Churches welcome new pastors

July 3, 2025 By Illinois Baptist Staff

Jeremy Montgomery

Jeremy Montgomery is the new pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Bourbonnais. A recent graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary with a degree in Church Ministry and Biblical Studies, the Little Rock native has served in ministry positions for six years. He is married to Sara, a labor and delivery nurse originally from the north Chicago suburbs. They have three children.

Richard Ulrich

Richard Ulrich became senior pastor of Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church in Jacksonville on June 1. A Missouri native, Ulrich served as pastor of FBC Ewing, Mo. He holds degrees from Hannibal-LaGrange University (B.S., Bible) and Southwestern Seminary (M.A. Islamic Studies). Ulrich served as an IMB Journeyman in Middle Eastern Countries. He is married to Ashley, and they have three children.

We need to talk about the dinosaurs

Chris Turner

I just wanted to know when dinosaurs lived. That’s it. That was the most profound biblical mystery swirling in my head when I began seminary. I landed in the survey class of a professor considered one of the Southern Baptist Convention’s foremost Old Testament scholars at the time. Surely, he’d know about dinosaurs. About 15 […]

A response to physician-assisted suicide

Jeremy Bell

(Editor’s note: Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is considering signing SB 1950, a bill passed Oct. 31 as House Floor Amendment No. 2 to the Sanitary Food Preparation Act by the state senate, that would allow physicians to help terminally ill patients end their lives. If he does, Illinois will join 11 states and the District […]