RIP: Pastor Greg Baker's suicide death on Monday

Why is everyone just assuming depression here?

 

The police have ruled it suicide, what are you thinking might be the reason?

 

People commit suicide for more reasons than just being depressed. As in maybe they were up to something they shouldn't have been and could not live with the outcome if they should be found out.
Let's remember here that most preachers find their demise in sexual misconduct, greed, or pride.
I'm not saying I know what it may have been but let's not just lean on that crutch of depression just so we can give an easy to swallow coating.

 

We have friends that attend Faithway and the word appears to be that there might be issues with church finances. Nevertheless, whatever the outcome, it appears this story is not finished. We attended a few times with our friends but felt uncomfortable for some reason with Pastor Baker. Our prayers are with the Baker family and judging by the family picture on the church website Pastor Baker left behind a beautiful family. We will continue to pray for the church family as they overcome their shock.

 

whole lot of people posting for the first time on this board about this...

I think this ought to be closed.

 

I am curious as to why this should now be a closed topic of discussion?
While Pator Baker was a great man with a heart for winning souls to Christ he was also a flawed man like all of us.
Faithway is / was never operated on the principal of plurality of leadership. It was run as a dictorship. Yes there was a deacons board but they were pretty much told how things were going to operate and they always shook their heads in agreement.
The church finances were never open to discussion and were treated much in the same way that the leadership was. In the late 1990s some members raised questions as to how things were being handled and they were blocked out and shunned and treated as trouble makers. No one ever answered the queries and the church finances have never been open for the membership to view or vote on.
The church is almost entirely staffed by relatives of Pastor Baker, and the church is very legalistic in its approach. If you don't read the King James, dress a certain way, attend three times a week, attend all the missions conferences then there is a "problem with your heart" and you are treated as an outsider, even to the point where if one wished to contribute in some manner that they were not allowed.
I don't need to make this stuff up. It's a fact and if anyone feels the need to challenge it I can give many accounts to support my claims.
I don't have it in for anyone. I just see this getting swept under the carpet like everything else does there and no one should dare to question.
Faithway is a fantastic church which is effective in its community outreach and winning souls to Christ but it is flawed as all are, and as all of us are. I only hope that we can all learn something from such a sad and pointless death. This is why there is a need for plurality of leadership so that there is a level of accountability to one another and that when people are in dire need that others will notice before it is too late.

 

Did Pastor Baker leave a letter behind? People who commit suicide usually leaving something behind.

 

Actually, this is a misconception. Many do leave behind rememberances of conversations with their friends and family, or journal entries, which, after the fact, appear to have been cryptic crys for help or cloaking despondancy...... but, very few really leave behind letters.