By Ben Cox
Photos/Ben Cox
City Church in South Jacksonville has certainly seen its share of trials and tribulations. Patience and faith have paid off as the church has returned to a sense of normalcy after several years of uncertainty.
The original church building at 129 East Vandalia Rd. was struck by a severe straightline wind on October 24, 2021. Several businesses and homes along the road were severely damaged.
The damage to the church building was truly amazing in that the top half of the building appeared to have been picked up over a half-inch by the wind and then set directly back down. Because of that, the side walls of the building were bowed and needed to be replaced. Interior damage was severe and during the course of rebuilding, other problems were discovered. The building was also overdue for some long-deferred maintenance that the congregation was simply unable to pay for through normal means.
For almost two years, City Church’s congregation met at Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church while its own building was repaired and renovated. The congregation eventually returned to their newly renovated building on August 13, 2023.
However, the changes didn’t stop. The Rev. Tim Kruzan retired from City Church earlier this year after deciding to move to the Metro East to be closer to family. Kruzan had been with the church since 2003. In Kruzan’s final message, he told the congregation to have patience, stay true to the church and trust God’s plan for the future.
City Church’s new pastor arrived from Glen Carbon in March. The Rev. Zach Krause and his family came to South Jacksonville and have started on the next chapter with the congregation as they look to grow the church’s membership and missions.
Ben Cox: How did you get to Jacksonville?
Rev. Zach Krause: Oh, it’s been a little bit of a long journey to get here. Most recently from Edwardsville, I was a kid’s pastor at a church in Edwardsville, New Hope Church, technically in Glen Carbon.
Then, I felt the Lord leading us to look for a new position and got connected here to this church and started kind of down that journey. And here we are almost a year later from the first time I started talking with the board here. I’ve been here for about six months now.
BC: How did you get started in ministry?
ZK: Well, I started young. My dad’s a pastor, so I grew up in the church, grew up in the pastor’s household, understanding what that’s like.
My wife and I met at North Central University in Minneapolis, which is where we both have degrees from, and that’s where I got my start officially in ministry. I graduated from there in 2007 with a degree in youth ministry. From there, I was in youth and kids’ ministry for 18 years.
BC: Wow. It’s a new kind of realm for you but not really with your experience.
ZK: Right. I’m still in the church world but now ministering to the whole family, not just specific age groups of the church.
BC: Tell me how you highlight the difference between pastor and youth ministry. Obviously the lessons would be different but the concepts are similar.
ZK: The message and concept are still Jesus, right? That’s still what we’re doing here. Some of the big differences would be just thinking whole church, the scope of everything, not just as it relates to my kids’ classroom or my youth group or anything like that, but looking at the whole church as one big entity and one church body and how we can minister to our church families and our community and balancing all of that.
So stepping into here is a lot more on the administrative end of things. Preparing full sermons instead of Sunday school lessons and kids’ ministry lessons is a big change, but it’s been really good. It’s been a lot of fun and I know I’ve grown and there’s learning along the way.
BC: I ask that because Jesus charges his followers in the gospels to come to Him like children to enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Does that connection help ease the transition from youth pastor to the full church ministry?
ZK: It does. I still reference kids’ ministry a lot, whether it’s using examples from that or as people remember when they were a child, or as a parent or as a grandparent or those different things. It ultimately comes down to that childlike faith and trust.
BC: As far as any kind of missions, what are some of the things that you’re looking to do here at City Church now that you’ve been here for a few months?
ZK: Six months in, I still feel like we’re learning people, getting to know families and the community not being from the Jacksonville area. I’m just trying to get in and kind of assess where the community is. My wife and I, we have four kids and they’re in public school, so they’re part of the school district here. We’re kind of learning through them what’s going on, where people are at, and just trying to find what God’s called us to be in this community.
But I know that God has called us to be a multi-generational church where we’ve got young families, we’ve got
retired folks, we’ve got middle age, we’ve got young adults, and that’s really where I see God leading us to here in the future is just a church for all ages – a church where you can be ministered to whether you’re brand new to the faith or just still seeking Christ or you’ve followed God your entire life and now you’re in your latter years and you just want to come be a part of the family. That’s kind of where we’re at. I’m leaning on our church family to help me know what the needs are here in the
community to learn that [mission].
BC: I know that Pastor Kruzan was here for a long time and the church kind of went through this very difficult phase and now you’re on the backside of that. Could you tell me a little bit about that situation?
ZK: I’ve been a part of the Illinois District of the Assemblies of God for a long time, so I had known that there was a sheer force wind tornado that had blown through and ripped off the north end of the building, but being here and seeing it is a whole lot different.
The church walked through COVID as most churches had to learn to adapt and grow, and then walked right into a season where they no longer had a place to worship. The building was unsafe for use, and so they were meeting in the afternoons at a local church here.
They were having to scramble and be mobile and then rebuild and do all of that stuff. So now, I get the privilege really of walking into an almost completely remodeled church building with people that have been really solidified and fortified through walking through two major events in the life of the church between COVID and the rebuilding of a church building and having to meet off site for a year and a half.
It was wild times, but the blessing was in disguise. The church was able to update the building and its technology. The church was able to reinforce things that needed to be reinforced already, new carpet, new chairs, just some of those things that would’ve been really cost prohibitive if it weren’t for this unfortunate, “fortunate” event of a building being destroyed – turning an event of nature in which God has control over to faith in Him.
BC: Sometimes we don’t see the big picture when we’re going through it, and then we come out on the backside of it and it’s like, wow, this really worked out better for us. As a member of the media, I covered the storm and we were literally on the ground watching all of it happen, and the storm went right down Vandalia.
There were homes out there that received significant wind damage to their roofs and to drive by and see the north half of the church literally picked up and then sat back down right on top of where it was at and almost in one piece. It was quite literally amazing to see. From that extraordinary damage to watching in real time as it was being rebuilt was also amazing to see. About how many followers does the church currently have worshiping on Sunday mornings?
ZK: I think right now we’re averaging right around 120. That’s kids, adults, every person that’s there. We have a 9 a.m. Sunday school hour and then a 10 o’clock service. We have nursery and a kid service, and then our adult worship team worship. Everybody’s in there together, but our worship service is at 10 a.m.
BC: What do you have planned for holiday services?
ZK: Looking forward, we’ve begun talking about what Christmas looks like here, walking into my first Christmas season as a lead pastor, my first Christmas season here at this church.
I’m asking lots of questions, but we’re working toward those right now and I think we’re going to do a Christmas Eve service, so we’ll meet on December 23rd instead of the 24th and have our special Christmas Eve time at that time. Those are big things coming up here soon. I’m sure there’ll be more as I find out along the way.
City Church is located at 129 East Vandalia Rd. For more information, call 217-245-9197 or email citychurchjacksonville@gmail.com. Additionally, find information and videos of sermons on their website, citychurchjaxil.com, or on their Facebook page at “CityChurchJaxIL.”
