Elders

We believe that the leadership of the local church should be formed by the ancient Scriptures rather than the corporate world. For us, this means that Sacred City - Moline is led by a plurality (Acts 20:17) of pastor/elders (Titus 1:5), qualified for leadership by the grace of Jesus Christ and in accordance with the requirements given by the Apostles (1 Timothy 3:1–13).

Therefore all of our leaders are not just in authority, but under it as well. Jesus Christ is the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4) of Sacred City - Moline, the senior leader to whom all of our leaders will give an account (Hebrews 13:17).

OUR ELDERS

Samuel Schmidt
Lead Pastor & Church Planter

The responsibilities of the Lead Pastor include preaching, leadership development, and pastoral shepherding for Sacred City - Moline.

Sam hails from the small town of Treynor, Iowa. While working on his Bachelors of Music at the University of Northern Iowa, Sam met Becca. They married in 2012 and are raising four future men and a darling little girl.

Sam moved to the Quad Cities to be part of the launch of Sacred City Church in 2011. In this time, Sam completed Porterbrook Omaha and entered a pastoral and church planting residency at Sacred City Church. In 2017, Sam and Becca were sent out with a core team to plant Sacred City - Moline.
Sam is also a big advocate for classical Christian education and serves as the Director of Discipleship at New City Classical Academy. When not playing backyard football with his boys, Sam enjoys tinkering in the garage, listening to podcasts, bourbon, and following the Las Vegas Raiders.
 

AJ Brown
Lay Elder
AJ became an Elder at Sacred City - Moline in April of 2023.  As a Lay Elder, AJ leads in a variety of ways to shepherd the members of Sacred City - Moline and leads the Central Moline Missional Community. 

AJ and his wife Carrie have been a part of Sacred City church since the very beginning of Sacred City Davenport in 2011, and where part of the core team sent out to plant Sacred City - Moline in 2017. 

AJ and Carrie are natives of the Quad City area but spent a brief 5 year stint in California where AJ earned a BA in Industrial and Scientific photography. He has worked as a self-employed architectural photographer since 2010. 

AJ and Carrie now have 4 children. Carrie works full time managing the home and raising their children.

They are both interested in art and design but their real passion lies in slowly building the Kingdom of God in their home, church, city, and country. 

Jesse Korns
Lay Elder
Jesse became an Elder at Sacred City - Moline in April of 2023. As a Lay Eder, Jesse leads in a variety of ways to shepherd the members of Sacred City Moline.  He leads out baptism celebrations, preaches occasionally on Sunday mornings, and he is one of the leaders for the Aledo Missional Community.  Jesse has a heart for discipling men and families to live all of life in submission to the kingship of Jesus. 

Jesse and his beautiful wife, Melissa, have been married for over 15 years and they have three adventurous boys, Josiah Henry, Gentry George, and Leroy Jack.   

Jesse works as a Family Nurse Practitioner at Genesis Health Group in Aledo, IL. 

When it comes to hobbies, Jesse loves to spend time with his family working at their ranch where they raise cows, chickens, and pigs.  He loves hunting with his boys and riding bikes and going on fun dates with his wife.