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East Bend gathers every Sunday to worship Jesus as Lord and Savior! Our worship service begins at 10:30 a.m. and usually last about an hour and 15 minutes and include singing, reading of scripture, a teaching time, prayer, and occasionally video clips or drama. Our worship includes traditional and contemporary songs with a variety of instruments.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a service look like?
East Bend gathers every Sunday to worship Jesus as Lord and Savior! Our worship service begins at 10:30 AM and usually last about an hour and 15 minutes and include a mixture of singing, reading of scripture, a teaching time, prayer, and occasionally video clips or drama. Our worship includes traditional and contemporary songs with a variety of instruments. Sermons are Biblical based with a focus on the Gospel of Jesus and living in Him.
Where do the kids go?
We have a place for the kids! We have a nursery during the worship service, for children under age 3. Twice per month, we offer a Children's Church during the sermon, for kids ages 3 to 4th grades. We believe kids add life and vitality to our church and are part of our worship. We encourage families to attend Sunday School, which begins at 9:30 AM, where kids and adults learn about living for the Lord.
What happens during Sunday School?
Sunday School is at 9:30 AM and is for all ages. We have nursery for kids under age 3. The children's classes meet in the basement and begin with a corporate singing time. Our youth (grades 7-12) meet upstairs in our youth room and there are adult classes that meet in various places. You are welcome join us as we open the Word of God together! For more information click here.
Do you meet other than Sundays?
We have Wednesday night activities during the school year (September - May) which meet at 6:45 PM, the first three Wednesdays per month. Groups include: Men of Courage, Women of Grace, Youth Group (grades 7-12), and kids groups. Nursery is provided for children under age 3. For more information click here.
Our Mission
Developing disciples who are reaching people with Jesus' transforming gospel.
Our mission includes making disciples and teach them to obey Jesus and be lead by His Spirit, and walking with Him. We seek to reach people by bringing the love of Jesus Christ to the lost and broken communities and to the ends of the earth. Only by Jesus' transforming gospel does true life change occur, so we surrender to Jesus as Savior and Lord, living as His witnesses and experience not only His saving grace, but transformation!
Our vision is to see our community transformed by deeply engaging our neighbors with the love of Jesus; owning God's heart of love for the lost and broken people; and responding with healing presence, radical hospitality, and strategic compassion. We are striving to be a community of believers of Jesus, where God's life changing love grace are extended to all people, and is exhibited by:
Inviting people into a meaningful relationship with Christ and His Church
Walking together into deeper levels of maturity
Ministering to the needs of our community, our congregation and the world
We do this all in order to magnify God's Holy Name!
Our Leadership
Pastor: Luke Rosenberger (Luke@eastbend.org)
Pastor Luke has been East Bend Church's Lead Pastor since 2019. He and his wife, Ellen, have six children: David, Emily, Lucy, Elizabeth, Annie, and Amanda.
Luke and Ellen met on the mission field where they both served as missionaries in Managua, Nicaragua. After getting married and starting a family, the Lord called the Rosenberger family away from Nicaragua after 12 years of ministry. He led them to move to Colorado where Luke earned his MDiv at Denver Seminary. Luke loves the Lord, is passionate for teaching people about Jesus, enjoying time with family, playing sports (basketball, ultimate frisbee, disc golf, skiing, soccer, etc), board games, and watching football and basketball games.
Secretary: Angie Beachey (Angie@eastbend.org)
Angie has served as the Secretary at East Bend since 2008. Angie and Ken have two adult children and love serving the Lord. Ken serves on the Elder Board and both can be found lending a hand wherever it's needed.
Elder Board:
Kenny Beachey, Duane Eby, Ken Hieser, Rod Kiogima, Greg Liestman
Missional Leadership Team:
Administration: Matt Kreeb
Missions: Rich Schrock
Discipleship: Angie Beachey
Fellowship: Jayne Eby
Youth: Ellen Rosenberger
Location
East Bend Church is located 2 miles north and 1 mile east of Fisher, IL.
Our physical address is:
702 County Road 3300 N. Fisher, IL
Our mailing address is:
PO Box 520, Fisher, IL 61843
What We Believe
God
We believe in the One, Living God, who is the creator and ruler of the universe. We believe that He is a holy and loving God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit eternally!
Genesis 12:2-3; Exodus 3:13-14; Exodus 20:1-6; Psalm 25:4-10; John 1:14, 18; Galatians 2:20
Jesus Christ
We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe that He is God’s fullest revelation of Himself to man. He was fully God and fully man. We believe that in seeing who Jesus is we learn exactly who God is and what God is like. We believe that Jesus walked on the earth and taught us the will of the Father. We believe that He willingly died upon the cross to make possible the forgiveness of sin. We believe that He rose from the dead after three days, ascended into heaven and will return again someday to take the church to dwell with Him forever.
Mark 14:36; Romans 1:3-4; I Corinthians 3:11; Ephesians 2:13-22; Philippians 2:5-8; Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-3; Hebrews 4:15; I Peter 2:21
The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. We believe that He is one with God in His essence. We believe He is in harmony with the Bible in revelation. We believe He is in harmony with the church in mission. The Holy Spirit is God’s abiding presence in the church. We believe the Holy Spirit guides believers in understanding faithfulness to Christ; calling people to repentance, convicting them of sin, and leading into the way of righteousness. We believe the Holy Spirit is given to believers when they accept Christ as a guarantee of redemption.
Psalm 104:30; Isaiah 63:10; Joel 2:28-29; John 16:8-10; John 3:5; Acts 4:24-31; Romans 8:26-27; Ephesians 1:13-14
The Bible
We believe the Bible is God’s word, which has been written down for us. While it was written through human hands, the Bible has been inspired by the Holy Spirit and can be completely trusted for instruction, correction and training in the righteousness of God. We acknowledge the Scripture as the authoritative source and standard for preaching and teaching about faith and life, for distinguishing truth from error, for discerning between good and evil, and for guiding prayer and worship.
Psalm 119: Jeremiah 30:2; Matthew 5:17; John 1:14; John 5:39-47; Galatians 1:11-12; II Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 4:2-8, 12; II Peter 1:21
Human Beings
We believe that people are made in the image of God. Our character as human beings should reflect the character of God, for we are His most cherished of all His creation. But the nature of man has been compromised because of his disobedience to God. We call this sin. Sin separated man from God and placed him in need of mercy and grace.
Genesis 1:26-27; Psalm 8:5-8; Psalm 139:13-18; Romans 1:21-23 II Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 5:21-23
Salvation
We believe that because of God’s love for man, He has brought salvation through Jesus Christ, which He offers as a free gift to all who would accept Jesus Christ. We cannot earn salvation by our own works, for we cannot truly know good works apart from Christ. But salvation can only come by trusting Jesus Christ completely; trusting that His life, death and resurrection were necessary to restore the relationship with God that our sin destroyed.
Deuteronomy 6:20-23; Psalm 74:12; Matthew 26:28; Romans 3:24-25; Romans 5:1-11; Romans 8:2; I Corinthians 3:18
Eternity
We believe that God has brought salvation for man that begins the moment a person surrenders His life in trust to Jesus Christ. This salvation gives mankind the assurance that he will dwell with God forever (Heaven). Those who do not receive Christ will be cast out of the presence of God forever (Hell). Heaven and Hell are not metaphors, but are actual places of eternal existence.
Matthew 5:10-12; Matthew 8:10-12; Matthew 24:32-51; John 5:28-29; 1 Corinthians 15:12-19;
In Summary
We believe that God is the creator of the world and made mankind to live in relationship with Him. We believe that God has a plan for everyone’s life. We believe that abundant life can only begin when lived in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We believe that the responsibility of every Christian is to tell the truth about Who Jesus Christ is in every aspect of their life, in both word and in deed.
We hold to the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective (1995)
Our History
East Bend Church was founded in 1889 as East Bend Mennonite Church, in the East Bend township of Champaign County, by farmers who settled on land about a mile north of the current building. They moved here from Tazwell County, IL in 1886. The first meeting place was the Dixon School house, which was located 1 1/2 miles to the north of the current building on County Road 700. There is still a sign there today delineating the location of the former school house. It didn’t take long for more families to move into this area, and for those families to grow.
In 1907 the original building of East Bend was built on the current location (3300N & 700E). By the mid 1930s and 1940s there was large congregation of worshipers here. The current building has undergone several different additions and upgrades over the years - from a basement being added, to the current sanctuary being built, to the offices to the north. The latest improvement was the addition of playground equipment in 2012.
East Bend has always had a heart for mission and outreach. We have supported missionaries around the globe over the years. In addition to this, East Bend has helped to plant several churches in the area, including the Dewey Community Church, the Arthur Mennonite Church, and First Mennonite Church in Urbana, IL.
God has a way of working good out of difficult situations. In 1952 there was a painful split in the East Bend congregation. Approximately 200 people left the East Bend congregation and started attending the Gibson City Bible Church. We are thankful that the Bible Church is a thriving church and that even in the midst of adversity and pain, God works!
In 2015 the East Bend Mennonite Church membership voted to remove itself from the Mennonite Church USA Denomination. In 2017 East Bend chose to become a Partner Church with the Evana (Evangelical Anabaptist) Network. For more information about Evana Network, click here.
In the summer of 2022 the leadership asked for feedback (which included congregational meetings) and prayer about a possible change in the name of our church name. In January 2023 the Elders of East Bend announced that "after carefully listening to all concerns in our discussions, the elders have discerned that going forward we will refer ourselves as East Bend Church in our communication within the congregation and within the broader community. Legally we will continue being recognized as East Bend Mennonite Church. We feel this decision addresses the concerns that were shared at recent congregational meetings." Today, East Bend Church continues to seek to be faithful to our Lord Jesus' wisdom and guidance!
For more about our history, there are publications that were made for the 60 year (1949) and the 100 year (1989) celebrations. There is additional East Bend history at the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.
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