Former megachurch Pastor Mike Baker moves growing congregation into new building

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Tuesday, October 01, 2024

Mike Baker, the former pastor of Eastview Christian Church in Bloomington, Illinois, who resigned from the megachurch after his son, Caleb Baker, was fired from his job as a pastor at Central Christian Church due to adultery, will move his growing new congregation into a new building on Sunday.

Baker’s new Song & Sword Church, which he started six months after resigning from Eastview Christian Church, announced that they will move their in-person services into a 30,000-square-foot building in Bloomington that formerly housed the City of Refuge Ministries.

The 59-year-old Baker, who said he had planned to retire at Eastview, told WGLT in a recent interview that he will be expanding the children’s ministry of Song & Sword Church and prioritize serving people in need.

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“We’re stepping into a space where you can sense the spirituality,” he told the news outlet. “It honestly suits me really well.”

In June 2023, independent investigators for Eastview Christian Church concluded that Pastor Caleb Baker used his position while serving at the church to "persuade women to engage in sexual activity." Mike Baker, according to the report, exhibited a "serious conflict of interest," and "should have recused himself due to his conflicting loyalties and allowed others in leadership to exercise proper biblical discipline regarding Caleb."

The conclusions were made public in an 11-page report produced by attorneys from the law firm Wagenmaker & Oberly who were tasked with investigating Caleb Baker's alleged sexual misconduct, the alleged cover-up and the impact of power dynamics upon staff and the congregation from Baker and Eastview's upper-level leadership.

Allegations that Baker covered up his son's sexual misconduct erupted in February 2023 after Central Christian Church in Arizona announced Caleb Baker's firing after he was caught in an extramarital affair with another church staffer.

Eastview Christian Church elders said in an earlier statement that they only became aware of allegations of abuse against Caleb Baker after he left the church in 2016.

It was not until July 2022 that they got a complaint from a former employee alleging an abusive culture in 2016.

While Baker’s new church has now grown to about 300 members, including some who are former members of Eastview Christian Church, Eastview Christian Church’s membership has fallen from 5,500 in its heyday under Baker to about 3,750 members in February, WGLT reported.

Baker told the news outlet that his ministry is now structured to include an executive team as well as a pastoral team to enhance accountability beyond what existed in his previous ministry.

He said, however, that he did not believe his son’s actions at Eastview caused “as much harm” as claimed by his accusers.

“I do not think it was as much harm as was indicated by some people that might have complained about it,” Baker said. “There’s no doubt about it that pastors, especially of mega-churches, have targets on their back. When accusations begin to fly, it becomes very natural for that to happen.”