Graham Baird
Less than two years after answering the call to be the senior pastor of the largest Presbyterian congregation in Colorado, the Rev. Graham J. Baird will be leaving the church.
A letter from Baird to members of the First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs posted on the church’s web site indicates that he has resigned his call as senior pastor of the church of more than 4,000 members.
“While this has been an incredibly hard decision to make it has been made with the help of many wise friends, prayer partners, spiritual advisors, cohorts in ministry and colleagues in the faith who have been praying with us for some time now,” Baird wrote.
According to the letter, Baird has requested a congregational meeting on March 30 for the purpose of dissolving his pastoral call at FPC-Colorado Springs. The letter indicates April 6 will be his final Sunday at the church.
Attempts to reach Baird for comment were unsuccessful by The Layman. A church staff member indicated Baird’s letter was intended to stand on its own merit.
Baird arrived at FPC-Colorado Springs in July 2012 after his predecessor, Jim Singleton, departed following seven years as the senior pastor to become a member of the staff at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Mass. Singleton also serves as president of the Fellowship of Presbyterians (FOP), formed in January 2011.
FPC-Colorado Springs, founded in 1872, had just been dismissed from the Presbyterian Church (USA) to join ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians prior to Baird’s arrival. He was just the third senior pastor for the church since 1971, following Singleton and John H. Stevens, who served from 1971-2005.
Reasons for resigning
In his letter Baird outlined three reasons for choosing to leave the congregation, which remains one of the largest in ECO.
His first reason was to focus on finishing his Doctorate work. He noted that the demands of leading a church of more than 4,000 members and dealing with family pressures were not allowing him to focus fully on his education.
Baird just completed and published his first book, One Hundred Years of Ministry, last fall, and he discovered a passion for writing. He is working on a second book and indicated the decision to leave the pulpit would allow him to take his writing seriously.
He also pointed out that leaving FPC-Colorado Springs would allow him, his wife Star and their two young daughters to be closer to family members living on the West Coast, primarily from California.
“We have valued the rich opportunity we have been given to partner together with you in ministry, and we ask that you continue to uphold us in prayer as Star and I and our family take the next steps and begin the next phase of our journey in ministry,” Baird wrote. “We will continue to pray for all of you as you endeavor your next steps as a church. I know that with God, all things are possible, and all things work together for good for those who love Jesus Christ.”
Saying goodbye
Jennifer Holz, senior associate executive pastor at FPC-Colorado Springs, also addressed the congregation via electronic media.
“It is with sadness that I need to share some important news with you. Rev. Graham Baird made the difficult decision to resign as senior pastor of First Pres. This decision was made after a great deal of prayer and discernment, and it is a decision he feels is best for his family and our church family,” Holz wrote. “Graham wrote a letter to better explain his decision, and I encourage you to read it on our web site at www.first-pres.org. I know you join me in praying for God’s blessing and guidance upon Graham and his family during this time, and also for First Pres as we move into a new chapter in the life and ministry of this church.”
She added, “Finally, I know that this news comes with shock and sadness. It is difficult when those who are part of our church family leave. But we can all take heart in knowing that we serve a God who is so much bigger than the things of this world.”
4 Comments. Leave new
After all of the time and expense of a pastoral search to find the pastor leaving is a blow to the
congregation. Surely, the pastor must have had an idea of what he wanted to do in writing before
he accepted the call and was installed.
I am confident that attempting to be the pastor of a 4 thousand member congregation is daunting.
But a ministry of less than 2 years retards the important work of the church in dealing with pastoral issues among the flock and dealing with sermons and a sound educational ministry.
I hope the next pastor or the pastoral search committee adopt something like this interview process:
The pastor has his personal information form and identifies his 4-5 strengths.
The congregation has its church information form and can identify what the congregation needs
in a head of staff.
How do the criteria match? If they pieces do not fit, move on to find the individual who does match.
This observation came too late for me during my ministry but perhaps will assist others in finding
the call that fits.
As a member of First Presbyterian Church, Colorado Springs and regular reader of The Layman Online, please know that the comments of JG above are right on target. Most of us at Frist-Pres are left with more questions unanswered, in spite of an open discussion, Q&A meeting of members that included the vote to accept the dismissal of Pastor Baird’s call. God is gracious and good and always faithful. He accepts us as family with all of the faults and idiosyncrasies (and more) common to our own families. That was the sentiment generally expressed at the congregational meeting led by the Presbytery of the West (ECO) to which we belong, on March 30.
Yes, we will learn from this unfortunate experience. Yes, the next search committee and Session’s process and decision will be better informed, hopefully. Yet the questions remain. Right now, what we are left with is the certainty of God’s faithfulness and His Grace. Pray that we will have continued wisdom in “finding the call that fits” in the forthcoming process, whenever that takes place.
Having been a member & senior leadership I hoped to find out before a friend on Spring Break told me he was sorry to hear we lost our Minister…a few call later confirmed what my friend suggested. How sad we were to hear the news. Needless to say the distance away from the situation led us to formulate our own opinions on what really happened…reading Graham’s reasons for leaving (forwarded on as we did not receive), then hearing the information from the congregational meeting that followed the following Sunday (Still on Spring Break), there was NO Scandal, NO Session Pressures, No ‘Big’ Member Pressures, Just a personal decision…that the Presbytery wanted resolved before Easter so we could focus on the most important day in Christianity. HUMMMM….something is fishy. Was it so bad here? Was his calling to his PhD, Writing, & Family so strong it couldn’t wait another couple weeks before putting in his 2-weeks (which we never really got).
Having discussed this thoroughly with member friends, current leadership, outside community members, and past members…things just don’t add up. Nipping it in the bud and disclosing real reasons may hurt us initially but historically speaking those that speak honestly are forgiven & move on much faster than those trying to brush under the rug and forget it ever happened…
Over the past 8+ years Singleton & Baird have taught us (congregation) the importance of Grace, Forgiveness, Prayer, and less and less about the importance of an old school Corporate Structure. With that said I was going to list the ‘Rumors’ in circulation within my little friend base (albeit an extensive and far reaching base) to maybe bring light to the real reasons & squash those not valid, as I am most certain it will come back and bite us in the backside if we aren’t allowed at a MINIMUM to specifically pray for the reasons, without judgment, practicing His Grace for the reasons of Graham’s immediate departure.
Very disappointed in the whole situation, but KNOW the Lord only gives to us what we can handle.
RE
Rev. Baird is a complicated person. Not stated as a negative. Most greatness is preceded or followed by behaviors; yet, unanswered. I have been waiting two years or more for an explanation why the sudden departure, and it has not been forthcoming. I do know we, should, count the blessings when just one person makes a difference in our approach with our Lord Jesus Christ regardless how long or short that encounter may be. I would elect to have Rev. Baird show me ways to reach the ear of Jesus, once again, no questions asked or answers expected. I am not blind; but, I do accept interventions with may eyes wide open.