Pastor John W. Baker
Lead Pastor
Hi, my name is John.
Have you ever felt like you were built for something bigger? I believe you were hand designed by God with special talents and abilities that God wants to use to make you into a world changer. My passion is to help people discover their God-given identity as they live out a real relationship with God through Jesus Christ. You were built for something great!
If you want to learn more about me, click on my name above.
I believe God has called me to lead people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, to disciple and help young and seasoned believers grow in their journey toward a deeper faith and commitment to Him, and to equip them to engage in personal ministry which takes them back into our hurting world to be the body of Jesus Christ. I believe this is best accomplished by building strong personal relationships with people and leading by example.
I also have a passion for preaching/speaking. I grew up in the church and every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday night, and any other time the church was open our family was there. So much of the speaking seemed irrelevant to me and frankly was a bit boring. When God called me to ministry I made a personal commitment that if I had opportunities to speak I would work as hard as I could to bring God’s Word to life in ways that were relevant to real living. I have a passion for communicating God’s truths and doing so in a way that is both meaningful and challenging. If meeting with God’s church has no affect on the rest of our lives and does not lead us to transformation then why bother?
To prepare for ministry I attended Indiana Wesleyan University where I obtained a Christian Ministries degree in Pastoral Ministry. I was then ordained by the Wesleyan Church in 1993 and in 2009 I finished a Master’s degree in Leadership and Change Management.
On a personal level: I enjoy being with my wife and children, working with my hands at home remodeling and building and flying model aircraft. I was married to the love of my life on June 10th, 1989. I have three awesome children (Kaitlyn, who lives in St. Paul Minnesota, Caleb our son who is currently living in the Cleveland area, and our youngest daughter who recently married Tim Rabatin and lives in Ankron, OH. After we married I became a youth pastor in the Marion IN area and then a year after my college graduation I moved to West Union, Iowa to become the pastor of a smaller rural church. I spent 7 years in West Union and then moved to Oakdale, Minnesota (a suburb of St. Paul/Minneapolis) where we enjoyed 13 years of great ministry in the urban setting. In July of 2012 God called us to Valley City and LifeSpring Community Church where we have fallen in love with an awesome group of God’s family.
We are just “normal” people and love doing life with others as we journey to heaven. This is a bit of my story and I would love the chance to get to know about yours. Drop me a email and I would be happy to meet you for coffee to have the chance to hear a bit about your story.