Our Pastor, Richie Fike, has deep roots in the Vanguard community. He was Worship Pastor at Vanguard Central for 12 years before he and his family moved back to their childhood home of Baton Rouge, LA, and then to Fort Worth Texas to serve as Worship Pastor for two great churches (The Chapel on the Campus in Baton Rouge and Doxology Church in Fort Worth). You may well know many of Richie’s songs, as he’s been a published songwriter for 10 years with Integrity Music. Songs like “We Believe”, “God Who Moves The Mountains” and “He’s My Rock” have been wide-spread songs that the international church community have sung in worship services across the planet. God has used Richie’s songwriting talent in ways that he couldn’t have imagined.

Sensing a new season approaching, Richie enrolled as a masters student at Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary. In the midst of pursuing this degree, the opportunity to come and serve as Lead Pastor at Vanguard Palmer Lake arose and the Lord made it very clear to him and to Vanguard’s leadership that the time was now to take on such a worthy challenge. He’ll be continuing his studies while on-the-job as our Lead Pastor. Richie is fond of saying, “God doesn’t call the equipped…. He equips the called.”

Richie and his wife, Dana have two boys; Justus and Judah.

Vanguard Palmer Lake has a storied history of God’s faithfulness. It was started 6 years ago as an opportunity to share the “REAL relationship with Jesus Christ” motto with the good people of the Tri-Lake area. From the beginning, VPL’s resolute mission has been to reach the Tri-Lake area with the grace and glory of God.

God is on the move at Vanguard Palmer Lake, and we’d love it if you’d pray about joining in the story God is unfolding before us. We want to see God’s people Grow in groups, Serve in sincerity, Contribute in generosity and live on mission. What’s your part in this story? Join us as we share the great love of a great God with a world that is starving for something REAL.