Teaching Pastor

Rod Phillips is our Pastor-Teacher.  Since his father worked for British Airways Rod spent much of his life in other countries: He was born in Tel-Aviv, Israel; at age 5 his family moved to Frankfort, Germany; at age 8 they moved again to Camberley, England; and at age 16 they immigrated to the USA finally landing in Clarkston, MI where he graduated from High School.

Rod has over 25 years of pastoral ministry experience, serving as Sr. Pastor in both Michigan and California for the past 15 years.  During his ministry he has emphasized the need for effective Missions, especially the support and training of national pastors around the world.  He is also committed to teaching, training and practicing Biblical Counseling in the local church.

Rod completed his Ph.D. from Trinity Theological Seminary and served as an adjunct professor at The Master’s College.  He is married to Elia, a Bay Area native, and has four children: Vanessa, Gavin, Deanna and Adam.

Rod enjoys reading a good book, riding his mountain bike, following the entertaining progress of West Ham United (an English soccer team), writing on his blog and a good cup of joe from either Starbucks or Peet's.

Leadership Teams

The Elder Team is presently made up of three elders as well as our Teaching Pastor. Their role is to serve as shepherds and overseers, in particular over the spiritual health and well being of Gateway Bible Church.

The SYNC Team is made up of ministry leaders who meet to assess the ongoing ministry development of Gateway and to provide healthy communication for upcoming ministry endeavors.

The Missions team oversees the direction and maintenance of our missions vision and strategy, locally as well as around the world.

Gateway's Biblical Counseling team has formed to address biblical counseling as part of our ongoing ministry to our church family and surrounding community.