College Parkway Baptist Church Welcomes Dan Allen As New Senior Pastor

Stepping out in faith has been life-changing for Dan Allen many times over. Going on a mission trip to Haiti just after the turn of the century led not only to him falling in love with his future wife, but ultimately to them adopting two of their sons. Surrendering a successful career to follow a calling into vocational ministry resulted in Allen attending seminary and pastoring a church in Massachusetts for roughly two decades. And most recently, sensing that it was time to move on to a new season of life has brought Allen from his lifelong home of New England down south, to Arnold, Maryland.

A search for a new senior pastor at College Parkway Baptist Church (CPBC) in Arnold culminated in the congregation calling Allen to serve in the role in November. He and his wife of 22 years, Christy, moved to the area in mid-February and were warmly received by their new church family.

“We love the people here,” Allen said during his first official week on CPBC’s staff. “The people in this church are really nice, and they’d do anything for you, and they’ve been so welcoming and loving.”

Allen’s journey to central Anne Arundel County began when he was a child. He was raised in a Christian family in Braintree, Massachusetts, and credits his mom and dad for introducing him to the faith.

“They were just great Christian examples — they took us to church, they read the Bible with me, they lived out their faith, and my dad led me to Christ when I was 8 years old,” he recalled. “I had heard the message before, but I was sitting up in bed one night and he just told me what I needed to do to put my faith in Jesus, and I really did – I believed it with everything in me.”

Allen’s faith strengthened over time, and in his 20s he began attending a church where he met his future wife. They bonded during what would be the first of many mission trips they went on together to serve at an orphanage in Haiti, which culminated in them adopting their two oldest sons, Matt and Peter, years later when the boys were teens.

Dan and Christy also have a daughter, Bella, who is a junior studying mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and a son, Caleb, who is at a preparatory school and will attend Bentley University next year on a baseball scholarship.

Allen shared that as his faith deepened, he began to sense God’s calling on his life. “I had a good job in the business world; everything was fine – on the outside, you would have said, ‘Oh, he’s got stuff figured out.’ But I couldn’t sleep,” Allen recalled. “I ended up taking a trip, a vacation down south – I just drove to South Carolina from Massachusetts because I wanted to be warm … and I just said to the lord, ‘whatever you want me to do, I’ll do.’ And I was convinced he wanted me to become a pastor. When I came back, I applied to seminary.”

A few years later, Allen graduated from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree. He then pastored a church in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, for 20 years while his kids grew up, Matt got married, they became grandparents, and Allen cared for his own aging parents, who lived into their 90s. After Allen’s parents passed away and his youngest graduated from high school, he and Christy felt the lord opening the door for them to step into a new chapter of life.

CPBC was among the churches Allen looked at to apply for a new pastoral role. He wasn’t sure if God wanted his family to relocate to Maryland, but he felt an instant connection with the people of CPBC during early Zoom meetings. Allen was later invited to visit Arnold in November for a candidating weekend during which he met many people in the church and preached a sermon; after service that Sunday, the congregation voted to select him as their new pastor.

Allen is optimistic about the future of CPBC. He shared that he loves the church’s emphasis on community involvement, from hosting a food pantry and a preschool, to operating a backpack program for school children who need food on the weekends.

“What we would like to do is get even more involved in the community,” he said. “We want to express Jesus’ love to people in our community, and people all over the world, for that matter.”

As they settle into life in Maryland, the Allens are getting acclimated with their new home state. “We’re getting used to crabcakes everywhere, the Maryland flag is everywhere,” Allen said with a laugh, adding, “We like the idea that it’s going to be a little warmer.”

He admits he was tiring of winters living in the snowiest town in Massachusetts, noting that Ashburnham would often record more than 100 inches of snow annually.

The more temperate Mid-Atlantic climate should bode well for Allen’s hobbies: He enjoys hiking, biking and being outdoors.

“I’m probably a sports fanatic,” he shared, before adding an appropriately pastoral clarification. “Maybe fanatic is not the right word. I don’t want anyone in my church to be fanatical about anything but Jesus – so I’m a sports fan,” he said, explaining that he likes to exercise, go running, play basketball and water ski.

His favorite sport is baseball, and he was made aware that CPBC has a softball team during his interview process by a member of the church’s search team, who jokingly told Allen, “We’re not looking for a pastor so much as a shortstop.”

Time will determine whether Allen fills a spot between second and third base in addition to filling the pulpit at CPBC. For now, he is focused on getting to know his new congregation, learning their names and faces.

“My wife and I are thankful to be here. We’re just trusting that God has a plan for us here,” Allen said, expressing hope that God will do a great work in the town and surrounding area.