We are a Christ-centered fellowship of people saved by grace, growing in Christlikeness, building strong families, and reaching out to others with Christ's love in Bloomington/Normal, IL.
GLORIFY God the Father and exalt His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.
GROW in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
GIVE of ourselves to actively engage in the work of the Lord.
GO forth to reach our community and the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Freedom Baptist Church in Bloomington, Illinois is a family. Saving grace through Jesus Christ bonds us, and by His grace we grow closer to God and one another. The Bible speaks about iron sharpening iron. God has designed the local church to be a place to grow stronger together.
We strive to be a church without walls. Jesus calls for us to go outside the walls to reach the lost and the broken. It is there that the lost will be found.
We value the Word of God, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We look to share God's saving grace to all of the lost and broken, and lead those with no hope to find hope in Jesus Christ. We strive to live what we preach as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Small Beginnings
We believe that the Bible, consisting of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, is the only, authoritative, sufficient, infallible Word of God, verbally inspired and without error. We hold to a normal, literal interpretation of Scripture.
We believe in one God, existing in a unity of three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - who are coequal, coeternal, and consubstantial. He is the Creator of all things, holy, sovereign, loving, and infinitely perfect in every way.
We believe in the eternal deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His becoming a man without ceasing to be God, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His substitutionary and atoning death through His shed blood on the cross, in His bodily resurrection, and in His ascension to the right hand of the Father. We believe He ever lives to make intercession for His saints, and that He is coming again to rule and reign in power and glory.
We believe that the Holy Spirit convicts men of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He regenerates sinners and places them into the body of Christ. He also comforts, indwells, illuminates, guides, equips and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service. He gives gifts for the building up of the church. Every Christian is gifted by the Spirit of God for the purpose of edifying the church and doing the work of the ministry.
We believe that man was created sinless in the image of God and that through transgression he incurred physical and spiritual death. As a result, all human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Apart from God's gracious intervention, man is without help, hope and completely depraved.
We believe that the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life is a miraculous work of God by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. It is the unmerited demonstration of God's love, available to all those who turn from their sin and trust in Jesus' atoning death and victorious resurrection. It is only through God's saving work in Jesus Christ that man can be justified, sanctified, and ultimately glorified.
We believe in the imminent return of Christ and the gathering up of his church known as the blessed hope or rapture. We believe in the tribulation, the personal and physical second coming of Christ to establish His millennial kingdom, and the eternal state wherein the unsaved are judged and condemned to a literal hell and the saved are glorified to enjoy everlasting blessing in the presence of God.
We believe that church is the body and bride of the Lord Jesus Christ into which all true believers of the present age are placed and that the members of this spiritual body should assemble themselves together in local churches which consist of committed, baptized believers. We believe that the New Testament describes congregational church government as being pastor led and deacon served. We believe that the commission of the church is to make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and teach them to obey Christ's commands. The fulfillment of this commission eventuates in the perpetual, intentional, establishment of new local churches. We believe that the church must maintain its purity by practicing biblical discipline and separation from false teaching.
We recognize believer's Baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper (Communion) as the Scriptural ordinances for the church in this age. Both of them visibly and tangibly express the gospel, and though they are not means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in faith-filled obedience, these ordinances spiritually nourish the believer and bear witness to the work of our Savior.
We identify with a rich heritage of those who have held to the following scripturally derived principles: biblical authority, autonomy of the local church, priesthood of the believer, two ordinances, individual soul liberty, saved and baptized church membership, two church offices, and separation of church and state.
We believe that God's justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. This should result in a life that is separate from sin and set apart to God. He commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith in growing obedience to the Word and Holy Spirit such that we are progressively changed into the likeness of Christ. Growing Christians use their God-given gifts for the purpose of edifying the church, doing the work of the ministry, and obeying our Lord's command to make disciples.
Vince was raised in Walled Lake, Michigan. At the age of 7, he trusted Christ as his Savior while attending Children’s Church at the First Baptist Church of Wixom, Michigan. He was privileged to spend two years as a young teen missionary kid in Swaziland, attending boarding school in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. After attending Bible College and Seminary, where he earned both Bachelor’s and Masters degrees in Biblical Studies, he and his wife spent twelve years serving as church planters in South Africa. Twenty five years ago they returned to the U.S. and have served churches in Tennessee, Missouri, and Wisconsin. During this time, Vince was able to earn his Doctor of Pastoral Theology degree. He became Pastor of Freedom Baptist Church in November 2016. Vince and Beth have three children and eight grandchildren.