On Price Road on the east edge of Milford, just south of the Clermont County line, Faith Church gathers each Sunday to worship, learn, pray, and send. The congregation's stated aim is to make more and better disciples of Jesus in the Cincinnati region and around the world, and the rhythm of the week, from the 9:00 Ministry Hour to midweek community groups, is built around that goal. Visitors are welcomed on Sunday mornings at 10:30 for the main worship service, with Sunday school for all ages meeting an hour earlier.
Eleven Distinctives That Shape the Church
Faith Church describes its local culture with eleven distinctives, each rooted in a conviction rather than a preference. Together they function as a kind of constitution for how the body orders its life together.
1. A Clear Gospel. The church wants to be organized around a crystal-clear understanding of the gospel. Drawing on 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, leaders insist that Christians never graduate from the gospel; growth is moving deeper into it rather than beyond it.
2. Biblical Preaching. Preaching at Faith Church is primarily expository, modeled on the practice of the New Testament apostles who declared they were constrained to preach the whole counsel of God. The aim is to make the main point of the sermon the main point of the passage, then apply it to the heart. Topical messages do appear from time to time, but the steady diet is passage-by-passage exposition.
3. Meaningful Membership. Membership is not a name on a roll but a living-and-breathing web of relationships, with members expected to guard the gospel in doctrine and life and to submit to the shepherding oversight of the elders.
4. Deep Discipleship. Following Jesus is a team effort and an everyday lifestyle. Faith Church's discipleship infrastructure is built around the Sunday morning gathering, Sunday evening prayer services, community groups, one-to-one discipling relationships, informal hospitality, and Bible studies.
5. Joyful Complementarianism. The church teaches that men and women both bear God's image and are essential to the mission, while the office of elder and pastor is reserved for men who meet the biblical qualifications. Marriage is held to be the lifelong union of one man and one woman, displaying the covenant love between Christ and his church.
6. Passionate, Bible-Regulated Worship. Worship is meant to mark every aspect of life, not just Sunday mornings. Musically, services are blended, drawing on time-tested hymns and modern praise songs, with the priority being biblically true, theologically rich, and congregationally singable music.
7. Persistent Prayer. The body of Christ gathers to pray corporately and personally. The last Sunday evening of every month is set aside for a congregational prayer meeting in the sanctuary.
8. Diverse Unity. Unity in diversity is the pattern of the Trinity itself, and Faith Church prays to display that in a multicultural, multigenerational community that reflects both the surrounding region and the multiethnic gathering the Bible envisions around the throne.
9. Constant Evangelism. Members are expected to know and articulate the gospel, build gospel-oriented relationships, and look for opportunities to share their faith. The church keeps its own schedule comparatively light to free members for life-on-life ministry.
10. Deliberate Simplicity. Faith Church is not trying to be a church with a long menu of customized programs. Its central identity is the whole gathering, and it resists endless subdivision along demographic lines.
11. Urgent Mission. The church supports more than 50 missionaries and aspires to give at least 20% of its giving to mission efforts each year. The aim is to be a launching pad for the gospel both to neighbors and to the nations.
Sunday Mornings: Ministry Hour and Worship
Sunday is the centerpiece of the church's life. The 9:00 Ministry Hour is the classroom hour of the week. Adults gather for classes on theology, the Bible, or the Christian life, sometimes joining for an all-church Sunday school on a special topic or to hear from a special guest. Children work through The Gospel Project for Kids, a chronological curriculum that walks them through the entire span of Scripture over three years. Junior high and high school students meet together in the Student Ministry Wing, Room 40, with teaching followed by SMS (Sunday Morning Shepherd) small groups led by adult volunteers.
At 10:30 the congregation gathers in the sanctuary for the main worship service. Children in kindergarten through third grade begin in the sanctuary with their parents and are dismissed before the sermon for Children's Worship; fourth graders and older are encouraged to stay and engage with the sermon. Nursery and childcare are available throughout the morning for infants and toddlers.
For those who cannot attend in person, sermons are archived with both video and audio on Vimeo, and the bulletin is posted each week as a PDF alongside the message.
What a First-Time Visitor Should Know
Faith Church wants new faces to feel at ease. The advice on the visitor page is simple: come as you are. Some attend in suits, others in jeans and a T-shirt, and everything in between.
The church sits off of Price Road, with a large parking lot and guest and accessible parking spots marked in the front near the main entrance. Adult Sunday school classes generally meet in the Life Center, and visitors are welcome to park near that entrance for easier access.
Greeters are usually stationed at the doors and at the Information area in the lobby. They will help locate the nursery, Sunday school rooms, restrooms, sanctuary, and coffee bar. A complimentary coffee bar and donut stations are available for anyone who wants to help themselves.
Anyone with questions before a visit can reach out to Cari Maynard, Director of Ministry Support, through the church office.
Expository Preaching Through the Bible
The sermon archive gives a clear picture of how the preaching ministry operates. Recent series include 1 Peter: Christ's Suffering Saints, Ecclesiastes: Everything Is Never Enough, Jonah: God's Relentless Mercy For All People, Micah: Who Is Like Our God?, Numbers: A Flock in the Wilderness, Parables: Stories of the Kingdom, Philippians: Servants of Joy, Revelation: More Than Conquerors, Ruth: Hidden Providence, and The Biblical Covenants: God's Unfolding Plan.
Three pastors carry most of the pulpit. Lead Pastor Drew French preaches the largest share of Sundays, with Pastor Godwin Sathianathan and Pastor Ryan Troglin also regularly in the rotation. Other regular and guest preachers include Blake Patterson, Ryan Dennis, Caleb Liebing, Chris Phillips, and Dick Lehman.
Leadership: Elders, Staff Pastors, Deacons, and Deacons
Faith Church is led by a team of lay and staff pastors and elders who shepherd the flock among them. The elders are Mike Chaney, Adam Escobedo, Drew French, Bill Gore, Kevin Johnson, Caleb Liebing, Bill Maynard, Scott Ruotolo, and Andy Williams.
Drew French serves as the Lead Pastor and is the primary preaching and teaching elder. Other pastors named on the preaching team include Ryan Troglin and Godwin Sathianathan.
Supporting the elders and pastors is a staff team that handles the day-to-day work of ministry:
- Cari Maynard, Director of Ministry Support
- Mary Norton, Ministry Associate
- Blake Patterson, Pastoral Assistant
- Christy Lucus, Finance Manager
- Nate Bancroft, Facilities Coordinator
- Joey Hoelscher, Music & AV Associate
- Ellen Liebing, Children's Ministry Associate for Equipping
- Theresa Tetrault, Children's Ministry Associate
The diaconate includes deacons and deaconesses who serve in mercy and practical ministry: Susan Betliskey, Carol Bullock, Linda Conley, Sandy Deel, Steven Hart, Scott Lucus, Susie Lehman, John Marshall, Chance Melvin, Rachel Ohman, Scott Phillips, Rob Pritchett, Jeremy Scholler, Gina Sprague, Bari Watkins, and Becky Woodard.
Children's Ministry: Rooted, Growing, Blooming
The Children's Ministry is built around a simple vision taken from Ephesians 3:16-19, that every child would be strengthened in the inner being through the Spirit, rooted and established in love, and filled with the fullness of God. The ministry's aim is for children to be rooted in the love of Christ, growing through faith in the Spirit, and blooming in the fullness of the Father.
Sunday School runs at both the 9:00 and 10:30 hours, with teachers and curriculum shifting between services. At 9:00, the children's classes walk through The Gospel Project for Kids, a chronological study of the whole Bible over three years. At 10:30, children in kindergarten through third grade begin with their parents in the sanctuary, sing in worship, and then are dismissed for Children's Worship before the sermon, while fourth graders and older are encouraged to stay and listen to the message.
Faith Student Ministries
Faith Student Ministries exists to make disciples of teenagers. Students in grades 7 through 12 meet at 9:00 Sunday mornings in the Student Ministry Wing, Room 40, where a teaching team opens God's Word and adult SMS leaders guide small-group discussion and prayer afterward.
On Tuesday nights during the school year, students gather from 7:00 to 9:00 in the Student Ministries Room. The evening includes Bible teaching, games, snacks, and age- and gender-based small group time. The youth ministry also runs an annual fall retreat, drawing 7th through 12th graders away for a weekend of teaching, fellowship, and recreation.
Blake Patterson serves as the Pastoral Assistant for student ministry.
Community Groups Across Greater Cincinnati
The small-group ministry at Faith Church is called Community Groups, and the list of groups on the website reveals just how widely the network reaches across the region. Groups meet in homes in Milford, Loveland, Montgomery, Camp Dennison, and nearby neighborhoods, often in homes within a short drive of the church. Most groups meet on Sunday or Wednesday evenings, with a couple meeting on Tuesday mornings or Tuesday evenings, and one on Saturday evenings. Several groups offer parallel men's and women's meetings on the off weeks.
Anyone interested in joining a group is encouraged to contact Pastor Drew French, who will help match a newcomer with a group that fits.
Women's Ministry and MomCo
The Women's Ministry gathers the women of Faith Church around Scripture for the purpose of equipping one another to support and serve the broader church. Bible studies, retreats, and other events are designed to foster discipling friendships.
The ministry hosts a seasonal women's Bible study, typically on Thursday mornings and evenings, using a published workbook that walks through a book of the Bible together. Mom Co (formerly MOPS and MOMSnext) meets the second Wednesday of the month in the morning and the fourth Monday of the month in the evening, running September through May at the Milford campus. Children's programs are offered alongside the morning meeting. A spring women's retreat and a fall women's Bible study round out the rhythm of the year, alongside a separate fall retreat that has historically been held on campus.
Men's Retreat
The men's ministry at Faith Church centers on an annual fall retreat held on the Milford campus over a Friday through Sunday weekend, with guest speakers from outside the congregation, teaching from God's Word, and time for fellowship.
Missions: Local and to the Nations
Faith Church describes its calling with the phrase "on mission with Christ," holding that every believer is sent into daily life as well as to distant places.
Locally, the body serves through Sharefest and Helping Hands, alongside the church's own food pantry and a partnership with Hands Against Hunger for international hunger relief. Members are encouraged and equipped to build relationships, meet everyday needs, and share Jesus in word and deed with the people closest to them.
Globally, the church supports more than 50 campus and overseas missionaries with finances, prayer, encouragement, and care. Over its history, the congregation has committed more than $6,000,000 to mission efforts of every kind, and dozens of people who have called Faith Church home have later been called to full-time missionary service themselves.
Mercy Ministries in Milford
The mercy arm of the church is a busy place. The Benevolence Team helps families with emergency financial needs and accepts donations of good used cars to pass along to those in need. Funding comes partially from the church budget and partially from the generosity of the Faith Church family. The team keeps the long view in mind, aiming not just to relieve crisis but to help people become financially independent. The first Sunday of each month is Benevolence Sunday, with a table set up near the information booth for special giving.
The Food Pantry is open on the third Thursday of each month from 1:00 to 3:00 PM. Donations of canned goods, paper products, dish and laundry soap, and peanut butter can be left on the Food Pantry Cart in the main lobby. Money and gift cards are also welcome, particularly $10 or $20 grocery store gift cards that can be used for milk, eggs, and gas. Faith Church is also enrolled in the Kroger Community Rewards program, so designated shoppers can direct a portion of their spending to the pantry year-round.
Crafting with a Cause gathers sewers, quilters, and needleworkers on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month from 9:00 AM to noon in Room 9A, using their hands to bless others.
The Counseling Ministry provides biblical counseling for those wrestling with the challenges of life. Currently, counseling is offered to members of Faith Church and to those who regularly gather with the church on Sunday mornings. Two intake forms, a consent to counsel and an initial information form, are available on the website. The church also recommends a former pastor and current member, Richard Lehman, who maintains a private counseling practice in the area.
The Faith Church Library
Just inside the main lobby doors and to the right sits the Faith Church Library, a mostly self-serve collection covering church history, parenting, apologetics, theology, reference, and a children's section. An online catalog is searchable online, and printed instructions walk visitors through checking books out and back in. A team of librarians, including Cari Maynard, Christy Lucus, Jennifer French, and Sharon Washburn, keeps the collection running and answers questions. The library also maintains an Amazon wishlist for new acquisitions.
Membership
Becoming a member at Faith Church involves four steps. Prospective members attend a four-week membership class during the 9:00 Ministry Hour, where they learn about the meaning of membership, the church's doctrine, and its distinctives. They then fill out a prospective member form, sharing the story of God's grace in their lives. Next comes an interview with an elder, an open conversation about how they came to believe the gospel and any questions they might have about the church. Finally, the elders approve and submit their name to the congregation, with a brief testimony shared at a membership meeting. After a two-week period of consideration, the new members are welcomed into the fellowship.
What Faith Church Believes
The Statement of Faith is articulated in eleven articles.
The church confesses belief in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for himself and to make all things new for his own glory.
The Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is the verbally inspired Word of God, without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of his will for salvation, and the ultimate authority for every realm of human knowledge and endeavor. It is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.
Human beings were created in God's image but sinned in Adam, leaving the race alienated from God and under his wrath. Only through God's saving work in Jesus Christ can people be rescued, reconciled, and renewed.
Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, who lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father.
The work of Christ on the cross is the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for sin, and his resurrection is the ground for salvation.
The Holy Spirit convicts the world of its guilt, regenerates sinners, baptizes them into union with Christ, and indwells, illuminates, guides, equips, and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.
The true church comprises all who have been justified by God's grace through faith alone in Christ alone, united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel.
God's justifying grace cannot be separated from his sanctifying power. Christians are to love God supremely and others sacrificially, care for one another, show compassion to the poor, pursue justice for the oppressed, and make disciples among all people.
The church believes in the personal, bodily, and glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ at a time known only to God.
God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. He will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth.
Worship: Blended and Congregational
The musical style of the worship service is deliberately blended, with both time-tested hymns and modern praise songs. The priority is congregational singing, in which the primary instrument is the collective voice of the church. Musicians accompany rather than perform, and the songs chosen are meant to be biblically true, theologically rich, musically beautiful, and congregationally singable.
The goal of the service, in the church's words, is to worship passionately, singing robustly as if Christ's tomb really is vacant, because it is.
Giving and Administration
Giving is described as an act of worship and one way to show gratitude to God who provides everything. Members can give in person on Sunday mornings, by mail, online through the church database Church Community Builder, or through the church's Pushpay giving page. Recurring offerings can be set up directly, or through a bank's Bill Pay program. The church also accepts non-cash gifts such as appreciated securities, real estate, gifts-in-kind, life insurance, qualified charitable distributions from IRAs, and bequests through wills and estate plans, with the Treasurer available to walk donors through the options.
Facility and Office
The office is open Monday through Thursday from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM, with phone (513) 831-3770 and fax (513) 831-4162. Outside groups and individuals can request use of the facility for ministry events, gatherings, classes, or personal celebrations such as baby showers and receptions. Church-related events can request building use, while non-church events require proof of insurance and are subject to approval and availability. Forms are available online, with staff typically responding within five to seven business days.
From its corner of Price Road, Faith Church continues to gather each Sunday with the simple conviction that the Christian life is communion with God, community with one another, and mission together, and the doors are open wide to anyone ready to come and see.