Dr. James W. Baker

Pastor

Born in 1956 and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, Pastor Baker was a member of Tabernacle Baptist Church as a teenager. He was saved at the age of ten and called to preach shortly thereafter. When he was thirteen, he began preaching and as a teenager helped start churches in Virginia and North Carolina. He preached one of his first sermons here at Tabernacle in the winter of 1971. His father attended and graduated from TBBC/TS, and his sisters attended Tabernacle Baptist Academy. 

He went to Bob Jones University in 1973 and earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Bible in 1977 and a Master of Arts Degree in Bible in 1979. Later, he served as an assistant/youth pastor in Oxford, Michigan, for fifteen months. Then in October 1980, he went to Huntsville, Alabama, to serve as assistant/youth pastor for three years. He started Grace Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio, in October 1983, and served there as senior pastor for twenty-one years. The good people of Grace Baptist Church saw God bless in many ways over the years. A public school building was transformed into a beautiful church facility including a lovely Prophet’s Chamber. The missions program grew to over fifty ministries and a budget of over $85,000 annually.

In August of 2004, Pastor Baker came to Tabernacle Baptist Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia, as senior pastor. He commented that “leaving the sweet folks of Grace was the hardest thing my family and I have ever done! I had no aspirations to leave, but God had a different plan for us. Now all we think of is how exciting it is to do God’s will here at Tabernacle. God has brought us home!” With these thoughts, Pastor Baker and the church members are doing God’s will with God’s blessings. Pastor Baker serves as a board member for two mission boards and the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship International. 

The Bakers have three adult daughters and four grandchildren.