ABOUT US
MEET OUR PASTOR
BRAD BAKER
Greetings from Grace Baptist Church!
Let me take a moment to introduce myself. I was born in 1973 and grew up on a farm just outside of Omega,GA. I was fortunate to have my Mama, Daddy, twin brother, younger brother, all four grandparents, 3 great grandmothers, uncles, aunts, and a lot of cousins! We worked in the fields where we grew corn, cotton, peanuts, soybeans, and tobacco. We raised hogs, cows, and quail (and now I raise goats!). Such experiences provide me with numerous sermon illustrations and I am thankful for the lessons of farm life! There is nothing quite like it. Just like most boys raised on a farm, I enjoyed hunting, fishing, sports, and just about anything that involved being on a tractor! No one had a better childhood! God has been so gracious to me!
Many of my favorite childhood memories center around my home church of Antioch Baptist Church in Colquitt County. To try to explain who I am without mentioning Antioch and how the Lord used those people in my life would leave an enormous gap. It is there that I learned great hymns of the faith, attended revival meetings, homecoming & dinner on the grounds, experienced the joys of VBS, the fellowship of the saints, and it was there that God saved my wretched soul by His marvelous grace by convicting me of my sin, calling me unto Himself, and showing me that my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness! Praise God for Jesus and praise God that the people and pastors of Antioch Baptist Church preached Jesus! How shall they hear without a preacher? Precious memories, how they linger, how they ever flood my soul!
I attended and graduated from Omega Elementary School, Tift County High School, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, and the University of Georgia where I graduated with a degree in agricultural engineering. I married my wonderful wife Brandy in 1998 and God has graciously given us four children (Hannah, Sarah, Nathan, and Mary). By His grace, he has saved us all! I have no greater joy than to hear my children walk in truth! We live on a small farm about 7 miles from Grace Baptist church and I am employed with a local steel building company in Adel, GA and I am a licensed professional engineer and structural engineer. So, I am obviously a bi-vocational pastor (until God leads otherwise).
Before I married my wife, I told her she may be getting a "preacher" instead of an engineer. Sure enough, after being married 14 years and after preaching for eight consecutive months at Pine Grove Baptist Church in Lenox, GA as a "supply-preacher" I was "solemnly and publicly set apart and ordained to the work of the gospel ministry" on August 26th, 2012 at the age of 39. I served as Pine Grove's pastor for 5 years. (Thank you Pine Grove, you were so patient with me!). I have been at Grace Baptist in Adel, GA since 2017 and the Lord is blessing our little congregation!
Theologically, I whole-heartedly believe in what is commonly referred to as the "Doctrines of Grace". I believe (from start to finish) that salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9). The scriptures plainly declare "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast (Eph 2:8-9)."
On an historical note, when the centennial history of Antioch was finally published in 1996, I saw, for the first time, the "Articles of Faith of the Mell Baptist Association of 1893" under which Antioch had been founded. There in plain sight were the "Doctrines of Grace" in simple but scriptural form! Interestingly, Pine Grove had been founded that same year by missionaries of the same local Baptist Association.
So these two churches - one where I had spent my entire childhood and the other where I began my ministry - were firmly founded on the doctrines of grace. It was as if "a cloud of witnesses" had gone before me to establish churches built on the grace of God in Christ and to protect them from what Paul told the Galatians could happen to them, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you unto the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ (Galatians 1:6-7)." So my home church at Antioch and my first pastorate at Pine Grove were established on the doctrines of God's wonderful sovereign grace! Praise the Lord! At Grace Baptist Church, we believe in God's grace!
We invite you to worship with us! We are simple in our worship. We pray, praise, and preach the Word of God! We keep things simple!
Jesus is Lord!
Bro. Brad Baker