Pastor Nate Phillips
Senior Pastor/Head of Staff
Office: 302-998-0434 Ext. 108
Nate Phillips (Pastor Nate) grew up in the hills of central Maine, the son of a logger and a wedding dress seamstress. He was shaped by the church through Mission at the Eastward (MATE) - a nine-church cooperative parish in rural Maine - where shared ministry, global partnerships, housing work, and a common youth group formed his imagination for collaborative and missional leadership.
Following seminary at Princeton Theological Seminary, Nate was ordained and called to Red Clay Creek Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware. He currently serves there as Senior Pastor and Head of Staff, focusing on preaching and teaching, congregational renewal, and helping communities discern faithful futures rooted in Scripture and place.
In between his seasons at Red Clay, Nate served as Senior Pastor and Head of Staff at Kirk in the Hills in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan - one of the largest Presbyterian congregations in the country. At The Kirk, he was the primary preacher and teacher, led a large and complex staff, and guided the congregation through a sustained missional strategy emphasizing innovation, depth, and public witness.
In addition to parish ministry, Nate is the Program Director of Damascus Road, a vocational discernment and leadership formation program at Princeton Theological Seminary, and a facilitator in Princeton’s Spiritual Entrepreneurship course. In these roles, he works with pastors and leaders navigating seasons of transition at the intersection of theology, vocation, and public life.
Nate received his Doctor of Ministry from Columbia Theological Seminary, where his focus was Gospel and Culture. He was awarded the John Nelson Award for “The Bible and the Missional Church,” honoring the seminary’s outstanding Doctor of Ministry thesis. His work explored how Scripture can guide congregations through missional transformation.
He has served as Chair of the Committee on Ministry for New Castle Presbytery and founded the F.I.R.S.T. (Freeing the Imagination of the Recently Seminary Trained) Initiative, which connected emerging ministers with church plants and new ministries. One such partnership helped give rise to Riverfront Church and its innovative kitchen collective in Wilmington.
Nate is the author of Do Something Else (Wipf and Stock, Cascade Books), which profiles hopeful innovations across the mainline church.
Nate and his wife, Ari, a pediatric nurse practitioner, have four children - Grace, Lily, Max, and Lucy. He enjoys the Boston Red Sox, mountain biking, jogging, Wendell Berry, and growing things.