When Christopher Rogers, Sr., his wife Tamra and their five children returned home to St. Louis in 2001 to be close to family, they were in search of a church home. They were told that First Baptist Church of Chesterfield had a dynamic new pastor.
“The first time I heard Stubblefield preach, I knew he was anointed,” Rogers said. “But what I was most blessed by was his example.”
The connection Pastor T.D. Stubblefield was intentional about making with all those who visited the historic church left an impression on Rogers. The family joined the church on October 21, 2001 and Stubblefield took him under his wing as a mentor in ministry. The next year Rogers became the youngest trustee in the church’s history – which dates back to 1846.
When Stubblefield retired in 2020, it was Rogers who stepped up in the interim as the church leadership conducted an extensive search for the right pastor to continue the storied legacy of the historically Black church. They found him. He had been there since 2001. On June 3, 2023, First Baptist Church of Chesterfield will install Rogers as their 21st senior pastor.
“It is nothing but the awe of God,” Rogers said. “I didn’t see it, couldn’t imagine it – I wasn’t even a preacher when we came back.”
He had grown up in the Life of Jericho Missionary Baptist Church under the leadership of his uncle, Pastor Reginald D. Rogers Sr. He was still a teen when that seed was planted in his spirit.
For three years in a row, Old Community Baptist Church in Webster Groves called him to speak at youth day. I made a joke with his uncle about being called to ministry, wondering if the people in his were the people in my life ready for that.
“And his question for me was, ‘are you ready for that?’’’ Rogers said. “All of my life people were saying, ‘you are going to preach, you are going to preach.’ I thought, ‘you’re saying that because my uncle is a preacher, not because you believe I’m going to be a preacher.’”
Rogers doesn’t believe God was calling him to preach back then. He does, however, feel that God was petitioning him to prepare for it. When he did get the sense that God was telling him to move towards his path to the pulpit, Rogers ran from it.
He served his country by way of the U.S. Navy. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Webster University and an MBA from Lindenwood University. He continued with his career as an IT Manager, which eventually included 22 years with the National Geospatial Intelligence-Agency.
“I wrestled with God for a moment about it,” Rogers admitted.
It would be a moment of divine protection that compelled him to be obedient and surrender.
The first week of February 2007, Rogers was on Highway 40 headed to work. It had snowed the night before. A Metro bus came so close to his lane that he decided to yield some space. He hit black ice and his car immediately started spinning.
“I thought about my wife and I thought about my children, but I never had a fear that I was at a point where I was not going to make it,” Rogers said. “I thought I had gone over the median, but I wasn’t sure. When the car stopped, I was in the same direction I was headed in.”
The Front and back windows were shattered. The right side – the passenger side – was gone. The front end of the car was gone. All he saw was white on the highway. All the cars had stopped.
A lady came up to him as he emerged from the shattered vehicle.
“She looked at me like, ‘I can’t believe you walked away from that?’ and asked if I was okay,” Rogers said. “I’m okay, I just need to call the tow truck and I can’t find my cell phone.”
His phone had lodged behind the dashboard.
“So many things happened within that time frame, but it was as if God was saying, ‘l got you, but you need to listen,’” Rogers said. “On February 4, 2007 I yielded to the Lord’s call and I never looked back.”
On January 13, 2008 Rogers became a licensed minister. He was ordained on August 12, 2012.
His family grew from five children to six and his wife and children and his ministry within First Baptist Church of Chesterfield has been a family affair.
And on this Saturday, “Pastor Chris” will serve his first role as senior pastor, and become a part of the rich legacy of the church that cultivated him to lead.
“I can’t think of a better word than humbling when you think about where we are and what God has blessed us to do,” Rogers said. “And you are talking about a church founded by slaves – in Chesterfield.”
He regularly visits the cemetery located on the church grounds with the understanding that the continuum of the First Baptist Church of Chesterfield’s ministry is an answered prayer for those ancestors, many of whom did not live to see freedom.
“We know that we stand on the shoulders of those who come before us,” Rogers said. “In that vein, we always have to recognize and realize that it was here before we got here. It is going to be here after we are gone.”
He said that it is the church body’s responsibility to do their part in the present to ensure they are carrying that legacy and that lineage – and are leaving something for future generations.
“We have a responsibility to pay it forward,” Rogers said. “That is the motivation, to ensure that when all is said and done and when somebody looks back 200 years from now, they can say, ‘I’m thankful that the 21st pastor of this church, Pastor Chris, and the things that church did under his leadership did were paramount to our success and fortitude to this very day.’”
For more information about The First Baptist Church of Chesterfield, visit www.firstbcc.org.