TODAY marks the start of a new era in the life of one of Bournemouth’s most historic churches. Peter Baker, 53, officially takes over as senior minister of Lansdowne Baptist Church as it prepares to embark on an ambitious £3million rebuilding project.

On first impressions, it would be easy to regard Peter Baker as a man who has had more than his fair share of good fortune.

He’s a charismatic, media savvy, double blue Oxford graduate who played rugby at a high level and led one of the biggest and most successful churches in Wales.

He has been married to his wife Sian for more than 30 years, has two grown-up daughters and is a regular presenter of Prayer for the Day on Radio 4.

But Peter, who has just moved to Bournemouth from Cardiff, says it hasn’t all been plain sailing.

“The biggest challenge we faced was the birth of our first daughter who was born with a rare genetic condition,” he said.

“It was a massive learning curve for me but I learnt a lot about what was really important in life.”

And he adds: “Christian ministry is not an easy gig – particularly in our current aggressively secular environ-ment.

“If you were looking for a job in terms of financial and social recognition, you wouldn’t go into ministry.

“For me it is a calling, a vocation. Much of it is mundane, routine and ordinary or you are dealing with people who are dying, parents who have lost little children. The idea that people like me don’t have a clue about real life is nonsense. It’s not a job for the faint-hearted.”

Peter didn’t grow up in a Christian family. His parents were converted to the Christian faith in their mid-30s.

“It had a dramatic effect on all our lives in many ways. I watched all this as an interested observer until my mid-teens when I also committed my life to Christ.”

Although he considered a career in law, Peter eventually followed his calling after he left Oxford and enrolled at a Bible college in south Wales. He then helped to plant a new church in Cardiff.

“We were renting premises, we had no staff, a small cong-regation and no prospects. We had to set up every Sunday from boxes and suitcases.”

Eventually they bought an old Presbyterian chapel and over the following 18 years, Peter helped to build Highfields, a free church with around 1,000 members.

“It would have been easy to spend the rest of my days there. I didn’t have itchy feet. But one day last July, when I was preaching, I had a powerful sense of God saying it was time for me to move on and try something new. The following day Lansdowne got in touch.”

Now Peter once again faces the prospect of running a church from rented premises if the proposed rebuild goes ahead.

“There has been talk about a rebuild at Lansdowne for the last 15 years so it’s time we got on with it.

“There are lots of unknowns, but there’s the prospect that we will eventually have a wonderful, new, modern facility that will be a credit to the local community and provide an environment for Christian ministry for the next generation.”