About the Show
Mandeville’s First Baptist is a great church where people of all backgrounds are finding their purpose in Christ.
Ken Schroeder, Senior Pastor, kenschroeder@fbcmandeville.org
Five ways to describe Ken: loves his wife and kids, gifted teacher, committed to Christ, loves hard work, and is really a regular every day kind of guy!
What does he really do? Admittedly, Ken can’t do everything, and he freely admits that! But at First Baptist, he provides the vision and serves as our primary teacher. Ken guides the pastoral leadership team without micromanaging them.
The skinny on Ken: Are you kidding me? Ken is not skinny! Seriously, Ken was raised on a farm just west of Burkburnett, Texas (near Wichita Falls—“Tornado Alley” in north central Texas). Having grown up in a great Christian home (Lutheran background) and not long after marrying Gayla in 1975, Ken became convinced that he should join Gayla’s church, Central Baptist in Burkburnett. They worshiped there until Ken accepted a call to his first pastorate.
Ken and Gayla have four children: KeriBeth, Kendal, Travis, and Melissa. All have been active in sports in school and at Pelican Park. Having served as pastor of three churches in Texas (Jean, Argyle, and Wharton), Ken became senior pastor in Mandeville in May 1994.
What has Ken earned besides a few pats on the back? He has a Bachelor of Science in Education (B.S.E, 1982) from Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls. He has two degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth—a Master of Divinity (M.Div., 1985) and a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.,1989).
So what does all this alphabet soup of credentials mean? (a)Absolutely nothing without love (1 Corinthians 13:2) (b) He has lots of nice books in his personal library. (c) He knows lots of big words, but he still has a hard time pronouncing some of them. (d) All the above.
Other stuff that might interest you (or maybe it won’t): Ken is the “voice of Bulldog football” on Friday nights at the Dawg Pound at Fontainebleau High School. He enjoys remodeling their home and working in the yard, and he’s basically given up playing golf to do it.