Reverend Chad Bailey
Chad Bailey was born
and raised in Tupelo, Mississippi. He attended church as a child and came to saving
faith in Jesus Christ as a teenager. He initially grew in his faith through involvement
in his church's youth group and through a relationship with the youth pastor and
his family. The next year, he attended Belhaven
College on a soccer scholarship. There he learned about the Reformed
faith through his involvement in the local RUF
ministry. Chad began attending
Trinity Presbyterian Church and developed friends and mentors at both Belhaven and
Trinity. He also met his future wife, Rebecca Wells, there at Belhaven.
Chad began to consider God's calling on his life and through the counsel of many
mentors (and a career-ending knee injury), he decided to attend seminary.
He graduated from Belhaven in 1999 with a degree in Biblical Studies and History
and then attended Reformed Theological Seminary
in Jackson, Mississippi, graduating
with his Masters of Divinity degree in 2003. He also married Rebecca while
in seminary.
During and after seminary, Chad worked with college students as part of the RUF
ministry in Jackson and at Trinity Presbyterian. He then served as an Assistant
Pastor at College Hill Presbyterian in Oxford, Mississippi. During his time
in Mississippi he had the privilege of being taught and mentored by men such as
Mike Ross, J. Ligon Duncan and Derek Thomas. He became the pastor at
The Rock in May, 2007.
Chad has a passion for the expository preaching of God's Word and a firm conviction
about the ordinary means of grace God has given for growing His church and His people.
He is active at both the local and national levels in efforts to encourage the church
to return to its roots in the Protestant Reformation and to use God's means of grace
as the basis for church ministry.
Chad and his wife, Rebecca, have two children, Hannah and Samuel, and live in Stockbridge.
Outside of theology, family and church, Chad continues to have an avid interest
in sports.