Dr. Phil and Penny Wood

Pastor

     Dr. and Mrs. Phil Wood have been with the congregation since the inaugural service on Easter Sunday, 1991. Previous to that he served several years on the pastoral staff of Bethel Baptist Church in Schaumburg, Illinois. The Woods have four children (Joshua, Brittany, Brooke, and Jeremy). Their oldest son is enrolled as a freshman math major at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia; the girls are at Wheaton Academy and Jay Stream Middle School; and their youngest son is home-schooled. Penne is a committed homemaker and actively leads the ladies' ministry at the church. She is a graduate of Bob Jones University, is certified as a secondary education math and science teacher, and has taught at Southside Christian School in Greenville, South Carolina, Schaumburg Christian School and Medinah Christian.  Currently she tutors home-bound students for Glenbard North High
School.  Pastor Phil graduated with a Doctor of Ministry from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He is from the
Chicago area and during the past 25 years has worked on church staffs in Florida, Wyoming, and, of course, Illinois. His burden is for a congregation that is building up one another in the church and, in turn, reaching outside the church to Northern DuPage County and around the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
 

Aaron and Amy O'Brien

     Aaron and Amy O’Brien were married in January of 2005. They were recently blessed with the birth of their first child – Peter Edward O’Brien. He was born on September 13, 2006. Aaron is currently majoring in Elementary Education at Trinity International University. He plans to graduate in the Fall of 2007. Amy has a degree from Trinity in Biblical Studies, with a minor in Christian Ministries.

     Aaron accepted Christ as a junior in high school. He had grown up going to church, but had not been a true believer. Before attending a conference with his youth group, he prayed and asked God to help him know if He really existed. At the conference, he was brought to tears as the Holy Spirit convicted him, and he knew that the Bible was true. Since that moment, God has given Aaron the passion for music. He immediately started a Christian band with a vision to provide Christian music for teenagers and their unbelieving friends. At the same time he began to lead worship for youth groups.

     Amy grew up in a Christian home, and accepted Christ at a young age. She attended Fellowship Church throughout her junior high and high school years. Her parents have always encouraged her to be involved in ministry. In high school, she was a Sunday School teacher and AWANA leader. In college, she began working with the youth group at Lake Zurich Community Church.

     Aaron and Amy met at a concert that Aaron’s band was playing at in 2001. Aaron began attending Trinity International University with Amy. He started leading worship for the Lake Zurich Community Church youth service. Eventually Amy was hired as the junior high and high school youth pastor for the church. Amy and Aaron also helped out in the kids program. They directed VBS and ran the Sunday morning children’s program for the summer. After a year, the church merged with Harvest Bible Chapel Vernon Hills. Amy became the assistant high school youth pastor for a semester. Amy and Aaron spent their last semester at Harvest Bible Chapel Lake Zurich, working with kids (grades 3-6).

     Aaron and Amy moved back to Carol Stream in May of 2005 to work with the children of Fellowship Church. They have developed a program called the Bible Detective Club, in which kids use clues from the Bible to learn about God. Aaron and Amy are passionate about helping the kids understand the Bible as a whole story. They pray that God uses this program to increase kids’ understanding of the Bible, to help them understand their deep need for salvation, and to strengthen their faith so they will not fall away from the faith in their teen years.

Steve and Janine Petry