Charlie Dates is the senior pastor of Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago. Before his call to Progressive, he served as an apprentice pastor at New Zion Baptist Church in Rockford, Illinois, and as a pastor at Salem Baptist Church in Chicago. Charlie earned an MDiv and PhD at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where his research focused on the burden of black preaching in late 20th-century Chicago. Charlie and his wife, Kristie, have two children.