A Garage on Kedzie Avenue
Faith Baptist Church has stood at 14841 South Kedzie Avenue in Posen, Illinois since a small group of believers organized it in 1958. Their first services met in a garage lent by the Rogers family, and the congregation soon called its first pastor, Rev. Fred Bartz. Within a short time the church purchased a small Cape Cod style house at the corner of 149th and Kedzie Avenue, which still houses Sunday school classrooms and the church office today.
In 1975 a larger auditorium was built on the same site for the main worship services, and the church later acquired additional land across the street to the south to provide plenty of parking. Over its sixty-eight year history, six pastors have served the church: Rev. Fred Bartz (deceased), Rev. Al Anger (missionary), Rev. F.D. Sanders (retired), Dr. Tom Schulte (evangelist), Dr. Jim Delashmit (deceased), and the current pastor, Dr. Bill Stedman.
Sunday and Wednesday at Faith Baptist
The weekly rhythm of the church centers on four regular gatherings. Sunday School begins at 10:00 a.m. with classes separated by age so that children, teens and adults each receive teaching suited to where they are. The Sunday morning worship service follows at 11:00 a.m., and a Sunday evening service is held at 6:00 p.m. Midweek teaching takes place on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m.
Every service is livestreamed through the church's Facebook page, so members who are traveling or homebound can follow along in real time.
Pastor Stedman's Forty-Plus Years
Bill Stedman was reared in a traditional Catholic family in Blue Island and attended eight years of Catholic grade school before going on to Bremen High School. There he met Alice Pease, the young woman who would later become his wife. Through her steady witness, Stedman was saved in 1971 and was baptized the following August at Faith Baptist Church. After three semesters at Illinois State University, where he studied music, he surrendered to the call to preach during a Sunday morning service at Calvary Baptist Church in Normal, Illinois.
He returned to Posen and served as unpaid youth director beginning in December of 1973, then completed his training at Hyles-Anderson College in Crown Point, Indiana, graduating in 1978. He married Alice in 1975 and was ordained on September 5, 1977. Stedman assumed the pastorate of Faith Baptist Church in September of 1984 and has remained there ever since, the only church he has ever served. In May of 2007 he was honored with a Doctorate of Divinity from Shawnee Baptist College.
Jacob Dohner and the Youth
Jacob Dohner grew up in Warsaw, Indiana, and trusted the Lord at thirteen years old during the years his family rode a church bus to Open Bible Baptist Church each Sunday. He surrendered his life in July of 2015 and, after graduating from public high school in 2017, followed the Lord's leading to Hyles-Anderson College in Crown Point. During five years serving in bus ministry to the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago, he earned a Bachelor's in Pastoral Theology in 2021 and a Master of Applied Theology in 2023.
Dohner joined the Faith Baptist staff as Assistant Pastor and Youth Pastor in September of 2022 and married Danna Quinto of Hobart, Indiana in April of 2023. Together they lead the youth ministry, which serves any teen from seventh grade through high school. The teens have their own Sunday school class and their own Wednesday evening hour alongside the adult midweek service.
Free Bus Routes Through Posen
Free bus pickup has been a hallmark of Faith Baptist's outreach for many years. The church runs licensed CDL drivers and safety-inspected vehicles that bring anyone who needs a ride to Sunday services, and the ministry remains a regular doorway into the church for families in the surrounding neighborhoods. Anyone interested in a ride can contact the church office to arrange pickup.
For children, the church maintains age-separated Sunday school classes and Children's Church so that boys and girls learn the Bible at their own level. Adult ministries round out the family picture, with the church placing emphasis on Godly example and fellowship among believers of every age and stage of life.
Missions from Posen to the World
The missions program at Faith Baptist Church is one of the largest parts of its ministry. The church supports more than thirty missionaries and outreach efforts across the globe, from the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Nigeria and South Sudan to Thailand, Germany, Bulgaria, Peru, Puerto Rico, Kenya, Australia, Cambodia, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Mexico, Uganda, England, New Zealand, Botswana and Paraguay. Most are sent through Fellowship of Fundamental Baptist Ministries (FBMI), with others linked to Baptist World Mission, BBFI Mission, BBFI South America, BBFI Africa and other independent Baptist agencies. Locally and across the country, the church also supports Emmanuel Baptist Rescue Mission in Los Angeles, Christian Law Association, Mercy and Truth Publications and prison ministry through Law and Grace Ministries. A weekly missionary highlight keeps the congregation praying for the field.
How Can You Know for Sure?
The church teaches plainly that the Bible makes the way of salvation clear. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death. Jesus Christ paid the full price for sin on the cross, and no work of righteousness, whether baptism, church attendance or good deeds, can save a person. Salvation comes by calling on the name of the Lord and believing that Jesus died and rose again. As the church states it, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
A Church Still Bearing Fruit
Six decades after a handful of believers met in a borrowed garage, Faith Baptist Church continues to bear fruit in Posen and beyond. Tithes and offerings can be given online through the church's PayPal account, the office can be reached at 708-597-2325, and a livestream of every service is available on the church's Facebook page. From Kedzie Avenue, the church still reaches out to its village, its youth, and a small piece of the world.