Dan Baumgartner is currently the Senior Pastor at Bethany Presbyterian Church (“Bethany”) in Seattle, WA. He received his B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Washington and an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. Dan was in business for 11 years and held several senior executive positions, including Director of Marketing and Purchasing with CARQUEST Auto Parts, before being led to pursue full-time ministry.  In 1996, Dan accepted his first call as Associate Pastor at Knox Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, MN.

In 1999, Dan returned to Bethany where he had been a member and Elder to serve as their Senior Pastor. In the 11 years he has been there, Dan has immersed his congregation in Scripture with Biblically-based preaching; cultivated an openness to the Holy Spirit that has encouraged new programs to flourish; hired, nurtured, and retained excellent long-term staff members; been fiscally responsible and generous toward mission outreach; and developed Session into an intimate community of leaders. Dan is a strong leader with a tender heart who gets along with a wide diversity of people while holding to his core beliefs and philosophies.


Dan was born and raised in Seattle. He met his wife, Anne, in high school and they have been married for 28 years. The Baumgartners have three great children – sons, Jesse (23) and Nick (21), and daughter, Dana (18).  When Dana enrolls as a freshman at Drew University in the fall, Dan and Anne will begin life as “empty nesters.” Anne is an artist and art teacher, recently completing her M.F.A. at the Art Institute of Boston. She is a phenomenal woman, and wonderful friend and ministry partner to Dan. To learn more about Anne and her artwork, please go to http://www.fpch.org/AnneBaumgartner.htm.


Dan loves to run, bike, play golf, and hike. He loves sports of all kinds, both as a participant and a spectator. He is a voracious reader and is usually in the middle of 3 or 4 books in different genres. Whenever he has time, Dan also enjoys writing an occasional poem, essay, short story, and maybe someday a book.