- Mike Baker,
Pastor of Eastview Christian Church
Visiting on an average Sunday, one cannot help to be impressed by the magnitude of the Eastview Christian Church. Situated at the intersection of Airport and Raab, the church and grounds encompass nearly 100 acres, and the church manages an average weekly attendance of around 4,500. Though some might find a church of this size to be intimidating, the accessibility and hospitable atmosphere still manage to stimulate steady growth.
Described as a dynamic, charismatic speaker, Mike Baker delivers the Sunday service at Eastview Christian Church. (Photo by Leslie Limbaugh / Staff Photographer)
At least some of the credit for this atmosphere has to go to Pastor Mike Baker. As the senior pastor of this mega-church, Baker must have the courage and confidence to maintain and withstand the attention of thousands of faith seekers on a weekly basis. And in order to be effective in this capacity, Baker must be able to deliver a positive message of hope and salvation, while simultaneously warning of the consequences of sin. And if that’s not hard enough, he must also deliver these messages in a charismatic and entertaining way.
“A lot of people say they feel like my preaching is conversational,” Baker said, “which is really one of the best compliments I can get.”
In person, Baker is a genuine, easygoing man who has a knack for putting people at ease. He credits part of this ability to his simple upbringing in a lower middle class Indianapolis neighborhood where he was a minority in a school that was 95 percent African American.
“I liked that upbringing for several reasons,” Baker said. “We were poor, but we didn’t really care, because everyone around us was poor. It was a real advantage to me to live in America as a white person, but live as a minority. I just think it gives me a different sensitivity.”
Growing up, Baker got the urge to preach at an early age.
“It’s the only thing that I ever wanted to do,” Baker said. “I remember sitting in a pew in Indianapolis where my dad was preaching when I was six years old and thinking, that’s what I want to do with my life.”
Though being the Pastor of a mega-church brings, necessarily, a certain image to maintain, you never get a sense of guardedness from Baker.
“It is what it is, some of my best friends are also pastors of mega-churches, and they’ll do crazy things like go into a restaurant and ask for a back table where their backs are to the people,” Baker said. “But you know, everywhere I go in this town somebody knows me, but you know what? I’m blessed by this, I like that and it doesn’t bother me at all.”
However, there are times when the weight of a pastor’s image can become tiring.
“Fridays are my day off, and I try to do as little people-intensive stuff as possible. I just know if I don’t get myself away from the crowd that it’ll wear me out,” Baker said. “So on Friday my wife will say ‘lets go to Walmart’ and I’m saying ‘I’m not going to Walmart because I’m going to bump into 16 people I know, and I’m dressed in a baseball hat and a cutoff t-shirt and shorts, and there’s some people who just don’t want to see their senior pastor like that.’”
On stage Baker is a dynamic, charismatic speaker who manages to communicate a biblical message without the obligatory fire and brimstone. More often, Baker uses humor to get his message across instead. And it’s not just bad jokes, he really is funny. In 2008, Baker won The Challenger Learning Center’s Comedy Contest and was invited back this year and won again.
“I grew up very overweight,” Baker said. “So I was kind of the class clown. Kind of like Chris Farley.”
His proficiency in the art of public speaking started early and has continued throughout his life.
“I’ve always been a people person. I can’t remember a time when I minded being in front of people,” Baker said. “But even Sundays when I stand up and preach, I’m still nervous on some level.”
As far as reaching out to college students, Baker thinks it comes down to earning their trust at a time in their lives when they are vulnerable. “They don’t trust big things,” Baker said.
“They don’t trust the government. They don’t trust big churches. They don’t trust anything that’s big and organizational and for good reason. They’ve been lied to and manipulated and hurt a lot of their lives by these things. On the other hand, if I’m sitting down with a 22- year-old, I find them to be some of the most articulate and easy to reason with than just about anyone else.”
At ISU, Baker has entrusted college ministry to Pastor Brandon Grant. Hired by Baker five years ago, Grant is the College and Young Adult Pastor and is in charge of maintaining an Eastview presence on campus. Though Grant has tremendous respect for Baker, he doesn’t see him as a powerful pastor of a mega-church leading a following of thousands. He sees Baker in a different light.
“He’s just Mike,” Grant said. “What you see is what you get. Who he is onstage, he’s the same person off the stage. He is very down-to-earth, very relatable.”
Though Baker manages his ministry in an open, gregarious way, that at times can become downright invasive, Grant says he still maintains a personal life.
“He guards his time really well,” Grant said. “You cannot catch that guy on Friday because he locks it down to spend time with his family. He has his priorities, and he sticks by them.”
Baker credits his family priorities to what has kept his feet on the ground.
“The lord has blessed me with a wife that is very down-to-earth,” Baker said. “She is very no nonsense. So if I ever get too full of myself, she is the first one to say, ‘you know what? You’re just a guy.’”
Staying humble is integral when you are the leader of thousands of church followers, and Baker realizes that he has to be careful.
“There are people who want to make you into something that you’re not,” Baker said. “They want to make you this great pastor of a mega-church. There are two things that keep me from going in that direction. I know where I came from, and I know who I am. And I know how much of this is me, and I know how much is God. And it’s very little me, and it’s all God.”