Meet First Baptist Church Elkhart
First Baptist Church was founded in downtown Elkhart in 1860 by a small group of believers. Today, it is located on 40 acres on the northeast side of Elkhart, occupies an 85,000-square-foot facility, and hosts an average of 1,100 attendees weekly.
FBC Elkhart is evangelistic and outreach-oriented in its approach to the community. The church exists to glorify God by equipping believers to love God, love people, and influence the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
An overseer of spiritual growth
First Baptist Church needed to find a discipleship pastor to oversee all facets of the spiritual growth and maturity of the members of the church. This person would provide vision and direction to all adult discipleship ministries while working with volunteers to implement various strategies, all designed for spiritual growth.
As a member of the pastoral team and by working directly with the executive pastor of ministries, the discipleship pastor would lead and empower God’s people to fulfill FBC Elkhart’s mission.
Beginning a fourth search with VSG
Over the past few years, FBC Elkhart has faced several staffing needs, including finding an executive pastor of ministries, a student pastor, and a family pastor, and had partnered with Vanderbloemen to successfully fill these three positions. Soon after, the search team contacted Vanderbloemen to fill their discipleship pastor position, beginning a fourth search with Vanderbloemen.
Senior Executive Search Consultant Tim Gocha, who had worked closely with FBC Elkhart’s staff for all previous searches, promptly began the search for a discipleship pastor. Already knowing the church culture well, he learned the church’s vision for the discipleship pastor role and began the search for qualified candidates. Tim worked with Executive Search Recruiter Will Hancock to identify qualified candidates and present them to the pastors at FBC Elkhart.
Tim and Will reviewed many candidates to find those who were qualified, able to relocate to Elkhart, and had a heart for discipleship. This included presenting several rounds of candidates to consider. Eventually, one candidate stood out – a family ministry & operations director living in Wheatfield, Indiana.
Finding their long-awaited discipleship pastor
The church hired Andrew Stroup as their long-awaited discipleship pastor. Andrew has 17 years of leadership experience. He came equipped to disciple others, flex according to the community’s needs, and remain professional through various situations.
He transitioned to Elkhart and officially began his new role as discipleship pastor just in time for 2025. His wife Erin and their four kids relocated from Wheatfield to Elkhart to fulfill their calling to serve at FBC Elkhart.
Currently seeking a worship pastor, FBC Elkhart continues working with Vanderbloemen for a fifth search to complete its team.
