In 2017, Adam Bowers became the third senior pastor of First Free Church. Previously, Adam led an international missions ministry and served as an executive pastor. Adam is married to Jenny and the two have served in full-time ministry together for over a decade. Adam is passionate about preaching the Word of God in authentic, practical, and relevant ways. He is also active in discipleship and leadership development, and he holds a Master’s of Divinity degree with a specialization in pastoral counseling.
John Richardson, Executive Pastor of Discipleship, served as a pastor to churches in Illinois and Missouri for seventeen years before becoming a mediator and pastoral counselor at Live at Peace Ministries in St. Louis. While working at Live at Peace for five years, John also served as a pastor in Owensville, MO on a part-time basis. He started attending First Free in 2008 and joined the staff in 2011. He oversees Care, Outreach, Discipleship Communities, Men’s Ministry, and Women’s Ministry. John has a Master of Divinity from Covenant Theological Seminary and a B.A. from Fort Wayne Bible College. He is a Certified Christian Conciliator with the Institute of Christian Conciliation and serves on the board of directors for the Association of Missouri Mediators.
Andrew grew up at First Free and joined the staff team as the Student Ministries Worship Pastor in 2014, was confirmed as the Pastor of Worship Ministries in 2022, and moved into his current role of Executive Pastor of Service Planning in 2024. Andrew graduated from Covenant Theological Seminary with a Masters in Divinity in 2013. Andrew loves working with our middle and high school students to help them grow as musicians, worship leaders, and ultimately, disciples of Jesus. Andrew is married to Amber and they have two children.
Kyle began ministry in 2002 at Grace Christian Fellowship in Abingdon, VA, where he served as Youth Pastor for two years. During his time there, he also filled the pulpit as needed. In 2004, he moved to the St. Louis area, taking a position as Youth Pastor at Calvary Church’s Big Creek Campus in Foristell, MO. In his 17 years there, he also spent time overseeing Men’s Ministry, Groups, and serving as the Associate Teaching Pastor. Most recently, he has served as Discipleship Pastor for a multi-site campus of Grace Pointe Church in Naperville, IL from 2021-2023. Kyle and his wife, Michelle, have three children: Kade, Levi, and Elyn.
Tex has over 16 years of student ministry experience. His student ministry philosophy is centered around building a culture that believes students aren’t just future leaders – they are each called by God to lead where they are today. As a leader, he strives to empower students to lead and own their faith. If you’d like to schedule a time to meet with Tex, click here!
Tex and his wife, Kelsey, have one daughter. Tex’s first and favorite ministry is his family, and he believes that the greatest legacy he can build is modeling to his family daily what being an apprentice of Jesus looks like.
Kathy oversees our Connections Ministry – Welcome Desks, Greeters, Coffee Crew, Section Hosts, and Visitor Follow-Up volunteers. Her team works hard to ensure a warm, welcoming environment.
Sejdo assists with the care and cleaning of our buildings and room setup for all events.
Jennifer supports the Discipleship ministry, including Adult Groups (Small Groups, Care Groups, Sunday Morning Groups, Men’s Ministry, and Women’s Ministry) and Care Ministries. She is the first contact for both departments.
Melissa helps our congregation live on mission by coordinating our local outreach efforts.
Victoria ministers to the teeniest members of our church family by overseeing our nursery and preschool programs.
Alec serves on the Worship Leadership Team and leads worship on Sunday mornings.
Joe oversees the maintenance and development of our facilities. He is heavily involved in making sure that our campus is comfortable and ready for ministry.
Sarah coordinates our KC Friends program, which helps children with special needs participate on Sunday mornings, and also serves on our Childcare team.
Rasema assists with the care and cleaning of our buildings and room setup for all events.
Jason serves on the Worship Leadership Team and leads worship on Sunday mornings.
Alice provides a warm welcome to visitors and callers, supports all departments in ordering supplies, and assists the Accounting Manager. The receptionists are also the first contact for those seeking benevolence help.
Byron has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Masters in Public Administration. Byron also has experience in farming, serving people in outpatient psychiatric facilities, serving homeless and at-risk youth, as well as serving on a nonprofit board of directors. Byron’s wife, Alyssa, worked in ministry for several years, leading the children’s ministry at a large church in Fresno, California, where she started a special needs ministry serving people with disabilities.
Stephen serves on the Worship Leadership Team and leads worship on Sunday mornings.
Michele works with ministries within the church to maintain accurate congregational records. Michele also processes all gifts coming into the church.
Rhianna is our rockstar Communications and Video Assistant! She produces videos and works with the tech team on Sunday mornings.
Eric helps our congregation live on mission by coordinating our global outreach efforts.
Barret serves our Junior High students and our young adults, helping them own their faith and grow as believers during times of transition.
Scott helps us keep our lighting and sound looking and sounding great!
Silas directs our student worship ministry. He’s passionate about discipleship and helping students grow in their gifting.
Zoya is part of our Administrative Support Team.
Erik works with our Operations team to ensure the safety and security of our building and the lovely people inside.
Teri provides a warm welcome to visitors and callers, supports all departments in ordering supplies, and assists the Accounting Manager. The receptionists are also the first contact for those seeking benevolence help.
Dale leads our team of custodians. He also assists with the care and cleaning of our buildings and room setup for all events.
Austen produces our Sunday services and adds support with dynamic creative content and mixing live audio as a member of our Technical Ministries team.
Kate coordinates our KC Welcome Team, which welcomes families and helps them get checked in on Sunday mornings. She also serves on our Childcare team.
Tina is responsible for all aspects of accounting including accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, and monthly preparation of the financial statements.
Heather facilitates HR and office functions, as well as managing the church calendar and facility use. She also serves as executive assistant to Kevin Krosley.
The Elders are elected leaders who serve and shepherd the church. Contact them at elders@efree.org.
In 2017, Adam Bowers became the third senior pastor of First Free Church. Previously, Adam led an international missions ministry and served as an executive pastor. Adam is married to Jenny and the two have served in full-time ministry together for over a decade. Adam is passionate about preaching the Word of God in authentic, practical, and relevant ways. He is also active in discipleship and leadership development, and he holds a Master’s of Divinity degree with a specialization in pastoral counseling.
I was raised in a Bible-believing, church-attending (every time the doors were open), religious family, but I did not adopt my parents’ faith as my own until college. While attending Greenville University, I was confronted with my lack of a personal belief and relationship with God, and I accepted the grace of God shown through the death of Jesus on the cross, repenting of my sins and accepting Jesus as my personal savior.
Accepting Jesus personally began my journey of faith and growth that continues today. It would be nice if that journey were a straight path of drawing nearer to God, but my personal experience is that this journey takes many twists and turns. It has included times of deep Bible study and prayer. Times of growth through church attendance (yes, still almost every time the doors are open) and participation in various groups and ministries. Times of having my faith rocked. Times of walking closely with God. And, yes, times that the apostle John describes as being distracted by the things of this world (I John 2:16). For the last forty years, my journey has been closely tied to First Free Church in St. Louis, where I have had the opportunity to grow and serve God in many, many different roles. Today, I serve primarily in Kid Connection, MOPS, and Global Outreach.
By the grace of God, I will continue growing ever closer to him.
I was raised in a church attending family but as an adolescent walked away. My journey back started with an invitation from some friends to attend church with them. This began a 9 year journey that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, culminated in my humble recognition of Jesus as my savior and my only hope. I finally recognized that I could not solve my sin problem on my own. This could only be accomplished through Jesus’s death and resurrection. What a gift!
First Free has provided many opportunities to mature us as believers through solid biblical teaching, enriching relationships with other believers, God honoring worship, and service opportunities.
I was raised in a church environment where I had a desire to know God personally, but had no understanding of how to enter into such a relationship. In college I pursued a profession as an economist, and at the age of 28 as a young economics professor at Purdue University, I felt I was missing meaning in my life. At that time God brought a man into my path that showed me what it meant to have a personal relationship with God, and I prayed to receive Jesus Christ. I began my life-long journey in Bible study where I learned how to study the Word of God, seeing that the application of that Word to my life was not a restraint on how to live, but that it was growing in Christ-likeness.
I prayed with my mom to follow Jesus at a very young age. Even though I didn’t understand all the theology around being a Christ follower and the bible, Jesus put in my heart a desire to be with Him and to pray in obedience. Even though I was a little less than 4 years old at the time, I still look back at it and marvel at how rich and complex following Jesus can be, but also how simple His message is to even young children. Jesus wants a relationship with us and we don’t have to understand everything first or even have our lives “put together”. Jesus asks us to come to Him, just as we are, regardless of our age or our faults.
I love the people. We all bring our gifts and our struggles, our strengths and our weaknesses and we labor together to love Christ, love others, and serve the world around us. It is not always easy, but it is very rewarding and exciting to see the work Christ can do through our church and how He chooses to use First Free. It has been a blessing and I am thankful to be a part of it.
I didn’t grow up in a Christian home, but God used friends growing up to share the Gospel message with me. In college friendships also drew me to participate in Campus Ministries including Cru and small group Bible studies, which played a critical role in my faith journey.
I always had a reverence for the Bible and for trying to not do bad things to upset God. When I was 14 yrs old, Pastor Harold Hendrick came to my house and explained to the adults about 1Corinthinians 15:3-4 that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day”. He asked if anyone would like to follow Jesus to pray with him and although he didn’t know I was listening around the corner, I prayed to follow Jesus. This set me on the journey of a lifetime, where I stopped focusing on not upsetting God and started learning how to follow Jesus and please God.
I love that a body of imperfect believers can fellowship, serve, and receive spiritual food while disagreeing on things that may divide other churches. We have such quality and committed people here to minister in all the amazing areas around the church. Also, the teaching from the pulpit has been rock solid over the last 30+ years!
The biblical precedent for deacons comes from Acts 6, where the disciples sought godly men to assist in the daily operation of ministry.
At First Free, deacons are men and women who serve and provide oversight in various ministries as directed by the Elder Board and Senior Pastor. Some of their duties include administrative oversight over the church finances, benevolence, and other congregational and community ministries.
Deacons can be contacted at deacons@efree.org.
CURRENT DEACONS:
Steve Quick (Chair) – Finance
Alan Heisel (Vice-Chair) – Benevolence
Gayle Darby (Secretary) – Finance, Benevolence
Don Carpenter – Benevolence
Steve Eck – Facilities
Brad Langeneckert – Facilities
J.D. Long – Facilities, Finance
Sharon Luo – Benevolence
Steve Thompson – Facilities
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