On the corner of Seventh and Capitol in downtown Springfield, Illinois, the bright red doors of First Presbyterian Church open onto a sanctuary that has been a place of Presbyterian worship for more than 190 years. The congregation, founded in 1828, is the church Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln attended in Springfield, and it still bears their mark: the pew the Lincoln family rented in the old sanctuary sits in the present-day Narthex. Today the church is known to many simply as Lincoln's Church, and it carries that history into a ministry that is at once locally rooted and globally reaching.
Three Gatherings Each Week
First Presbyterian holds three weekly services designed to fit the rhythms of a varied community. On Sunday mornings the day opens with an interactive online gathering at 9:00 a.m. held on Zoom, with participants joining from home, the road, or wherever their Sunday finds them. At 10:45 a.m. the same day, the congregation gathers onsite in the sanctuary for in-person worship. On Wednesday evenings at 5:30 p.m., the third gathering moves outside into the Peace Garden during the warmer months and into the Chapel in colder seasons, with special seasonal services such as the Blessing of the Animals woven through the year.
Worship at First Presbyterian is intentionally creative. Music, sacraments, prayers, movement, visual art, architecture, dance, spoken word, and song are woven together so that those gathered are invited to move closer to the Divine and to one another, then sent back into the week energized for service. Holy Communion is celebrated on the first Sundays and the first Wednesdays of each month, and the table is open. Anyone who hungers and thirsts for God is welcome to share in the bread and cup.
The services are led by the Rev. Susan Phillips, the congregation's pastor; Tim Haworth, parish chaplain; Becky Kemp, music director; and Nichol DelGiorno, organist. Each brings a particular craft to the rhythm of the gathering.
A Sanctuary Built to Be Heard
First Presbyterian's sanctuary is fitted with a hearing loop that broadcasts sound directly to hearing aids equipped with a T-coil, eliminating much of the background noise and reverberation that can make large rooms difficult to follow. Visitors who do not use hearing aids with a T-coil can pick up small receivers and ear buds in the Narthex before the service, then return the ear buds at the close of worship. The church is also served by a recently installed elevator that opens all five levels of the building, including an additional 20,000 square feet of meeting, gathering, and worship space added through the renovation.
An Aspirational Welcome
First Presbyterian describes its identity through an Aspirational Statement that names who the church intends to be. The statement, posted prominently on the church's site, opens: "This is God's house and all God's people are welcome." It goes on to celebrate an open Communion table, the gifts of the Spirit in every person, and the conviction that unity in the body of Christ matters more than differences of opinion. No matter a visitor's church background or lack of it, identity, gender, who they love, how they vote, or where they work, the church's doors are open.
The full Aspirational Statement anchors the congregation in a theology that holds every person is wonderfully created in the image of God and loved unconditionally, that God's love is transformative and healing, and that all are welcomed at the Communion table regardless of bank balance, race, gender, age, ability, housing status, or struggles of faith. The church also describes itself as called by God to advocate for social justice through service and community outreach, and to show abundant hospitality to neighbors near and far.
Samaritan Ministries: Help for the Neighborhood
Through its Samaritan Ministries, First Presbyterian extends care to neighbors who walk in from the surrounding blocks of downtown Springfield. The ministry operates in several ways.
The church is a partner of the Grace Lutheran Food Pantry, located at 714 E. Capitol Avenue, which serves people in need every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. First Presbyterian provides monthly financial support for groceries, and church members serve as volunteers. In 2024 the need grew sharply: requests for food increased by 60 percent.
On the church grounds, a small red-doored cabinet has been restored and reopened as a micropantry, allowing anyone in the community to take what they need or to leave what they can spare.
A Social Services Desk opens every Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., entered through the parking lot ramp. Volunteers distribute bus passes, gas vouchers, and assistance in obtaining birth certificates - paperwork often required for state IDs and housing applications.
Other Samaritan efforts include teams of volunteers who prepare and serve hot meals at local shelters, a Compassion Care Fund that responds individually to neighbors in need, and financial support for the work of Helping Hands and the Springfield Immigrant Action Network.
Love and Justice at Home and Abroad
First Presbyterian is a Matthew 25 church of the Presbyterian Church (USA), a designation that commits the congregation to three overlapping commitments: building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism, and eradicating systemic poverty. The church names racism as sin and works in partnership with the Springfield Coalition on Dismantling Racism, a regional affiliate of Crossroads Antiracism Organizing and Training, and with the Faith Coalition for the Common Good.
The congregation is open and affirming. It celebrates marriage equality, affirms the goodness of LGBTQIA+ members, leaders, and staff, and works toward the full participation of LGBTQIA+ people in the life, ministry, and witness of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and in society at large. A Q+ Working Group lends hands and hearts to repenting harm the wider church has done and to serving the LGBTQIA+ community. The church is a member of More Light Presbyterians and the Covenant Network of Presbyterians.
Across the Florida Strait, First Presbyterian has maintained a covenant partnership with La Iglesia Presbiteriana-Reformada en Sancti Spiritus in Cuba for nearly twenty years. The two congregations visit when visas and foreign policy allow, share written devotions with one another, and advocate together through the Cuba Partners Network for an end to the U.S. embargo, which the Cuba Partnership Team describes as a failed policy that hurts the Cuban people it is meant to pressure. The team's published letter is offered as a template for congregants who wish to write their own representatives in Congress.
Music in the Sanctuary
Music is central to worship at First Presbyterian. Becky Kemp, the music director, writes that the moments in her life when she has most directly felt the presence of God have almost always had to do with music, and that there is often no greater joy than singing God's praise.
The organ console is in the hands of Nichol DelGiorno, who has served for over twenty years in music ministry across Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, and Reform Jewish traditions, all of which have shaped her spiritual journey and musical language. A graduate of the University of Illinois, the University of Iowa, and Illinois College, she has also studied at the International Summer Academy for Organists in Haarlem, the Netherlands. She is a scholar of Cuban music and travels to Cuba regularly. She teaches music courses and private lessons at Illinois College, lives in Springfield with her husband Tony, their daughter, her mother, a dog, and three cats, and conducts choirs when her schedule allows.
The instrument she plays is the John Brombaugh Opus 35 pipe organ, designed and crafted explicitly for First Presbyterian and installed in 2000, where it has drawn international attention. The organ has 3,250 pipes, 70 ranks, and 49 stops. Its pipes are made of an alloy high in lead that produces what the organ builder described as a "vocale" sound, related to the angelic sound of young children singing. The pipe metal has been strongly hammered, and the pipes are winded from historic-style windchests connected by direct mechanical linkage to the keyboards. The Brombaugh's variety of organ, flute, string, and reed stops provides a wide range of possibilities for accompanying choral or solo music.
The First Presbyterian Choir brings the congregation's singing to life each week. One recent anthem commissioned by the Muskego High School Chorale, "The Homecoming," sets Abraham Lincoln's own words to music by Joseph M. Martin and incorporates the tunes Happy Land and Bound for the Promised Land.
A Sanctuary of Glass and Wood
First Presbyterian has been at the corner of Seventh and Capitol since 1872, when the present building was purchased from Third Presbyterian Church. The previous building, on Third and Washington Streets, was the one the Lincoln family attended. That earlier sanctuary was sold to a Lutheran congregation and later torn down, but the pew that the Lincolns rented, pew number 20, was saved and is now displayed in the Narthex of the current building. The pew number is still visibly stamped on the left side under the armrest. Mary Todd Lincoln wrote to her friend Mrs. Samuel Melvin about her attachment to that pew and her hope of resuming it on her return to Springfield.
The sanctuary is also a museum of stained glass. In 1890, the congregation decided to install memorial windows as part of a growing religious revival. The first Tiffany window, Angel of Resurrection, was installed in 1895. Six more Tiffany windows followed, including the great round window above the organ. All seven Tiffany works - the first four on the south side of the nave, the first two on the north, and the great round window - were produced by the studio of Louis Comfort Tiffany, whose art was featured at the 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. The remaining windows represent the changing styles of decorative glass developed between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries.
Trained docents lead tours of the sanctuary and its treasures throughout the year, including on Friday afternoons from June through August from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The history of the Lincoln family pew, the Tiffany windows, and the Brombaugh organ is shared in turn.
Weddings, Concerts, and Community Space
First Presbyterian rejoices in marriage equality and welcomes all couples to celebrate their union in the sanctuary. Couples considering a wedding at the church fill out an inquiry form online; the church then contacts them about the desired date and sets up a first meeting with the administrative assistant to walk through questions and the church's wedding policies.
The building offers a range of spaces for community use. The sanctuary itself can host up to 500 guests for special occasions. The first-floor Commons and Reception area accommodates 80 to 100 guests with tables and chairs or 130 guests in rows. The Cook/Diller Lounge hosts up to 40, the Peace Garden up to 30, and the Chapel up to 60 with special approval. On the second floor, the Meeting Room seats 15 and the Gallery hosts 48 with tables or 60 in rows. In the basement, a Performance Space mirrors the Commons's capacity, and a Rehearsal Space accommodates up to 60. Community groups are welcome, and a donation to help cover facility costs is encouraged.
Choir practices, recitals, concerts, performances, exhibitions, and gatherings of every kind now happen in newly renovated space.
A Building Made New
Across the early 2020s, First Presbyterian undertook an extensive renovation of its building. The work added an elevator serving all five levels and roughly 20,000 additional square feet of gathering, meeting, learning, and worship space. The total now stands at 30,000 square feet of accessible, beautiful, and functional space, dedicated in a celebratory service in late 2025.
Solar panels installed on the roof of the education building generate 25 kilowatts of clean energy, a stewardship gesture the church named a "Solarbration." Reclaimed red oak flooring from the former chapel was installed alongside new red oak, and a triune labyrinth was painted on the new floor in the chapel. The renovation is also lifting the church's capacity to host community partners, in line with the vision the pastor has named "Our New Season: Building Community."
The renovation was funded through two capital campaigns. The first, "Our New Season: Building Community," reached 99 percent of its goal, with 59 households pledging and 12 others giving. The second, "Generations Building Joy!," continues, with 45 pledging units and 42 donating households giving more than $463,750 in pledges and over $280,000 received.
People of the Church
The Rev. Susan Phillips is the fifteenth pastor and the first woman to lead the historic congregation. She began her pastoral journey with First Presbyterian in July 2017 after serving United Methodist and Presbyterian (USA) churches in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois and a period of study that took her through Grinnell College, the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She lives with her spouse and two children in Springfield. Her pastoral work centers on creative worship design, community building, and justice and antiracism advocacy.
Tim Haworth, the parish chaplain, is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary with fifteen years of experience in mental health and twenty years in ministry, including service as a hospice chaplain, lay associate pastor, youth pastor, and program director for a nondenominational camp ministry, with short-term missionary work in Russia and Haiti. He lives in Springfield with his husband Jeff and a herd of three dogs and two cats.
Michelle Hastings is the office manager and also uses her background in graphic design to help the church communicate. Tara Kaeding, the bookkeeper, brings her young daughter Amara to the office as her personal assistant. Aziza McNeese, the event coordinator, makes lasting memories by creating spaces that connect people from all walks of life; in summer months she supervises the Grandstand Ticket Office at the Illinois State Fair, where she has served for over a decade, and serves on the board of the Springfield Coalition on Dismantling Racism.
Sharing Time and Treasure
Giving at First Presbyterian happens online, by check, and by text. Online giving is handled through a secure portal; checks may be placed in the offertory plate during worship or mailed to the church office; text-to-give is available by texting a donation to (217) 284-2546. The church also accepts planned gifts and welcomes inquiries through the bookkeeper's office.
Volunteering is the other half of generosity at First Presbyterian. Roles listed on the church's site include the Worship Tech Team (training provided for both sound system and Zoom helpers), the Holy Clippers gardening crew that maintains the Peace Garden throughout spring and summer, the music ministry for singers and musicians who want to share their gifts, tour-guide docents who lead sanctuary tours, Home Communion volunteers who bring the sacrament to members unable to attend worship, and childcare providers who create a loving environment for young children while parents worship or sing.
The church's deep network of partners reads like a snapshot of Springfield's wider civic life. Locally, First Presbyterian works with Caregivers Interfaith Volunteer Services, the Coalition of Rainbow Alliances, the Faith Coalition for the Common Good, the Garvey Tubman Cultural Arts Center, the Greater Springfield Interfaith Association, Habitat for Humanity of Sangamon County, Helping Hands, the Illinois Presbyterian Home, the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Joy of Movement, the Matheny-Withrow School Partnership, the MLK Breakfast, PrideFest, the Springfield Choral Society, the Springfield Coalition on Dismantling Racism, the Springfield Crop Hunger Walk, and the Springfield Immigrant Action Network. Globally, the church supports Sancti Spiritus Living Waters, Caribbean Missions through Jo Ella Holman, the Cuba Partnership of the PC(USA), the Laotian School Building Fund, the Pakistan Christian Outreach Foundation, and Presbyterian Disaster Relief and Offerings.
Visiting First Presbyterian
Sunday morning visitors who drive in will find the west parking lot open and the west entrance doors usable. The Federal Courthouse alley parking spaces are also available on Sunday mornings and any evening except August 1 and 2. Street parking, the municipal parking deck by the library, and Hoogland's parking garage are additional options; the 7th Street parking spaces are reserved for those with accessibility needs. A hearing loop helps those with hearing aids follow the service, and small receivers with ear buds are available in the Narthex for those who need them. Childcare is provided during Sunday worship. Visitors exploring faith are warmly welcomed, as the church's Aspirational Statement makes plain.