A former Illinois megachurch pastor, who resigned last year after being accused of mishandling alleged sexual misconduct by his son, has a growing congregation in a new downtown Bloomington location.

“We’re going to be a church that reaches in this community, that helps people who are poor, that helps people who are sick, that cares for kids who are in under-resourced positions,” Pastor Mike Baker said in a sermon on his YouTube channel last Sunday. “We’ll bring justice by loving those that no one else can or will.”

Baker resigned from Eastview Christian Church (ECC) in February 2023 following allegations he covered up sexual misconduct by his son, Caleb Baker, when Caleb was a pastor at Eastview.

Caleb Baker resigned from ECC in 2016 and took a pastoral position at Central Christian Church (CCC), a megachurch in Arizona. The allegations concerning Caleb’s sexual misconduct, remained secret until last year, when CCC fired Caleb, following a separate allegation of an “extramarital relationship” with a CCC employee.

Mike Baker has continually stated that he handled the situation with his son correctly and that accusations to the contrary are “lies.”

The elder Baker started an online preaching ministry called Song and Sword just weeks after he resigned from ECC, stating he’s “called to preach.” He also said he needed the income because he didn’t trust his former elders to take care of his family financially.

About a year ago, the Baker opened Song and Sword church in Bloomington’s Chateau Hotel and Conference Center. Song and Sword church has been “fast-growing,” now with 300 people, some of whom are former ECC congregants, reported news site WGLT this week.

This Sunday, the church is moving to a building in downtown Bloomington where a church called City of Refuge Ministries used to be.

Throughout the past year, Baker has stated that whistleblowers spread “lies” about him and his family, and that his ECC elder board slandered him by accusing him of a “cover-up.”

However, a third-party investigation found that Baker likely misused his power to cover up his son’s sexual misconduct and consolidated his power to avoid accountability.

Baker told TRR this week that he has persevered after being “falsely accused.”

“There is a great story here of perseverance in ministry when one is publicly maligned and falsely accused. . . .” Baker wrote in an email to TRR.

However, Baker declined to answer The Roys Report’s (TRR) repeated questions about the accountability structure at his new church.

“The accountability line in your inquiry itself questions my integrity,” Baker wrote to TRR this week. “I had lots of accountability while at my former church, and the elders know it.”

The independent investigation that ECC commissioned last year stated though ECC had an elder board, Baker served as the sole gatekeeper of information that was reported to the elders. The report added that Baker was “above the rules.” Staff believed they couldn’t report to the elders without fear of retribution, the report stated.

Baker told WGLT that Song and Sword has an executive team and a pastoral leadership team that provide accountability.

But he told WGLT that the past accusations were due to pastors having “targets on their back.”

“There’s no doubt about it that pastors, especially of mega-churches, have targets on their back,” Baker told WGLT. “When accusations begin to fly, it becomes very natural for that to happen.”

Baker declined an interview with TRR to further discuss his church citing general media bias.

“Unfortunately, I am not having any luck with media being unbiased,” he wrote in an email. “. . . I am uninterested in giving media another chance to take a shot at me. . . . All that to say, I’m not interested in an interview that in the end. I can’t trust what may be printed.”

Song and Sword has a vision to “proclaim Jesus with a song of grace and a sword of truth,” Baker said in his sermon last Sunday. Baker also still has an online ministry, also called Song and Sword, in which he offers daily devotionals.

In his message yesterday, Baker encouraged people to rejoice in the Lord in the midst of struggles at work and relational problems because he understands what criticism feels like.

“I know your life. Your life’s like my life,” Baker said. “You have anybody criticizing you, or telling lies about you, or saying things about you that are not fun? Me too. You have people that have betrayed you or turned your back on you? Me too.”

Rebecca Hopkins is a journalist based in Colorado.