Bob Merritt
Bob Merritt is the retired senior pastor of Eagle Brook Church in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, a megachurch. Early life and education Merritt's father was Calvin Merritt, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Neshannock Township, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. Bob Merritt attended Neshannock High School in the 1970s, then went to Bethel University in Arden Hills, Minnesota, where he obtained a master's degree in divinity. From 1983 to 1988 he was pastor of the Falun First Baptist Church in Falun, Wisconsin. He then went to Penn State University, where he earned a doctorate in speech communications in 1991. Ministry Merritt became pastor of the First Baptist Church (Eagle Brook Church) of White Bear Lake in 1991. By 1997, when the church took its present name, average weekend attendance had grown to 1,400. To encourage people who may have been turned off by the formality of other churches, Merritt deliberately gave Eagle Brook an informal atmosphere, with no stained glass, pews or altar. Merritt attributes the healthy level of donations from his core congregation to the sense of mission in the church, the drive to reach as many people as possible and help them grow in their faith. He also