Pastor Steve was appointed to serve as Bethel Baptist Church's Pastor on 1 January 2019. Prior to that, he served as Pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylorville, Illinois.

The attributes that best describe Steve as a pastor are strong preaching, discipleship development and his love for people. He has expressed a burning desire to lead a church like Bethel Baptist Church where biblical views are embraced and encouraged, with members who care about the needs of those around them and who want to connect others to the body of Christ. Steve takes worship and preaching very seriously, spending the first hours of his day focused on Bible study and prayer.

Pastor Steve has served in ministry since 1997 in California and Illinois. He was the pastor of First Baptist church of Taylorville for 14 years. In 2018, First Baptist united with Bethel Baptist church and Pastor Steve began the process of discovering God’s next Big Thing. To our surprise, Pastor Ted announced that he was going to retire and Bethel was also needing to seek God’s next Big Thing. It didn’t take long to realize that God was already doing his work in keeping us all together in service. We all agreed that the timing was too perfect to be anything but God inspired. May God bless us as we continue to walk by faith.

Pastor Steve was born and raised in Taft, California.

• Received a US Army commission in 1987.
• Received his B.S. in Business from Northwest Christian University in Eugene, Oregon
• Received his M.Div. from The American Baptist Seminary of the West in Berkeley, California.
• Ordination with American Baptist Churches U.S.A.

Steve has been happily married for 36 years to his wife, Suzanne. They have 2 adult children: KayCee and Caitlyn.