Leadership
Lead Pastor
Shawn Carpenter
Shawn has been married to his wife Laura since 1999. They have four boys, Ethan, Caleb, Isaac and Seth.
Shawn was born and raised in Ohio, where he was a youth pastor for five years. While the years pastoring youth and young adults were both fruitful and invaluable, Shawn’s call was to start new, stateside churches. This passion led the Carpenters to move to Charlotte, NC for Shawn to attend Reformed Theological Seminary. There, he received a Master of Divinity in 2008.
In March of 2008, Shawn and Laura felt the burden to help start new churches in Bakersfield, CA while on a vision trip with the church-planting director of Converge PacWest. Since then, Shawn and his family had prayerfully made their way west to begin Redeemer Church of Bakersfield. They arrived in Bakersfield in July of 2009 and began Sunday night gatherings in December.
A Note on the Leadership of Redeemer Church
It is my hope to shepherd, train and equip godly men for the offices of elder and deacon. The Bible is explicitly clear that the church is to be marked with a plurality of leadership (1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Peter 5:1-5 and Acts 6:1-7). Yet, our present reality of a pioneer church start is that we are starting from "scratch." As God provides, our desire is to begin identifying, training and establishing elders and deacons three years from the time of our launch as Redeemer Church of Bakersfield. This will give us the necessary ingredients of time and proximity to examine and shepherd the life and doctrine of potential elders and deacons.
Now, you may be wondering how decisions are made, currently. Good question! As the planting pastor of Redeemer Church of Bakersfield, I am responsible for the vision, direction and care for this embryonic church. I take this responsibility seriously and humbly. As such, our affiliation with Converge PacWest has provided the appropriate oversight and accountability for a pioneer church start. While I will work at shepherding future shepherds of the church, there is a team of regional pastors and leaders that are assisting, encouraging and laboring with me in this endeavor.
I will continue to look forward to the day Redeemer Church is cared for by a team of elders and deacons. Until then, labor with me in the gospel so that “the many” (Mark 10:45) will trust in the Redeemer.
Shawn Carpenter
Lead Pastor of Redeemer Church