About the Church
Staff

Jim Allen, Senior Pastor
Pastor Allen has been the pastor for Shabbona United Church of Christ in Shabbona, Illinois since April of 2005. Pastor Allen came to know the Lord through a Campus Crusade for Christ conference in 1970 at the age of 17. He is a “second-career minister” and graduated from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Illinois with a Masters of Divinity degree. Prior to the ministry and for over 25 years, Pastor Allen served in various areas of the telecommunications industry. These include: manufacturing, product management, sales, corporate education and as an adjunct college professor. His technical experience has spanned both copper and optical fiber networks. Pastor Allen has authored and taught courses both domestically and internationally. Some of these courses concerned fiber optic network design and installation, fiber-to-the-desktop applications, intelligent building design, industrial fiber optic networks, and submarine cable engineering…as well as various sales and marketing courses. However, Pastor Allen is most thankful for the breadth of vocational opportunity the Lord has provided throughout his lifetime from being a farmer, to service in the United States Air Force, to a career in telecommunications, and now for the ministry. In 1993, Pastor Allen was selected at the officer level of AT&T to attend the Executive MBA program at the University of Notre Dame. This fulfilled a lifelong ambition to cast his lot with the “Fightin Irish.” In 1995 Pastor Allen received his MBA degree. His undergraduate degree is from Mercer University in Atlanta. Mercer is a university of the Southern Baptist Convention. Pastor Allen and his wife Carol were specifically called into Rural/Rurban Ministry within the mainline Churches. His wife Carol, is the Parish Nurse for the congregation. Pastor Allen seeks to bring the full Gospel as practiced in the ancient faith to those he shepherds. The full Gospel being the combination of all elements: Evangelical, Charismatic, Liturgical, and Sacramental. Pastor Allen is also seeking to emphasize intergenerational Worship in a manner that hopefully results in a blended and family-oriented service which faithfully proclaims the Word of God. Pastor Allen and his wife Carol raised four children and are now proud grandparents of six grand babies (just ask them)! They currently reside at the parsonage in Shabbona, Illinois. .

What We Believe

Where We Are Located

Purpose Statement

Membership

Staff