Charles F. Baker

Charles Baker grew up under the preaching of C.I. Scofield. His commitment to a godly life based on the Word of God was evident to all who knew him. In his youth he developed a love for engineering and radio. He graduated from Wheaton College and received his Master of Theology Degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. His love for radio brought him to North Shore Church in Chicago where he worked under Pastor J.C. O’Hair and ran the church’s radio station. It was from North Shore Church that he became the first pastor of Fundamental Bible Church in Milwaukee in 1932. As a pastor he promoted missions in the church from its inception, and the church, now renamed Grace Bible Church of West Allis, WI, continues as a strong missions-minded church. Pastor Baker was a great teacher of the Word of God from a dispensational perspective. In January 1939, he and a number of fellow grace pastors and church leaders founded the Worldwide Grace Testimony Missions (now Grace Ministries International). He was appointed secretary of the board, a position that he held for over 25 years. He was also editor of the mission magazine and eventually of Truth magazine.

Charles Baker’s strong commitment to teaching the Word of God and training men and women to serve God in the local church led him to begin Milwaukee Bible Institute (MBI) as an evening school. Along with his wife Theresa and several fellow-pastors, he taught classes at the Fundamental Bible Church. When the Grace Gospel Fellowship was founded in 1943 by a group of grace pastors, one of the first items of business was to ask Pastor Baker to head up the project of making Milwaukee Bible Institute a day school for the purpose of training pastors, missionaries and church workers.

President Baker was not satisfied with keeping Milwaukee Bible Institute as a three-year Bible school. His vision was to see the school become a four-year Bible college. This change took place in 1953 and the school was renamed Milwaukee Bible College. In 1961, the college moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan and was then renamed Grace Bible College.
*[adapted from https://gracechristian.edu/about-grace/office-of-the-president/past-presidents/]*