Daniel Baker Is to Become Senior Pastor in January 2016

Last Sunday, Phil publicly announced the elders’ final decision to appoint Daniel Baker to the role of Senior Pastor. Below is the explanation of that decision.

In September, Phil announced his intention to reduce his workload and move to part-time status beginning January 2016. Several factors influenced the timing of this decision. First, Phil is ready to slow down, and a move to part-time employment allows him to stay actively involved while dialing the workload back. Another factor was the desire to free up the necessary finances so that John McLeod could move to full-time support by the church.

Phil and the rest of the elders also thought that this would be an appropriate and strategic time for Phil to step out of the Senior Pastor role. This transition has been coming for years. The elders have talked about it privately and publicly, and during the past three years, as the elders have prayerfully considered and discussed the matter, it has become clear to us that Daniel Baker is the right person to assume the Senior Pastor responsibilities.

In the September Family Meeting we announced these plans to the church and invited you to give us your feedback. You have done that, and we are grateful. The feedback has been helpful, and through you we believe that the Holy Spirit has confirmed our decision to appoint Daniel to this role. Over the last three weeks, the elders reviewed the feedback person by person and item by item, and it has been overwhelmingly positive toward Daniel assuming the Senior Pastor role.

On Thursday, December 17, the elders officially and unanimously decided to appoint Daniel Baker to this role as of January 2016.

We will take time during the service on Sunday, January 10 to formally set Daniel apart for the role, and we are confident that his service in this capacity within the eldership will be a great blessing to the elders and consequently to the entire church. Thank you for your participation in the process. We are looking forward to this transition, and Phil is looking forward to slowing down a bit.

As we have emphasized over the last few months, we are grateful to have a plurality of elders, and it bears repeating that Phil isn’t going anywhere. He will still be one of your pastors. He will still have his office at SGC. He will continue to preach, though perhaps not quite as often.

We invite you to pray for Daniel and all of the elders during this transition, and we invite you to continue working with us for the building up of the church to the glory of God.

“until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” Ephesians 4:13