On Sun,, Sept. 22, Becker Evangelical Free Church, during their Sunday morning service, formally recognized Stephen Clayton as their Preaching Pastor in what is called an Installation Service.
Tim Tomlinson, former President of Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis, explained it’s importance.
“It communicates the solemn calling that it is to be a Pastor of a church,” he said. “To publicly, solemnly ask God to consecrate your leaders is a significant and important step.”
Clayton is not new. He has been preaching regularly at BEFC since June 16. In fact, he first spoke at the church in May of 2023. He was a part of a rotating group of Bethlehem Seminarians who filled the pulpit at BEFC until a permanent Pastor could be found. Back then, Clayton never imagined that the permanent replacement would be him.
A Long Journey
Clayton’s journey to BEFC was an unexpected one. He grew up in Winter Park FL, just outside of Orlando before moving to Columbus, GA to earn a bachelor’s degree in Music Performance. It was in Columbus where he turned his life around thanks in large part to “two college friends and one dead one.”
According to Clayton, the two friends were Teddy and Josh and the one dead friend was B.B. Warfield. Teddy led both Clayton and Josh to Jesus through his persistent witness. Clayton confessed that Teddy often revealed the inconsistencies in his life and spurred him toward a more meaningful faith. Just as important, Clayton came across Warfield’s book “The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible.” That book revealed to him that the Bible is trustworthy and reliable. All of those things led him to faith and his current position, but before he could go to Becker, he first had to first go to Winnipeg Canada.
Winnipeg to Columbus to Minneapolis
Clayton is an accomplished trombone player. After graduating from Columbus State University, he received a job offer from the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and from 2017-18 was the Principal Bass Trombonist. By any measure, it was the fulfillment of everything he could have wanted, but events beyond his control would lead him into ministry.
Clayton returned to Columbus because of a relationship that would eventually fall apart and in the summer of 2020, COVID interrupted his music career. The music lessons he taught and the concerts he was subbing in for at the Atlanta and Alabama Symphony all stopped.
During that same period, he got plugged in at Cross Pointe Church and there, with the help of Pastor Brad Evangelista, his passion for ministry grew.
Then one day, “out of the blue”, the Admissions Director at Bethlehem College and Seminary called and said there was an opening. He jumped at the opportunity to study Theology, Hebrew, and Greek and moved to Minnesota.
In the fall of 2021 at Bethlehem, he met his wife, Katie. In the summer of 2022, they married and in August of 2023, they had a son and named him David. He began to work as a Pastoral Assistant in the fall of 2021-spring 2024 at The North Church in Mounds View under the supervision of Pastor Steven Lee, which would eventually lead Clayton and his family to Becker to be named BEFC’s Preaching Pastor. A position whose job description was summed up by Sam Crabtree, Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, during the Installation Service, “Show them Jesus.”
Pastor Stephen Clayton fully intends to do just that.
