Pancreatic cancer has always sounded like a death sentence to Chris Baker.
So it hit him hard when he heard those words from his doctor in December 2024.
“The shock of that took us probably an hour to process and cry through, to know we’re not going to live 20 more years as a couple doing the things we love to do,” Baker said.
He and his wife, Kim, moved from Alabama to Montana with their two sons in 2014 to plant Summit Life Church in Whitefish.
“Our church is in our home,” he said. “We have about 35 or 40. When you have 12 to 15 kids running around it can be chaotic, but it’s just rich, that time together.”
It takes about an hour for everyone to break up after the service ends, Baker said. People stay around and fellowship and pray with each other. They’re also raising up new leaders — this year they were able to plant a second church.
“God’s just been good; I don’t know how to say anything different,” he said.
And now as he goes through chemo and wonders what the future will hold, those are the words Baker continues to say.
“Through this cancer diagnosis, we’ve learned lessons on peace, contentment and community,” he said.
Something wrong
It all started back in July 2024 when Baker was at a conference and began suffering from what he thought was food poisoning.
“I didn’t eat for a couple of weeks, and then I ended up in the emergency room with pancreatitis,” he said.
He had a couple of surgeries, and they told him everything was fine. But he didn’t feel fine.
“I didn’t eat again for about a month — I had an inflamed pancreas, it had lesions and fluid on it. It was bad,” Baker said.
Things continued on this way, and he had more surgeries — some for pancreatitis, and some for kidney stones brought on by dehydration. Eventually in December doctors found a tumor on his pancreas and told him the words he hadn’t wanted to hear.
“I knew something like that was going on — I had been losing too much weight too fast,” Baker said. “It was a day filled with tears and ‘how much more time’ and that kind of thing. Because of where the tumor is, I’m not operable at this point, and they gave me a couple more months to live.”
Nearly four months later, he’s still taking chemo and continuing to lead his church.
“We’ve got such an amazing church family around us; they’ve really leaned into this season,” he said. “They’ve watched a 300-plus-pound man shrink to a 200-pound man in past seven or eight months. They’ve watched me kind of wither away.”
Leaning on the Lord
But Baker said he’s thankful. He has more good days than bad days, and other than his first round of chemo, he hasn’t experienced any more pain or nausea.
“We know the tumor has shrunk a little bit, but it’s wrapped around my mesenteric artery,” he said. “If it’s more than halfway around that artery, you’re not operable.”
They’re currently working on getting second opinions, looking at radiation and hoping surgery will be an option one day.
In the midst of it all, people have asked Baker if he is angry that doctors didn’t find it sooner, but he said he isn’t.
“We’re determined to lean into the Lord because we know He’s gracious,” he said. “We know it’s no surprise to Him — He’s sovereign over all of us. It’s evidently what the Lord has chosen for us at this time, and we have to rejoice in the midst of that that we get to learn these lessons, that we get to share this with others.”
He has regularly shared videos on Facebook encouraging others to trust God’s love for them in the midst of hard times, and he said his church community has been “incredible” in taking care of them, as have neighbors and fellow pastors in the area.
“I don’t know anybody who’s got it better than us; we’re well cared for,” he said.
Scotty Goldman, director of the office of global missions at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said Baker has been “a remarkable example” through his cancer journey.
“He has approached this just as he has approached ministry both in Alabama and Montana — exhibiting a dependence on the Lord and helping others to learn through his journey,” Goldman said. “Chris’ calm spirit and positive attitude have always been evident in his ministry; he is following that same model through this illness — calm and encouraging others.”
Share with others: