our pastor

Alan Stanford has been serving as a pastor for over 40 years and continues in active pastoral ministry during his retirement as the pastor of the North Fork Baptist Church and as a NorthStar Network Church Consultant.  Alan is a graduate of Baylor University, with a Masters of Divinity and Ph.D. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.  He has been the Senior Pastor of six growing churches (two in Texas and four in Virginia). During his first term as Senior Pastor at Leesburg Baptist Church, from 1991 to 2001, Sunday morning attendance grew from 250 to 1,200 per week and more than 700 adults were baptized. The church also did more than $7 million dollars of building and remodeling. While serving with the Baptist World Alliance, Alan pastored The Church at Clarendon in Arlington, VA and led them in the development of a $48 million renovation of their church facility adding affordable housing as a ministry of the church. 

In addition to his pastoral ministry, Alan has served as a Psychiatric Chaplain at Baylor Hospital in Dallas, John Leland Seminary Vice President, General Secretary of the North American Baptist Fellowship, and Director of Mission Advancement for the Baptist World Alliance. International Missions has always been his passion, and he frequently speaks in churches and training events around the globe. His desire is to help Christians and churches everywhere reach their full potential in Jesus Christ.

Alan and his wife, Elaine (who is a Choral Conductor, Pianist and the Music Specialist for Loudoun County Public Schools) have two married adult children; Sarah (a Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Univ. of Houston) and Chris (Vice-President, Bank of America). They also have four grandchildren.