REVEREND DANIEL SVENDSEN, WIFE MICHELLE, AND children Sophia, Charlotte, tye, and Rose
Reverend Svendsen came to First Church in June 2016, previously serving his first call at a PCA church in Chicago. He and Michelle both grew up in Lansing, IL, and Daniel's father was a pastor in South Holland during Reverend Svendsen's childhood. Michelle also grew up in the church, and they both acknowledge that God's grace was poured out on them in their loving homes and joy-filled families.
Daniel attended Wheaton College and Westminster Seminary California. He loves reading, watching and playing sports, spending lots of time with friends and family, and studying the Bible and theology. He is very excited and humbled to be the pastor of First Church South Holland and enjoys the daily challenge of preparing two sermons for each Lord's Day. He loves hearing the voices of the saints on Sunday as we join together singing Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual songs. He loves the Heidelberg Catechism and the Westminster Confession which shape our theology, worship, and every area of our lives.
Michelle is a loving mother and world-renowned master of baked goods. She has a teaching degree from Trinity Christian College and has worked as both a teacher and caregiver as a way to get Dan through seminary training.
Contact Reverend Dan at Pastor@firstchurchsh.org
Associate Pastor — Dr. Alan Strange, Wife Kathy
In 2022, our congregation called Alan Strange to be our associate pastor. Alan is professor of church history at Mid America Seminary in Dyer, IN. Alan served Providence Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Glassboro, New Jersey, for over nine years before coming to Mid-America. We are blessed by his preaching and teaching, as are the many other churches and groups worldwide who hear him preach or speak.
Dr. Strange is active in the Presbytery of the Midwest and serves on or chairs various OPC committees, including the Committee on Appeals and Complaints, the Psalter Hymnal Special Committee, the Committee on Christian Education, and the Board of Trustees of Great Commission Publications. He served as chairman of the Committee on Creation Views and as vice-chairman of the Justification Committee and the Committee on Updating the Language of the Westminster Standards, producing substantial reports for those study committees. Dr. Strange teaches the ministerial Training Institute of the OPC course on the Form of Government and has written extensively on church polity. He also served as the Moderator of the 75th OPC General Assembly (2008) and as general editor of the Trinity Psalter Hymnal (2018).
Alan’s forthcoming book is, Empowered Witness: Politics, Culture, and the Spiritual Mission of the Church, published by Crossway (Expected February, 2024).
Professor Strange has been a frequent contributor to the OPC denominational magazines New Horizons and Ordained Servant (serializing commentaries on the Form of Government and Book of Discipline in the latter) and the Mid-America Journal of Theology. He has also written for and serves as a contributing editor to The Confessional Presbyterian. He has published The Doctrine of the Spirituality of the Church in the Ecclesiology of Charles Hodge (P&R), The Imputation of the Active Obedience of Christ at the Westminster Assembly (RHB), and What is the OPC? (CCE). He is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, the Conference on Faith and History, and the American Society of Church History.