Mount Olive Lutheran Church stands at 2001 N. Alpine Road in Rockford, Illinois, and is known for Word and Sacrament worship, education for every generation, a Christian arts program, and practical service in Rockford, Loves Park, and Machesney Park. The congregation belongs to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod through its Northern Illinois District, and its motto is “Loving People to Jesus.”
Loving People to Jesus on North Alpine Road
Mount Olive describes its ministry through three commitments: “High in Worship, Deep in the Word, Wide in Witness.” Worship centers on God’s Word and sacraments. Study is meant to move people from reading and discussion into formation as disciples. Witness takes place through relationships, service, evangelism, and care for people in the neighborhoods around the church. Together, those commitments shape the church’s worship, classrooms, small groups, arts offerings, and neighborhood partnerships.
The church office is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to noon. The office phone number is 815-399-3171, and the church is located at 2001 N. Alpine Road. Online giving is also available. These practical details sit alongside a ministry that places strong emphasis on intergenerational learning and on helping people connect faith with daily life.
Sunday Worship: Confession, Scripture, Song, and Fellowship
Sunday worship is held at 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. The 8 a.m. service is livestreamed each week, and earlier services remain available through the Mount Olive YouTube channel. The two services share the same central rhythm: God comes through the good gifts of Word and Sacrament.
Members and visitors are invited to confess their sins, receive forgiveness, and be strengthened through reading of Scripture. The congregation also sings songs and hymns and interacts as the Body of Christ. Worship includes Scripture reading, shared song, confession, forgiveness, fellowship, and the church’s sacramental life.
The service at 8 a.m. is followed by the 9:15 Connections gathering before the 11 a.m. service, making the middle of Sunday a time for worship, teaching, and community across generations. The church also provides a substantial rhythm of weekday and Saturday study for those who want to go deeper.
Connections: Learning as One Faith Family
Connections is Mount Olive’s Christian education program for all ages and life stages. It gathers in the Great Room from 9:15 to 10:30 a.m. on Sundays, with participants arriving at 9:15 and study beginning at 9:20. The format combines large-group teaching with age-appropriate table discussion. Each gathering includes a weekly reading from God’s Word, a connection to Luther’s Small Catechism, prayer, song, and brief intergenerational elements at the beginning and end.
The aim is to help people become a faith family rather than treat children, students, and adults as separate audiences. Families study together, children and adults engage with the same central reading in ways suited to their age, and participants are encouraged to consider what it means to live as image bearers of God and as members of one body of believers. Connections is also the setting for youth Bible study, while separate monthly youth nights provide another recurring opportunity for young people to gather.
Children’s and family ministry is coordinated by Jeannie Newton, and youth ministry and confirmation are coordinated by Korey Wysocki. Their work reflects the church’s conviction that homes and church should teach the same faith, help adults grow as disciples, and give children and students meaningful ways to know and serve Jesus.
Study From Monday Through Saturday
Mount Olive spreads Bible study across the week. A Monday class meets at 9:30 a.m. in the Great Room under Bill Cullen’s leadership. A Ladies Bible Study meets at 10 a.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays in members’ homes. Pastor Steve leads a Wednesday evening class at 7 p.m. using the Bible and Luther’s Small Catechism, and he also leads the same study at 10 a.m. on Wednesdays at Concordia in the South Narthex.
“Luther and Scripture for Today” meets online at 9:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays. Participants read selected writings by Martin Luther, including his Treatise on Christian Liberty, Two Kinds of Righteousness, Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nations, and Smalcald Articles, then examine those writings through Scripture and their relevance to life. On Saturdays, this class meets at 9 a.m. in the Great Room on the first, third, and fifth Saturdays, with breakfast included. A separate 9 a.m. Saturday class meets in Room 2 of the Education Wing on the second and fourth Saturdays.
The church also makes an unusually broad set of study and discipleship materials available online. The collection includes guides for every major biblical book, resources on the Gospels and Revelation, studies on Luther’s theology, law and gospel, justification and sanctification, the ethics of love, and the life and mission of Jesus. There are also seven-week studies, a six-week study of the names of Yahweh, a seven-week look at the parables, the CASE model of “Jesus for me, Jesus in me, Jesus through me,” and practical tools for personal and group study. The Bible study and discipleship resources give congregants ways to continue reading together at home or in a group.
Bill Cullen’s “Discipling Handbook” adds a practical emphasis. It describes discipleship not merely as acquiring knowledge or following a moral code, but as becoming increasingly formed in Jesus and more Christlike in character and action. Public worship, study, and fellowship nourish that process, while the evidence of discipleship is seen in how people love neighbors in the places where they live, work, and play. The handbook is presented as a toolbox that groups can adapt to their own circumstances rather than a single prescribed method.
Missional Communities for Everyday Life
Missional communities are another distinctive part of Mount Olive’s formation ministry. They generally bring together three to twelve people, sometimes including a family unit, to share faith and encourage one another to live missionally. Each group identifies a “missional neighborhood,” which might be a geographic area, workplace, or school. The purpose is not simply to study more but to listen to people, notice needs, seek opportunities for loving action, and pray for those encountered.
Each gathering uses five questions: What is Jesus doing in the neighborhood? What is God saying through his Word and nudging the group to do? With whom in the neighborhood are they in conversation, and what are they learning? What opportunities exist to express loving care? For whom are they praying, and how can the group support prayer?
Bill Cullen’s group meets on Mondays at 6:30 p.m. The second Monday is in person with dinner, while the first, third, fourth, and fifth Mondays meet online. A second group led by Karen Freudenberg meets in person at 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursdays. These rhythms make room for both face-to-face conversation and participation from farther away.
Children, Families, and Faith Legacy
At Mount Olive, one of the church’s greatest joys is seeing children and families learn and grow together in Jesus’ love. The children’s and family ministry seeks to encourage and equip parents as the primary faith facilitators in their children’s lives while providing Christian education and fellowship for the whole household.
Faith Legacy is the ministry’s defining family curriculum. Its video and discussion-based sessions are organized around age-related milestones. Parents take three one-hour sessions for each milestone, then present their child with a blessing object during a worship service. The lessons give parents tools for family devotions, teaching a child to serve, discussing values for money and giving, and addressing sexuality and purity with age-appropriate honesty. The stated aim is to nurture a legacy of faith that can continue through family life.
Children also take part in the all-ages Connections hour, where large-group teaching and age-appropriate table conversations make room for both shared learning and personal participation. Youth Bible study follows the Sunday 9:15 to 10:30 rhythm, and monthly youth nights add a separate time for fellowship and faith formation.
Creative Learning at the Christian Arts Institute
The Christian Arts Institute exists to encourage and equip artists of all ages to develop God-given talents and abilities for God’s glory and service to neighbor. Its private lessons develop technical skill, musicality, discipline, creative problem-solving, and confidence in guitar, wind instruments, percussion, and piano. Lessons cost $20 for 30 minutes, and a multiple-child family discount is available.
Week-long specialized art classes give students basic technique, growing understanding of a medium, and room to experiment in a supportive setting. Band Camp is for students entering grades 5 through 9 who want to play in a band, develop musicianship, and make new friends. Christian Arts Camp, held each summer, uses visual and performance arts to help children nurture creative gifts, praise God, and share God’s Word. John Schmid directs the music side of this work and leads band camp. His background includes 17 years as a band and music teacher in Rockford Lutheran Schools, study at Concordia University, Nebraska, and a master’s degree in music education from Baylor University. He also plays guitar and sings with Epiphany and Threefold Cord.
The arts program gives the church a practical way to connect talent, faith, and service. It also provides families with structured learning at the church and gives instructors a place to exercise creativity alongside students.
Labors of Love: From the Church to the Neighborhood
Mount Olive’s “Labors of Love” ministry has two aims: to meet practical needs in a tangible way and to equip people in its neighborhoods to do the same. The church names Rockford, Loves Park, and Machesney Park as places of focus. Members and people from neighboring congregations can join a volunteer network that responds to requests for labor help. Skills vary among volunteers, and assistance is offered free of charge when they are able to help.
The church’s local service relationships are concrete:
- Brookview Elementary mentoring: Mount Olive partners with the school to train members who are paired with at-risk children for supportive mentoring. The partnership also extends to practical assistance for the school as needs arise.
- Rockford Rescue Mission: Volunteers work with people experiencing homelessness. Mount Olive also conducts a worship service and serves sack dinners, responds to requests for donated items, and helps with the mission’s thrift store.
- Carpenter’s Place: On the third Monday of each month, the congregation provides lunch for about 100 people. Members also contribute clothing, furniture, toiletries, and other donated items. Other ways to serve include teaching a Bible class, inventorying and collecting donations, and building relationships with guests.
- Youth for Christ and Kids Hope USA: Mount Olive highlights opportunities to reach young people in the Stateline area, share hope with children, and provide the physical, emotional, and educational support described by these ministries.
Additional service opportunities connected with Mount Olive include Lutheran Church Charities’ emergency cleanup and repair work, Rock House Kids’ care for inner-city children, Pregnancy Care Center’s support for unplanned pregnancies, and Habitat for Humanity’s home-building projects. Each gives volunteers a way to extend the church’s call to love and serve neighbors into practical action.
The Prayer Team provides another form of ministry. Members receive intercessory requests and pray for the people named in them, offering spiritual support through the church’s shared prayer life. Another recurring fellowship is O.W.L.S., the Older, Wiser, Lutheran Seniors group, which meets for games from 1 to 3 p.m. every second Thursday in the Great Room.
What Mount Olive Believes
Mount Olive’s beliefs are grounded in a clear confession: one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the Bible as divinely inspired and without error; salvation by God’s pure grace through Jesus’ death and resurrection; and faith in God’s grace in Jesus. The church emphasizes love and trust relationships with God and one another, the communication of grace through Scripture and the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and confession.
Its statement also stresses worship, diligent Scripture study, relationship and fellowship, service, and the responsibility of every Christian to bear witness to God’s love through both words and deeds. Jesus is affirmed as alive in his body, the Church, so that his love and grace continue to reach a world in need. The church’s teaching places “all humankind” within the scope of God’s concern and presents the life of the church as both an inward reality of grace and an outward calling to love and serve.
The Team Behind the Ministry
Pastor Steve Benson grew up in Schaumburg, attended several Lutheran congregations, and spent 17 years pursuing a four-year degree while taking part in Lutheran Youth Encounter’s Common Bread team and serving as a youth staffer for the LCMS Florida-Georgia District. He later worked in youth ministry and as an assistant pastor in Florida, taught religion and coached baseball in Minnesota, and returned to Rockford with his wife, Liz, as his family grew. After attending Concordia Seminary, he graduated in 2009. His first call took him to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in San Diego for church planting in Alpine, California; he later served more than 13 years at Zion Lutheran in Brainerd, Minnesota, before returning to Rockford. Steve and Liz have three children.
Bill Cullen began in professional church ministry in 1973 and served four Oregon congregations over 22 years in evangelism, youth, and education. He also taught at Concordia University Portland, then accepted a call in 1996 to Concordia University Chicago, where he directed the Christian Education program. He joined Mount Olive in 2008 and serves as Director of Christian Education. He holds a master’s degree in education and a doctorate in theology, and his work now includes the discipling handbook, Bible classes, and missional communities.
John Schmid brings classroom, performance, and ministry experience to the Christian Arts Institute after 17 years as a band and music teacher in Rockford Lutheran Schools. Jeannie Newton coordinates children’s ministry; she earned a B.S. in elementary education from Northern Illinois University, an M.S. in family life from Concordia University, Nebraska, taught in public and parochial schools, and homeschooled her five children. Korey Wysocki coordinates youth ministry and confirmation, homeschools her three daughters, and serves as a director in a local Classical Conversations community. Her work includes helping parents walk alongside their children and strengthening Christian marriages and families.
Mount Olive’s identity is easy to summarize and rich in practice: high in worship, deep in the Word, and wide in witness. At 2001 N. Alpine Road in Rockford, the church gathers people for Word and Sacrament, forms them through study and fellowship, develops gifts through the arts, and sends them into practical love of neighbor through “Labors of Love.”