Pastor Emeritus

Dr. Mike Ladra

from 1987-2022

Under Pastor Mike’s leadership we morphed from a traditional church to a multi-site church with 6 worship services of varied styles that creatively use the arts. During that time the church grew from 300 in worship to more than 2000. We stream our worship services on LiveView to an audience that averages 4000+ as well as broadcast Pastor Mike’s messages on TV and radio. We went from one location on Padre Dr. to 3 locations – transformed a bar in Marina into a church and also built the 1500 seat worship center on Main St. There were many innovations like Christmas On Main

and small group Bible Studies which he wrote from the Sunday message and changing our name from First Presbyterian to Compass.

He graduated from Stanford University with a double major in Philosophy and Honors Humanities, from Princeton seminary with a Master’s degree in theology and counseling, and from Fuller Seminary with a Doctor’s degree in Church Growth strategies. He has done further graduate work with numerous sabbaticals at Merton College, Oxford University studying literature and history, at Hebrew University in Jerusalem studying biblical archeology, and Edinburgh in Scotland in English literature, and at the C.S. Lewis institute in Oxford. He is a big fan of Lewis, generously seasoning his teaching with favorite quotes.

He left the pastorate to be full time writing and presently is working on “Forgive? Don’t Be Silly!

which hopefully motivates people to forgive what they thought they could not.