To whom it may concern,
Pastor Caleb Kolstad has been our Senior Pastor for almost
seven years now. When Caleb and his
family arrived here in 2008 they inherited a very challenging revitalization work. Over the past six years Caleb has made every
effort to help return First Baptist Church back to its founding
commitments. By God’s grace we are once
again a Word-centered Church.
The most important thing our Pastor has done is to faithfully
preach and teach the Word of God each and every Sunday. True expository preaching is a rare thing
these days and we are blessed to have an approved workman that is
wholeheartedly committed to rightly handling the Word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15;
4:2; 1 Peter 4:10-11).Caleb has also invested much effort trying to disciple and train laymen (2 Timothy 2:2). It is our Pastor’s conviction that godly laymen are the backbone of the church. Caleb’s leadership training and development classes have pushed our men to develop strong biblical convictions as they seek to be God’s kind of leaders at home, in the community, and in the church.
Pastor Kolstad is also committed to being a faithful shepherd-leader. Caleb and Andrea have had almost every new visitor into their home as well as many of our regular members. Caleb also visits our sick and our ministry shut-ins. Over the past many years Caleb has officiated over twenty-eight funerals. Our Pastor loves his children and is one of our main teachers in our weekly Awana ministry.
Finally, our Pastor and his wife are very active in our church’s biblical counseling ministry. Caleb’s wife Andrea has her Master’s in Biblical Counseling and is a NANC certified counselor. This too has been a tremendous blessing to our entire church family and to our community at large.
Pastor Caleb is biblically qualified according to God’s standards for the office of elder/pastor (1 Timothy 3; Titus 1). He has been in pastoral ministry for close to ten years now.
It is my privilege to recommend Caleb Kolstad for your doctoral of ministry program. If God works out all of the details it is our Pastor’s desire to complete this program in four years.
Sincerely,
Chairman of the deacon board at First Baptist Church, Freeport
