Our Pastor
Rev. Paul A. Stoot, Sr., D.Min.
Paul A. Stoot, Sr., a native of Houston, Texas. After high school, he began his career with the U.S. Navy. He holds a degree in Business Administration from Miramar Community College, San Diego, California. He later attended National University in San Diego, CA to work on his BA in Manufacturing Operations. In 2007 he enrolled to complete his BA in Religious Studies and Masters in Theology at Faith Evangelical Seminary and completed his Masters of Divinity Program in June 2013. He graduated from Faith Seminary in June 2015 with his Doctorate of Ministry with the emphasis of Stragetic Leadership and Life Coaching.
In January of 1983 in San Diego, California, he joined Greater Trinity Missionary Baptist Church there, under Pastor Clyde E. Gaines, Sr. In 1990, Pastor Stoot relocated to Everett, Washington to work for the Boeing Company. He then joined the Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church under the leadership of the late Pastor H.B. Sampson, Jr., and served in faithful support of the pastor.
Greater Trinity Missionary Baptist Church (GTMBC) of Everett, Washington was founded by Pastor Paul A. Stoot, Sr., DMin. The church emanated from a Bible study group that started at his home in June 1992. As attendance grew, the church was born. In January 1993 worship services commenced at the Holiday Inn Hotel. Endeavoring to do the work of the ministry, and through God’s blessing, GTMBC purchased two acres of property. This undertaking was a movement of faith and now Greater Trinity looks to God for movement to another level. In the summer of 2003, Pastor Stoot went on a 35 day sabbatical and gave of himself to the service of the Rev. Dr. Ralph D. West where he joined and became a son of the Church Without Walls (aka the Brookhollow Baptist Church).
As the church continued to grow, Pastor Stoot noticed a critical need in the community that was not being adequately met for many families that he encountered - access to a quality Early Childhood Education Program. As a result, the Greater Trinity Academy was founded in 1999. Over the 17 years that the program has been active, Pastor Stoot has supervised addition of a Kindergarten class and guided the school through the process of being approved as a certified private school through the Washington State Board of Education Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Under his leadership, the Academy has brought in more than $350,000 in grants, nearly $300,000 through the Academy’s Annual Fundraiser Luncheon and Celebrity Golf Tournaments and over $600,000 through other donations to the program. Most recently, the Academy was awarded nearly $70,000 toward the purchase of a new 22 passenger bus for the Academy - $40,000 from the Boeing Employee Community Fund and $28,000 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Mission of the Academy is to eliminate the achievement gap by providing a high quality, innovative, academic experience stimulating a child's enthusiasm for learning throughout their educational career and beyond. As a student-centered school of excellence building a community that is passionate about learning, we envision a world where every child's best is achieved and the next generation assumes leadership of the world as informed and productive citizens. We recognize that youth have to be prepared early with the skills our world needs. We pride ourselves in being an imaginative, creative, and forward-thinking academy that focuses on literacy and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects as the foundation for academic success -- and we do so with youth who are deemed least likely to succeed in the public school system. GTA is a full service learning academy which provides nutritional meals, extended hours of operation, as well as social and emotional activities to augment the rigorous culture of learning.
Dr. Stoot is active locally and nationally in leadership positions. He is a member of the Board of Governor’s Virginia Mason Medical Center Hospital and the Board of Regents for Seattle University. He has served as Chair of the Foreign Mission Board of the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America; Moderator, New Era District Baptist Association; and President of the Washington State Baptist Convention.
He has been called upon numerous times to provide support for government and political leaders—meeting with former Vice President Al Gore in Everett (with the GTMBC choir singing); delivering opening prayer for the House of Representatives in Washington D.C. in June 2001; and prayed several times in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives for our State Congressional Leaders. In January of 2009, he was invited as a VIP guest of our local Senators to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama as our first African-American President and was able to attend President Obama’s second inauguration in January of 2013. This past March he celebrated 23 years of Ministry as Pastor of the Greater Trinity Church in Everett, Washington.
Dr. Stoot is concerned with those within the church as well as the community. He is committed to Christian growth, personally and as a church, through precept and example.
"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” II Timothy 2:3
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18