D. Alan Baker

Journey has provided me with a community of women that has strengthened me spiritually. One of the ways in which I get true rest is through spiritual friendships and through the journey retreats I have been able to find more of that. We connect as much as we can and, no matter what we talk about, I always walk away from the connections feeling refreshed. I can laugh, cry and share my heart with them and I have seen the difference it has made in my spiritual life, especially this year.

Giving and Receiving. When I stepped into Journey, I was in a new and healthy season of ministry. After a month of being a part of this family, I wondered what I was gaining and why did I join. Since, I’ve had countless opportunities to encourage my Journey family, to give to them. And sure enough, they have had countless opportunities to give to me, my life, my ministry, my family. Journey Pastoral Coaching has become a part of my every day life and I wouldn’t it for anything!

During my time in Journey I’ve experienced both wonderful and discouraging days in ministry. Anyone who has pastored knows that emotional stamina is one of the most necessary skills. Journey has provided me a place to turn for stability. It helps keep you humble when things are going well and encouraged when they are not. I can’t imagine ministry without relationships and support like that. It’s not just helpful it’s essential.

Pastor Baker, Tricia, and Journey have helped me step into the reality of mentorship, spiritual sonship, and Christian community. The quality of grace I have received from Pastor Baker time and time again has made me who I am today. I am growing in lovedness, growing in grace. Now I can pass on to others the same wisdom and grace I’ve been receiving.

At Journey, I am able to share pain and conflict and situations and get different perspectives, and encouragement from others in the same area of life. I’m also able to share when others are going through something I have gone through in the past. I love that Pastor Baker also doesn’t tell me what to do, but he helps me navigate the best decision for me and my ministry. Most of all, I am appreciative that Journey focuses on my personal health instead of just my vocation.

When I started in Journey a few years ago we were coming out of a very difficult season and getting ready to head into a new challenging season. What I didn’t know is how Journey and Pastor Baker would help me to process what I had gone through and prepare for what I would face. We had been put through the wringer in a serious ministry situation and were honestly just tired. Pastor Baker helped me process this, refocus on my family and renew a desire for ministry. The season that we were headed deep into was raising kids. The fatherly insight we drew from Pastor has helped us through those challenges and to become better parents and spouses to one another. I’m deeply thankful for the ministry and sacrifice of Journey and Pastor Baker. I wouldn’t be the husband, father and minister I am today without it.

The ministry of Journey helped me immensely during a dark time in my life. I had just been let go of a position under unjust circumstances and the community of Journey surrounded me and gave me life and purpose when I felt like I was alone. Journey has been an amazing blessing to me.

I grew up in a good home but my Dad is old school, in that there is no reason to compliment or encourage someone often. Of course, I love my parents but as an adult I didn’t understand the value I have to offer people by using my talents and abilities to work hard and serve people. Journey Pastoral Coaching has helped me to understand a right value of who I am in Christ, and given me the ability to confidently but also humbly: work, love, minister and be what and who God has called me to be in whatever I’m doing.

Since attending Journey Retreat in 2021, all the women who attended have had an active text and video messaging thread going. This has been a constant source of communication for us, keeping us connected for life and ministry updates and as an avenue to continue building strong relationships with one another. My parents recently went through a divorce and so much about our family dynamics have changed. I shared about this at Journey Retreat and have continued to stay connected with one of the other women who has had a similar experience. It’s been so good to have an ally, someone who understands how I’m feeling as a daughter yet also seeks to respond in love. Processing this life change with her has been so encouraging!

When I first joined the Journey community, I was lost. I had been serving in full time ministry for 10 years with a strong circle of mentors. Due to unforeseen circumstances, within a year, I completely lost the mentors I had relied on. I struggled for a year to find guidance, security and community. I’m so thankful that God directed me to contact Pastor Baker about Journey. It was evident, within my first few calls, with him and with other Journey members, that I had found a safe place to process the questions, pain, struggles, victories and joys that come when serving in ministry. I firmly believe that Journey helped me continue on in ministry when it would have been easier to quit. The support I found there gave me the strength I needed to keep doing what God has called me to do. I’m forever thankful.

When I first started Journey I was hoping to launch my own ministry. I expected to get a supportive network and accountability for the ministry out of the membership. I got that and so much more. Conversations with Pastor Baker have revolutionized the way I do ministry. Not because we discuss practical ministry items, though it is an option, but because he challenges me as a person. His focus is on my identity and spiritual formation to develop a healthy foundation for ministry through a healthy relationship with Jesus Christ. It is so nice as a ministry leader to have someone who pours into me for a change. To have a place where I can just be. Thank you, Journey and Pastor Baker, for everything!

During a time in my life when I felt abandoned by a lot of my ministry colleagues, Journey provided a place for me to be supported and encouraged by people who cared about me. The peer calls I had with several different men encouraged me and helped me to overcome a lot of shame and struggles that I was facing. I’m grateful for the men of Journey who take these relationships seriously and made such a huge difference for me!

In 2013 I was fresh out of seminary. That winter I hit a deep depression and was often stuck on the couch waiting to go to work only to return to the couch and wait for work again (I lived where I worked, so it was hard not to show up). Not long after, heard of a new ministry my former college professor was starting for people just like me. Journey was just what I needed. I wasn’t alone any more. God’s grace became a reality in the middle of a real community of people just like me. I’m coming to find that all ministers (really all followers of Christ) need someone to walk with them. This is a way of life I won’t be able to give up from now and into eternity.

Journey has helped me find a group of people who genuinely care about my life in Christ. They want me to succeed, they ask the hard questions, there is real accountability, this was nothing like I had been a part of before. Life for me was “good” before journey, but now that I’m part of this community I have the need/desire to help others and they have the same desire to help me. It’s a beautiful thing! Over the past 2 years when Staci and I lost 2 children due to miscarriages it was a really trying time emotionally; without journey we would have been a real mess, but you all checked in on us and even bought us gifts. We truly felt the love more than in just words journey is about action!

The Journey community helped me stay grounded in my calling and passions during my transition between ministry roles. The encouragement of my peers kept me grounded and focused on what God was teaching me through some very challenging times in my family.

I am blessed to have been part of Journey Pastoral Coaching for over five years. The Journey Coach has walked with me through many different situations and seasons in ministry. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for his guidance and intentional care for me. I’m also thankful for the Journey community. The monthly peer calls and intentional connections with my peers has helped me be a better person and minister.

The Journey Pastoral Coach, Pastor Baker, has helped me to move forward in my calling to be a mentor-coach. Through receiving coaching from him, I have experienced its power to help pastors become and stay healthy in ministry. Out of that, the Lord began to stir a similar passion in my heart. I am now pursuing a Master’s degree in Christian leadership with coaching as the main emphasis. I am also coaching others outside of Journey. My dream is to one day walk with students from an initial call to ministry to being credentialed and healthy in ministry. Without Pastor Baker and the Journey community, I don’t know how I would have discovered my love of coaching and God’s call for me to walk with future pastors like Pastor Baker has walked with me.

Several months ago, a fellow Journey member called me on a Sunday morning and prayed with me, before our service started. It blessed me to know that a fellow pastor responded to a prompting from the Holy Spirit—when they, themselves, were very busy preparing for Sunday ministry activities—and reached out, to encourage me.

I am convinced that I would not be a pastor today without the ministry of journey. I found P. Baker and his team at just the right time and their support has truly saved my spiritual life and sustained my call. In 2016, after a series of tragic circumstances, I found myself in a dark spiritual place. My marriage was on the rocks, any faith in God was strained, and what little desire that remained to serve the church was diminishing. One night I was on the verge of quitting it all when I saw a post from a friend about his coaching from P. Baker in Journey, so I clicked on the link and figured I’d give it a shot. That first phone call was a breath of fresh air, a glimmer of hope, and a lifeline to grasp onto as the waters of despair were threatening to pull me down. Now after countless phone calls, endless prayer and 5 years of perseverance my marriage is stronger than ever, my love for God’s people overflows from my life, and my passion for professional ministry is stronger than ever before. God used journey to sustain this millennial through the hard seasons of life and for that ministry I am eternally in debt and grateful.

Several months ago, a fellow Journey member called me on a Sunday morning and prayed with me, before our service started. It blessed me to know that a fellow pastor responded to a prompting from the Holy Spirit—when they, themselves, were very busy preparing for Sunday ministry activities—and reached out, to encourage me.

Being coached by Pastor Baker (my Pastor) has been an experience that the Holy Spirit has worked through to change my heart, my marriage and my ministry. It never ceases to amaze me how large an impact this ministry has in my life. Each and every time I speak with Pastor Baker I walk away from our time encouraged, strengthened in Christ and ready to advance the kingdom of God. Bottom line: being in Journey translates to my personal relationship with Jesus being much more fruitful and my ministry being much more fruitful.

Journey has been a refuge for me in some of the darkest times of ministry. The coaching, community and guidance it has given me, have changed the trajectory of my ministry and life!

Journey Pastoral Coaching has been one of the most important resources I have had in ministry. It’s hard to convey the encouragement and support having a mentor like Pastor Baker offers. I can’t help but think how much stronger so many churches and pastors would be if they had the same opportunity. Pastor Baker’s simple act of faithful mentorship has proven to be lifegiving, inspiring, and a Christ-like example of who I want to be for my congregation.

As a staff pastor at a church for the last two years I’ve been struck several times that while my work revolves around ministering to and equipping the people of God, there are many unexpected things that go along with that. Whether it’s having a tough conversation with a member of the church or dealing with church staff dynamics, there are just a list of things to navigate as a new pastor. More then anything else, pastoral coaching has given me an outside ear that encourages and challenges me while offering a seasoned perspective on the unique struggles that come with full time ministry. I’m immensely grateful for the opportunity to be pastored while I pastor others.

Ministry is lonely. Surprised? I was. Despite being surrounded by people, being a pastor is one of the most isolating jobs I have ever had. Who can I share my struggles with? Who can I discuss the personal side of my life with? Where can I safely ask questions about my faith? Unfortunately, most pastors do not have that outlet… but now I do. Pastor Baker has been just that for me… a pastor. When I hang up the phone after talking to him, I am refreshed and ready to jump back into ministry with a clear perspective. I’m thankful for his ministry and believe that pastors are better equipped and cared for with pastoral coaches.