Our Leadership Team

Our church is an elder-led congregational church. This means that we have a church led by godly men who have been appointed by the congregation to provide spiritual care and oversight for the church. The biblical term "elder" is used interchangeably with other words like pastor, overseer, and shepherd throughout Scripture. Though we call one of our elders a "pastor" because he is supported financially to fulfill his full-time role, ultimately all elders are pastors and all pastors are elders (Acts 20:12-3; 1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Peter 5:1-4).


We also believe that the Holy Spirit has given every believer spiritual gifts that are to be used for the common good. Therefore, we have many other people, both men and women, who are not elders but are still exercising their gifts of leadership in helpful ways to build up the church.

  • Brian Bill, Elder

    Brian and his wife Andrea live in Pattonsburg, IL.  They have 3 adult kids, 4 grandkids, and 2 step grandkids.  Brian taught high school Math, Chemistry, Physics, and dual credit Astronomy until retiring from Eureka High School in May of 2016. Brian was also an adjunct instructor in Math and Astronomy at Illinois Central College for 30 years until retiring in 2020.  He currently teaches Math at Eureka College and will be retiring after 9 years in May of 2026.  Brian’s hobbies include Geocaching, hiking, working around his property, traveling, and astronomy.  Brian's favorite book of the Bible to study is Job.  His favorite verse is Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend”.


  • Scott Butzin, Elder

    Bio and photo coming soon

  • Zack Birky, elder


    Zack and his wife live in Washington, IL.  They have two boys in college.  Zack is an engineer by training, but currently works at Caterpillar in a finance role.  He enjoys reading, spending time with the family, and working on home renovation projects.  Two favorite areas of Biblical study are 1) heaven, and 2) the relationship of human parents and children as an example of our relationship to God.  Zack has too many favorite verses to list; but he thinks these are great ones: Luke 12:22-31 and Proverbs 15:22.


    Photo coming soon

  • Kurt smith, pASTOR

    Kurt joined the staff at Faith Evangelical Free Church as Pastor in July 2019.  He received a Bachelor of Arts in Church and Family Life Ministry from Lincoln Christian University and a Master of Divinity in Great Commission Studies from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Kurt has experience serving as a youth pastor, worship pastor, senior pastor, and hospital chaplain.  Kurt also teaches high school social studies focusing on World Geography, World History, and US History.

     

    Kurt and his wife were married in 2003 and have three children. The Smith family loves music, reading, traveling, and watching St. Louis Cardinals baseball. 

     

    Kurt's favorite book of the Bible is Philippians.  His favorite Bible passages are Leviticus 11:44-45, Matthew 5-7, and Ephesians 4-5.