• Terry Hamilton

    Senior Pastor

    Terry Hamilton has been the pastor of Friendship Baptist Church since October of 1989. He has been in the ministry for 32 years. His early college education includes a BA (1977) and an MA (1979) in Sacred Music from Bob Jones University. During graduate school he served as music pastor at Hampton Park Baptist church in Greenville, South Carolina. In 1981, he and his family moved to Newington Connecticut to serve as music pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church. In 1984 they moved to Kansas City where he worked as music pastor of Tri-City Ministries under Dr. Carl Herbster. Ever since college Pastor Hamilton had a longing to communicate God’s truth. While at Tri-City he was encouraged to consider the pastorate as the Lord might lead. After a period of seeking God in prayer and the Word, he felt this was of the Lord. He resigned as music pastor and began waiting on the Lord for direction. During this time of waiting, he was contacted by Friendship Baptist church. It seemed that Pastor Hamilton and the church in Cedar Rapids were very like-minded in many things. The rest is history! In 1992 Pastor Hamilton received counseling training through the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors (NANC) located in Lafayette, Indiana. In 2009 Pastor Hamilton finished a Master of Ministry degree from Bob Jones University. Terry and his wife, Nancy, have six children.

  • Wes linville

    Assistant Pastor

    Wes Linville has served as assistant pastor of Friendship Baptist Church since 2007. The Lord called Wes into the full-time ministry in his teen years. Wes completed his BA in Bible (minoring in music) at Baptist College of Ministry in 2006. After college, the Lord led Wes to do an internship with Pastor Hamilton for a summer at Friendship Baptist in 2007. After the summer, the church voted to call Wes as assistant pastor. Wes now serves in music, youth work, outreach, and a variety of other areas. He and his wife Jessica have five children.