Creating space on the corner of Ashland and Berwyn
First Evangelical Free Church sits at the corner of Ashland and Berwyn in the Andersonville neighborhood on Chicago's north side. The congregation has been part of the city's fabric since 1880 and has gathered on its current block since 1925, when the brick sanctuary that still anchors the campus was built. The building and its surrounding campus have grown over more than a century, but the orientation has stayed the same: a Jesus-centered community that values hospitality, authenticity, creativity, and holistic restoration, working to create space for all to encounter the transforming love of God.
The church is known for several distinct threads that visitors encounter as soon as they arrive. Sunday mornings blend a worship band, communion, and a roughly thirty-five minute message with a strong commitment to welcoming families, including through programs for children from four months old through fifth grade. The sanctuary doubles as a gallery, with rotating exhibitions by contemporary artists whose work often grapples with spiritual themes. And the church has built a wide network of partnerships with neighborhood organizations, refugee resettlement agencies, food pantries, elementary schools, and senior apartment buildings that have made local outreach a defining mark of the community.
First Free is affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America, a family of evangelical congregations shaped by a shared confession of faith and a congregational approach to governance. Within that wider stream, the Andersonville community has cultivated a particular posture: an openness to questions, a willingness to wrestle with contemporary issues, and an explicit commitment to full participation by women in every area of church life and to the full inclusion and dignity of LGBTQ people. The congregation describes itself as oriented around a shared center rather than defined by boundaries, with members who hold different convictions on many contemporary life issues but who share a common desire to follow Jesus together.
Sunday mornings at the corner of Ashland and Berwyn
Worship at First Free gathers at 10:00 on Sunday mornings in the 1925 sanctuary and usually runs about an hour and a half. The order of service is contemporary and unfussy: a worship band leads several songs, a pastor or guest preacher delivers a thirty-five minute message, the congregation shares communion, and a few announcements close out the morning. Communion is observed most weeks, and children who have reached first grade typically remain in the sanctuary for it on the fourth and fifth Sundays of the month as part of learning to engage the rhythms of the wider church.
There is no dress code, and the church emphasizes that everyone is welcome. Visitors tend to find a mix of casual and slightly dressy attire, with a congregation that spans young families, students, longtime members, and neighbors who have wandered in from the surrounding blocks. The building has an elevator and an accessible entrance ramp at the front of the Family Life Center on Ashland Avenue, and most areas of the sanctuary and Family Life Center are wheelchair accessible.
An hour before the service, from 9:00 to 9:45, a regular prayer meeting gathers in Room 120. The group prays for current events, missionaries, ministries, and individual needs, and all are welcome, including youth. After the service, the elders are available twice a month in front of the sanctuary to pray with anyone who would like it, drawing on the counsel of James 5 about calling on the elders to pray over the sick.
The Sunday service is livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel, where recordings remain available for later viewing. Audio versions of recent sermons are also released as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other platforms.
City Kids: from nursery through fifth grade
First Free takes its name for children's ministry, City Kids, from the surrounding city. The program aims to equip children and families to be disciples of Jesus Christ and to share the gospel in both word and deed, and it serves families with children ages four months through fifth grade.
On Sunday mornings at 10:15, City Kids programming begins after the first song set. Children are dismissed from the sanctuary to their classrooms, and parents can check them in at kiosks on the second floor of the Family Life Center. The nursery, intended primarily for children from four months through kindergarten, sits just outside the sanctuary's southern door and includes a separate crib room for sleeping infants. Children in first through fifth grade head upstairs to the third floor Treehouse classroom for a discussion-oriented Bible lesson, a hands-on craft or activity, memory verse practice, and an accompanied video.
On the fourth and fifth Sundays of each month, the rhythm shifts. All but the youngest children remain in the sanctuary with their families to participate in communion and learn the traditional flow of a worship service, while the nursery stays staffed for infants through preschool age, and busy bags are available for older children who need them.
City Kids is sustained by a rotation of adult volunteers - lead teachers, assistant teachers, nursery caregivers, meals-in-need coordinators, prayer partners, and kiosk greeters - who serve once or twice a month. The church welcomes volunteers of any stage of life, from college-age students to seniors, including those without children of their own.
Junior and senior high youth
For students in junior and senior high school, the Youth Ministry presents the love of God and the transforming power of Jesus Christ to every youth. The core gathering is the Sunday evening Youth Group, which meets from 6:30 to 8:30 during the school year in the church building. Evenings include games, Bible teaching, and small groups, with additional events scheduled throughout the year.
Every third Sunday of the month is a Northside Youth gathering, the same high-energy format combined with youth from Missio Dei churches in the area. Andrea Korte serves as the Youth Deacon and is a key point of contact for new students and families. The ministry also relies on a team of adult volunteers who lead games and discussions and simply hang out with students; the church is especially hoping to add more men to that rotation, and provides training along with required background checks.
Art in the sanctuary
First Free has a long history of providing a stage for creative expression that encourages connection, dialogue, and understanding. Its series of visual art exhibitions presents contemporary work inside the sanctuary itself, where the pieces sit in the same room where the congregation worships each week. The program treats the sanctuary as a space for meditation and worship as much as a gallery wall, and the church invites visitors to continue to become creators with them.
Recent and current exhibitions include a retrospective of mixed media portraitist Doyle Chappell, the large-scale abstract figurative paintings of Sergio Gomez, the narrative portraiture of Buddy Plumlee, the luminous landscapes of Brooks Anderson, and the batik-and-encaustic compositions of Cat Crotchett. Past seasons have also featured the cold-wax landscapes of Larry John Davis, the spiritually inflected paintings of Joan Geary, the spiral-driven abstractions of Melynda Van Zee, the animation-influenced canvases of Jeff McNutt, and the egg tempera panels of Steven Carrelli. The program frequently partners with Arts Weekend in Andersonville, and many of the artists are locally based or have shown their work at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Museum of Mexican Art, and other institutions around the country.
The Spring 2026 exhibition, Ready to Transform, showcases the intaglio and cyanotype printmaking of Teresa James, whose work weaves together Catholic iconography, Italian Renaissance imagery, Mexican Surrealism, and American folk art to explore the spiritual reality that hovers behind ordinary life.
What we believe
First Free's Statement of Faith follows that of the Evangelical Free Church of America. The congregation affirms 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.
The church teaches that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors, and that the Bible, as the verbally inspired Word of God, is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of God's will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged.
On the human condition, the church confesses that God created Adam and Eve in his image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan, and that in union with Adam human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God and under his wrath. Only through God's saving work in Jesus Christ can people be rescued, reconciled, and renewed.
The congregation affirms that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He 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 as High Priest and Advocate. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.
The Holy Spirit, the church teaches, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ in all that he does, convicts the world of its guilt, regenerates sinners, baptizes them into union with Christ, and adopts them as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips, and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.
The church is described as comprising 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.
Christian living is understood as the inseparable union of God's justifying grace and his sanctifying power and purpose. The church holds to the personal, bodily, and glorious return of Jesus Christ and to the bodily resurrection of the dead, with the unbeliever assigned to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and new earth.
Women in leadership and LGBTQ inclusion
First Free has written policies that put two questions into the open. Women are invited to serve and lead in all areas of church life together, and the church invites women to preach, pastor, and lead.
LGBTQ people are invited into full participation and belonging in the community. The church acknowledges that its members hold different convictions on many contemporary life issues, including sexuality and marriage, but it remains committed to the full inclusion and dignity of all people. Full versions of both policies are published as standalone documents.
Neighbor Care: serving Chicago's north side
Local outreach, organized under the heading Neighbor Care, runs through nearly every corner of the church's life. The C.A.R.E. Team and the New Neighbor Care Group, formed in 2021 in partnership with World Relief, work with refugee and immigrant families needing long-term help with housing, groceries, clothing, and English. The team has hosted families in apartments on and near the First Free campus, including a family from Angola who later relocated to Skokie and a family from Mexico. The New Neighbor Care Group now works through the Faith Community Initiative, part of the Sanctuary Working Group consortium, with three modes of engagement: basic needs, language, and advocacy.
First Free also partners with two neighborhood elementary schools. Since 2020 the church has hosted the eighth-grade graduation ceremony for Passages Elementary School in its sanctuary and is building an ongoing relationship with the school's multi-ethnic community. At Swift Elementary, the Snacks 4 Swift and Sox 4 Swift initiatives provide healthy snacks, food for community dinners, personal care items, winter jackets, and school supplies for students who would otherwise go without.
Care for Real, a food pantry serving Edgewater and Rogers Park from a storefront at 5339 North Sheridan Avenue, has been a neighbor partner for decades, with volunteer slots during Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday distributions at the Sheridan store and Tuesday and Thursday distributions at the Rogers Park location. Centro Romero, a nonprofit serving the refugee and immigrant population of the northeast side from 6216 North Clark Street, provides legal aid and learning programs and draws First Free volunteers into its Tuesday rhythms.
At the Harry J. Schneider Apartments at 1750 West Peterson Avenue, members of First Free have spent years building relationships with senior residents through letter writing, birthday cakes, music and movie time, and Christmas caroling. The church also runs a diaper drive with Immanuel Anglican Church and Care for Real to keep diapers stocked for immigrant families and for a newborn living in one of the church's on-campus apartments.
Breakthrough Urban Ministries, a far-reaching nonprofit that grew out of a First Free initiative in the 1990s, has its origins in this congregation. A church member named Arloa Sutter began serving coffee and lunch to neighbors experiencing homelessness from the storefront at the old 5249 North Ashland three-flat, eventually opening the gymnasium doors in the evenings for shelter and meals. The work grew into what is now Breakthrough, which relocated to East Garfield Park and runs more than ten programs including permanent supportive housing, violence prevention, and a sports and fitness academy. First Free members continue to serve through Breakthrough's Manna Ministry, the Greater Chicago Food Depository, its Christmas store, and a long list of volunteer roles.
The church also runs an Outreach Pop-Ups model, an opt-in email group that alerts members to one-time opportunities to serve, from shoveling sidewalks after a snowstorm to planting flowers at Rosehill Cemetery to delivering hand warmers to postal workers before their routes. Pop-Ups typically begin on-site with a brief devotion and prayer before rolling up sleeves together.
Small groups, prayer, and ministry teams
Beyond the Sunday gathering, First Free hosts an active small group network through its Church Center platform, with groups organized around study, community, and shared mission. The church welcomes newcomers to find a group at any point in the year.
The Prayer ministry encourages the church through both the Sunday morning prayer meeting and Elder Prayer after services, continually deepening the community's relationship with Jesus Christ. The Worship Band draws vocalists and instrumentalists who lead worship and speak to the hearts of the congregation through music. The Audio/Video Tech team operates the sound board and the projection computer during services. The Welcoming team extends hospitality to newcomers and helps people get connected to the wider community, while the Facilities team addresses the physical needs of the properties, from repair and electrical work to plumbing, carpentry, and landscaping.
Counseling through Cornerstone
First Free hosts office space for Cornerstone Counseling Center of Chicago, which offers faith-based counseling for couples and families. A therapist, Dr. Keturah Platt, sees clients at the church office at 5241 North Ashland Avenue on Tuesdays from 1:00 to 8:00. Dr. Platt, a postdoctoral fellow with a PhD in clinical community psychology from DePaul University, provides services for children, adolescents, adults, and families, including pre-marital and couples counseling, and integrates evidence-based practices such as cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, psychodynamic therapy, and trauma-informed, strength-based approaches.
Cornerstone accepts insurance and offers a Client Access Program for those without coverage, and First Free covers the majority of the first three sessions for anyone needing financial help. Those whose schedules do not fit Tuesdays can schedule with another Cornerstone counselor at a different location.
Global outreach
First Free supports individuals and organizations that feed, clothe, educate, shelter, protect, and share Jesus' love around the world. The Global Outreach Team, or GOT, gathers occasionally to learn about the work of partners such as Bill and Joy Carrera, who serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Peru, and to connect the congregation with their ministries.
Crowded Tables and connection over a meal
Crowded Tables is the church's low-commitment pathway for getting to know new people. Held in homes throughout the community, these meals are open to anyone who has been part of the church for years and anyone who walked in for the first time the previous Sunday. Space is limited so that no one has to shout across the table, and advance sign-up is encouraged.
The leadership team
Matt Tinken serves as Lead Pastor and preaches most Sundays. The staff team includes Donovan Michel, who leads worship and youth ministry, Claire Michel, who oversees children's ministry, and jyrekis collins, the Mercy & Justice Minister who animates much of the church's neighborhood partnerships. KIersten cha serves as City Kids Assistant.
The congregation is shepherded by five elders: Dan Addington, Stephen Lepse, Jonathan Lim, Janice Nuuhiwa (Elder Chair), and Stephanie Sattler. A team of deacons carries specific ministry portfolios: Andrea Korte for Youth Ministry, Laura Michel for Congregational Care, Barb Cebulski for Hospitality, and Tim Wilkin for Neighborhood Care.
Finding First Free
First Free Church stands at the corner of Ashland and Berwyn in the Andersonville Neighborhood of Chicago. For most events and meetings, visitors enter through the glass doors at the front of the Family Life Center, the newer building on Ashland Avenue. The historic 1925 sanctuary sits next door, with a Fellowship Hall on its basement level, and the church office is two doors down at 5241 North Ashland Avenue.
Free street parking is available along Ashland Avenue and on neighborhood streets to the west, and the church has two handicap parking spaces, one at the front of the sanctuary building and one in the back. The #50 Damen bus stops right in front of the building, and the #22 Clark & Berwyn and #92 Foster & Ashland stops are within a block. From the train, the Berwyn Red Line Station is about six blocks east.
The entrance ramp and an elevator serve all levels of the Sanctuary and Family Life Center buildings, and Cornerstone Counseling Center of Chicago can be reached directly at (312) 573-8860 to schedule faith-based counseling for couples and families.