday at 11:00 a.m. in the MPR of the Northend Community Center for a fully Spanish-language service. The Hispanic ministry also offers small group Bible studies during the week. Biblical counseling is available in Spanish at no charge, and a Spanish-language Biblical Counseling Conference is held each year. Sam Hornbrook, who planted churches in Mexico City for thirty years before joining the Faith Church staff, leads the work. Translation services for the English worship service are also available on Sunday mornings.
Faith Community Institute
On Wednesday evenings during the school year, Faith Community Institute, or FCI, fills the East Campus with classes for the whole church. FCI offerings range from Bible study and parenting courses to computer classes, financial management, fitness, marriage enrichment, women's classes, men's classes, and Mom2Mom. Children's and student ministries run alongside FCI, so the whole family can be on campus together. FCI classes are held in the spring, fall, and winter semesters.
Faith Christian School and Faith Bible Seminary
Faith Christian School opened in 1997 with 48 students and has grown to more than 700 students from preschool through twelfth grade. It now shares the East Campus with the church and occupies its own facilities, including a high school wing, gymnasium, and football stadium completed in 2023. Scott Grass, who has been involved with the school since its founding, serves as Superintendent and Pastor of Faith Christian School.
Faith Bible Seminary began classes in 2007 and offers the Master of Divinity and the Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling. The seminary's faculty include Dr. Brent Aucoin, who chairs the M.Div. program, and Dr. Rob Green, who chairs the MABC program. Students train at the same church that birthed the counseling movement, and the school works closely with the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors.
Counseling, Recovery, and the Residential Ministries
Two residential programs sit under Faith Church's care. Vision of Hope, opened in January 2008, is a women's residential treatment program that offers biblical solutions for women whose lives have become characterized by negative, life-dominating habits. Rod Hutton serves as Executive Director.
Restoration Men's Ministries, founded in 2017, operates at Bethany Farms, the 100-acre property gifted to Faith Church in 2005. The Restoration model removes men from the pressures of their everyday environment for a season of focused change through biblical counseling, work, and mentored discipleship. Greg Wetterlin directs the program.
At the Hartford Hub, a neighborhood resource center and outdoor park built in 2016 in the Lincoln area, services include basketball, tutoring, boxing, youth group, Bible studies, youth leadership, and neighborhood service projects.
The Northend Community Center
The Northend Community Center, opened in 2018, houses the North Campus alongside a wide array of community resources. Its amenities include infant and childcare, sports leagues and open gym, wellness and community health, indoor pools, a seniors program, mentoring and addictions counseling, teen engagement, jobs training, a community commercial kitchen, an outdoor athletic field, a car repair and automotive training program, a family homelessness program, and a co-working studio. The center runs on the motto "Better Together," and nearly a dozen nonprofit agencies collaborate on site.
The Faith West Community Center
Faith West opened in August 2013 as both the West Campus of Faith Church and a community center. The building includes a community sports gymnasium, preschool and childcare for eighty-five children, community meeting spaces, a fitness center, the Literato cafe, covenant housing for 119, classrooms for the Purdue Bible Fellowship, and space for student and community counseling.
Senior Living, Skate Park, and the Hartford Hub
The Senior Living Community on the East Campus opened Phase One in 2016 with eight homes and a clubhouse, and the Caleb's Kin fellowship gathers in the clubhouse each first Wednesday of the month. The 2024 addition of a skate park joins a long list of building projects that have shaped the 46-acre East Campus since the church moved to State Road 26 in 1986.
Global and Local Missions
Faith Church has long paired its local ministry with a worldwide missions arm. Faith World Missions is the church-planting and missionary-sending work, while Faith Global Missions operates as an independent missionary agency that serves other evangelical churches as well as Faith Church itself. Aaron Birk oversees global missions. Short-term trips, a missionary directory, and opportunities for laypeople to serve are all part of the work. Local missions include the church's partnership with the American Red Cross at the SIA Safe Haven Home, an emergency shelter for families displaced by fire, natural disaster, or domestic violence, built with Subaru of Indiana Automotive in 2013.
Annual Events and the Living Nativity
The Lafayette Living Nativity is one of the most distinctive community offerings from Faith Church. Since 1991, the drive-through and walk-through event has staged as many as fifteen life-size scenes, beginning with creation and ending with the prophecy of Christ's second coming. Hundreds of volunteers take roles in the production. It runs two December weekends each year on the East Campus.
Other annual events include Christmas for Everyone, which provides gifts for children of low-income families; Vacation Bible School, which draws children from age three through eighth grade each June; the Stewardship Celebration each November; the Biblical Counseling Training Conference each February; the Faith West Community Picnic; and Last Blast of Summer at Faith East. Christmas services include Christmas Eve candlelight services at each campus and a Christmas Worship Concert that rotates between them.
Weddings at Faith
Faith Church hosts weddings for members of the church, with pre-marital counseling built into the process. The Wedding Director can be reached at weddings@faithlafayette.org, and the church provides a Wedding Application and a General Guidelines and Policies document. Weddings are limited to members.
Membership and the Intro to Faith Class
Becoming a member of Faith Church begins with the Intro to Faith class, a free four-week course with weekly homework that introduces the church's doctrine, leadership, and ministry philosophy. After the class, prospective members meet one-on-one with a deacon to discuss what membership means. Members commit to the Member Covenant, agree with the Articles of Faith, and abide by the church's Constitution. Deacons and pastors together form the discipline committee and follow the Matthew 18 pattern for restoration.
What Faith Believes
Faith Church is an independent Baptist church that holds to a detailed confession of faith. The church teaches that the Bible is the inspired and infallible Word of God, the only final authority for faith and life; that there is one God eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that man is created in God's image, fell into sin, and is lost apart from faith; and that Jesus Christ, very God of very God, was miraculously conceived, lived a sinless life, died as a substitutionary sacrifice for sin, rose bodily from the dead, ascended to the Father's right hand, and will return personally and bodily. Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ, not by works.
The church practices two ordinances: believer's baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper. It holds to the autonomy of the local church, the priesthood of the believer, individual soul liberty, and the separation of church and state. It affirms the sanctity of human life from conception to death and teaches that marriage is a covenant between one man and one woman.
Faith Church is in fellowship with the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC) and the Crossroads Fellowship, both of which can be joined or left by a vote of the membership.
Giving and Supporting the Work
Members and regular attenders are encouraged to tithe, following Malachi 3:10, and to give above their tithe to support special ministries: Faith Christian School, Faith Bible Seminary, Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries, Faith Community Ministries, Vision of Hope, Restoration Ministries, and Faith Global Missions. Giving can be done online, by texting FAITH to 765-267-7063, or by check through a bank's bill pay system. The Faith Legacy Foundation, a 501(c)(3), assists members and friends who wish to include the church's ministries in their estate plans.
Faith Church is, at heart, a large and busy family of believers who like to keep the doors open wide. Whether someone visits the East Campus for a quiet early service at 8:00 a.m., joins the bilingual ministry at North Campus at 11:00 a.m., studies Romans on a Tuesday night with other women, or pulls into the drive-thru Living Nativity in December, the church has spent more than sixty years building places and programs to walk alongside them.