Our Staff

Pastor Gary Taylor

Pastor Gary has served as Lead Pastor of FBCMorrisville since 1989. When he first came, he served full-time as the only pastor at the church.

   Baptized at the age of twelve, Pastor Taylor started pastoral training at birth.  The son of Rev. & Mrs. Horace Taylor, Gary observed first hand the duties, joys and sorrows of a pastor.  When he entered Philadelphia College of Bible, now Carin University, he had already recognized his calling and seminary training was a part of the plan. 

   While in college, he met Lois Brown, another “Preacher’s Kid.”  After graduation, with a BS in Bible and B.Music degree, they were married in July 1978. During their seminary years they spent six months in the Phillippians as short-term missionaries. Pastor Gary graduated from Western Seminary in Portland, OR, with a Master of Divinity in 1982.  

   After leaving seminary, Pastor Gary served at Central Baptist Church in Millerstown, PA for five years before moving to First Baptist Church of Morrisville in February, 1989.  While at FBCMorrisville, he became a chaplain with the PA Army National Guard in August, 1989 and later moved to the US Army Reserves. He served both in Kosovo and Kuwait under Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn before retiring in 2016 as a Colonel.

   Pastor and Lois Taylor are the proud parents of five children and two grandchildren and shepherd to many more. 

Pastor Ken Shemelia

   Pastor Ken serves as Pastor of Assimilation and Outreach. He and his wife, Dee, were first led to First Baptist as parishioners in 1989. They began to serve in Awana and then went on to lead the youth group. He could see in God’s church the people that were hurting inside and deeply wanted to help them. God led him to use his own life experience to start a Christ-centered support group for addiction and compulsive behaviors called “New Beginnings”. Ken eventually led discipleship groups, membership classes and then went on to begin and direct the church’s small group ministry, now called Life Groups. He became an Elder and was licensed to preach following an interview by the pastor and elders at First Baptist of Newtown, now Gracepoint. In 2007, he was brought onto the staff as Pastor Ken.

  Pastor Ken’s salvation story is not that of most church leaders. He says, “The Lord used my years of complete rebellion against God to form me into the man that I am today.”  In January of 1987, alone at home, he told God that he knew he was a sinner and that Jesus died for his sins. He asked Jesus to forgive him and immediately knew something had happened. The emptiness and loneliness that he had tried to fill with all kinds of worldly pleasures had left. He cried because he never knew this type of joy. The Lord changed his heart. He now says, “I am now a new creature because I am in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). 

Life Verse: John 3:3 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Our Staff