Rev. Amanda Baker

Pastor

Hi! My name is Rev. Amanda Baker, but I usually only use the title “Reverend” for formal things. Most people know me as Pastor Amanda.

I’m a lifelong United Methodist, and have been part of a clergy family since my Dad entered the ministry in the UMC in 1989. I grew up in parts of the old Kansas West Conference about an hour or so outside of Wichita. I got my undergraduate degree from Southwestern College in Winfield Kansas, where I also met my husband Ross. We graduated Southwestern in 2005, and were married that same year. In 2006, we headed off for Chicago to attend seminary together at Garrett-Evangelical Theological School. I graduated with my MDiv in 2010 and returned home to Kansas to serve under appointment. I had the honor of being part of the first class of pastors to be ordained in the Great Plains Annual Conference when Kansas East, Kansas West and Nebraska Conferences united in 2014.

Our family consists of Ross and I and our 3 biological kiddos, ages 14, 11, and 9 currently, and we’ll be welcoming an International exchange student this year for the second time. We also have a sweet and dorky dog with absolutely no chill, who goes by the name Rylie. All of us have fallen completely in love with the Baldwin City community since we moved here in 2018, and you’ll likely see me at lots of school and community events proudly wearing my dual roles as Pastor and Mom.

I’m an absolute nerd about coffee, music theater, children’s literature, and the Bible. I believe that children not only belong in worship, but have something vital to add to it. I believe that we can and should take the Bible seriously without taking it literally, and that every single human is made in the image of God.

It’s a blessing to have walked with the Baldwin First Congregation through some enormous changes over the last 5 years, and it is an honor to be dreaming alongside you of what God has in store for the future