From Rosemont Mission to a Shiloh Sanctuary
Towerview Baptist Church sits on Lebanon Avenue in Shiloh, Illinois, a short drive east of Scott Air Force Base. The building is recognizable to longtime residents, but the congregation behind it is older than the address suggests. The story begins in 1916, when Lansdowne Baptist Church launched a small mission in a one-room building in the Rosemont Heights subdivision on what is now 49th Street in Washington Park. That mission grew into a church on February 23, 1930, when 58 charter members organized themselves as Rosemont Baptist Church. The first Sunday offering totaled $9.65. Over the next five decades, Rosemont Baptist sent out pastors, supported missionaries, and planted several daughter congregations in the East St. Louis area.
By the early 1980s the neighborhood around Rosemont had changed, and the members voted to relocate. The pastor at the time explained the move simply: the congregation felt there was a need in the Shiloh community, with new subdivisions growing and no Baptist church nearby. The church relocated in 1983 under the new name Towerview Baptist Church and met at Whiteside School while a permanent building went up. The first service in the current sanctuary at 2401 Lebanon Avenue was held on October 13, 1984.
Sunday Mornings at Towerview
Sunday School runs from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Classes are organized for every age group, from nursery care up through adult electives, with separate rooms for students and children's classes. The adult session is a working hour of Bible study meant to encourage one another toward Christian maturity.
The Sunday worship service begins at 10:15 a.m. and is built around the preaching of God's Word, with extended times of singing, prayer, and a sermon. Music at Towerview is genuinely blended. The congregation sings classic hymns alongside contemporary praise songs, and the service moves at an unhurried pace. Nursery care is provided throughout the service, and children up through third grade are dismissed after the music portion to Kid Connection, a children's church with Bible teaching, snacks, and crafts. Worshipers are welcome to dress up or come casual; the church makes a point of saying that either way, visitors will fit in. For those who cannot attend in person, the service is broadcast on the church's YouTube channel.
Children and Students
Children's ministry is led by Bonnie Prescott and runs every time the adults gather. In addition to Sunday School and Kid Connection, Towerview runs TeamKid on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 p.m. during the school year. TeamKid is designed for children from age four through sixth grade and rotates through Bible memory games, application of Bible truths, missions videos and activities, and hands-on learning. Children with special needs are paired with an aide during services so that every family has a place. Summer brings a pause to the Wednesday programs; they resume after Labor Day.
Student ministry, directed by Beverly Hancock, is aimed at seventh through twelfth graders. Students meet for Sunday School at 9:00 a.m. and again on Sunday evenings from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. during the school year. The format mixes Bible study, prayer, service projects, and time together, with the goal of graduating young adults who love God, follow Christ, and serve everyone around them.
The Towerview Shiloh Community Food Pantry
Towerview's most visible community ministry is the Towerview Shiloh Community Food Pantry, directed by Barb Samples. The pantry serves residents of the Whiteside school district and is open from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. To register, families bring proof of residency (such as a current electric bill or housing permit) and a photo ID. Distribution runs as a drive-thru at the rear of the church building, so neighbors in need can stay in their vehicles from arrival to departure.
What Towerview Believes
Towerview is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, the Illinois Baptist State Association, and the Metro-East Baptist Association. The church's doctrinal foundation is the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, and the congregation works through it point by point. Towerview teaches that the Holy Bible is the inspired and trustworthy Word of God, that there is one true God revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that salvation comes only through personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Christian baptism is practiced as the immersion of a believer in water, symbolizing death to sin and resurrection to new life. The Lord's Supper is observed as a memorial of the Redeemer's death and an anticipation of His return.
The church holds to a complementarian view of marriage and family, teaching that marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman, that children from the moment of conception are a blessing from the Lord, and that the office of pastor is reserved for men as qualified by Scripture. Two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, are observed, and the church sees itself as an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers joined by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel.
Reaching Out Through Missions
Towerview frames its mission in two sentences: to share the truth of the Gospel with the unsaved, and to develop Christians into fully functioning followers of Jesus Christ. The vision is to be a biblically functioning community of believers that God can use both locally and worldwide. Mission support flows through the Southern Baptist Cooperative Program, channeling giving to the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board. The congregation also supports missionaries sent out from its own membership and takes part each year in the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
Leadership and Pastoral Team
Senior Pastor Ron, a native Detroiter who spent most of his growing-up years in Chicago, came to Towerview in 2009 after serving as a youth pastor and then as senior pastor of a church in the Cleveland, Ohio, area. He and his wife Debbie have three grown children and seven grandchildren. His life philosophy is plainspoken: I am a nobody doing my best to follow Somebody who deeply loves everybody.
Associate Pastor Mark has served alongside him since 2023. Originally from Indianapolis, he and his wife Melissa joined Towerview in 2015 when the Air Force moved them to Scott Air Force Base, and he continues to serve in the military alongside his role at the church. He is a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and centers his ministry on the words of Acts 20:24.
Jason has led worship and music at Towerview for more than twenty years and stepped into his current role in 2021. A lifelong member of the church, he plays guitar, sings, and leads the congregation in song, often pulling double duty as a husband, father, and avid outdoorsman. Randy and Carolyn round out the staff team as the church's faithful custodians through their own Madison Cleaning Services.
Across a century of ministry that began with a one-room mission, an offering of less than ten dollars, and fifty-eight charter members, Towerview Baptist Church continues to gather in Shiloh each Sunday morning to teach the Bible, sing, pray, and send its people out into the community and the world.