A church with a long memory

Our history

From Adams Street to Spring Bay Road

Our church had its beginning in the old “Averyville” neighbourhood of north-eastern Peoria, along Adams Street near the Illinois River. In the 1970s our church moved across the river to its present Spring Bay Road location, but still retained the identity of our name, “Averyville Baptist Church.”

Over the years, our church has been known for its Bus Ministry, with routes that have crisscrossed the Peoria area, bringing boys and girls to Sunday School to hear about how “Jesus Saves.”

For many years, our church was the home of Fellowship Baptist College, where young men and women came from all over the nation to get a tuition-free Bible college education and train for the ministry. Preachers and missionaries and their wives, trained here at FBC, literally span the globe today continuing the work of Christ they were taught to do here at Averyville Baptist Church.

Those who have led us

David Coyle and his wife Brenda are 1983 graduates of Fellowship Baptist College. After pastoring the First Baptist Church in San Jose, Illinois, he returned to Averyville Baptist Church as Assistant Pastor and Music Director in 1986, serving five years under Pastor Jack Gwinn. When Pastor Gwinn resigned in 1991, the church voted to make David Coyle their pastor, and he led the church from then until handing the pastorate to Paul Coyle. He serves today as Pastor Emeritus.