TRCC Staff

Dr. Ben Gates became the lead pastor of Trier Ridge Community Church in October of 2022. He served as the Executive Director of Greater Fort Wayne Campus Ministry and a campus pastor at (Indiana University) Purdue University Fort Wayne and the Indiana Institute of Technology from 1997-2020. He continues to teach as a Senior Lecturer with the Purdue University Fort Wayne Department of History and has been a member of that Department since 1997. Dr. Gates earned a Master of Divinity Degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California and an M.A. and Ph.D. Degrees in History from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. As a campus minister, he trained hundreds of student leaders as well as several campus ministry interns. During these years, he led 26 cross-cultural mission trips to eleven different countries on three different continents, building a network of international ministry partners. Ben and his wife Janet, an elementary school teacher, have been married for 26 years. The family includes two grown sons, Alex and Benjamin, Alex’s wife, Morgan, their sweet but eccentric Shichon “Keelie,” and their grand-dog, “Gus Gus.” You can reach Pastor Ben directly at gatesb@pfw.edu or (260)341-6122.