Bob Baggott

Dr. Baggott served as Senior Minister of two of the largest congregations in the United Church of Christ before coming to The Community Church of Vero Beach in 2004.  Dr.  Baggott graduated from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, where he was an Honor Initiate with Sigma Nu Fraternity, and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary where his emphasis was Preaching, receiving his Master of Divinity degree in 1984. He holds a Doctor of Ministry Degree from Graduate Theological Foundation, South Bend, Indiana. He also holds a Doctor of Divinity Degree, honoris causa, from Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia. Piedmont College is one of two historical colleges of the National Association of Congregational Churches. Dr.  Baggott has done further study at the Summer Institute of Religious Studies in Oxford, England, and completed seven units of Clinical Pastoral Education at Baptist Hospital in New Orleans. A noted preacher that the Minneapolis Star Tribune called “engaging and thought provoking", his sermons are crafted collegially along with his wife Casey, which makes for a richness of thought and perspective.

Dr. Baggott was chosen to be included in the first Robert Schuler Institute of Preaching in 1990; was invited to preach at the National Cathedral's Bethlehem Chapel at the anniversary service of the crash of Pan Am 103; preached at the Orchard Park Temple Church's 125th anniversary Celebration in Orchard Park, Maine, in the summer of 2006; and preached at the National Conclave of Tall Steeple Ministers of the United Church of Christ in 2003. Dr. Baggott also delivered the Commencement address to graduates of the Class of 2009 at Piedmont College, and to the graduates of the University of Indianapolis in 2006. Dr. Baggott has been honored for his religious service by giving the Opening Invocation for the Congress of the United States in 1994 and by serving as Chaplain for the day. Rev. Baggott's honors include being named by Miami Magazine as one of 86 people to watch in 1986, religious leader of the year in Naperville, Ill, in 1989, and International Citizen of the Year by the University of Indianapolis in 2006 for his work in Israel with Palestinian Christians. He has been President of the Coconut Grove Rotary Club in Miami, served as Chair of the Protestant Appeal, and was named Board Member of the Year for the Community Renewal in 1987.

Currently, Dr. Baggott serves on the board of the Nazareth-Galilee Educational Institute, in Nazareth, Israel. He also on the Board of Directors of Hanley Hall, a residential treatment facility in Vero Beach, Florida.