West End Baptist Church welcomed a new pastor this week after being without a full-time minister for nearly two years.

Robert Pipkin, a Norfolk native, is the new face in the pulpit, and he’s looking out at about 85 people in the pews each week. That’s a number he hopes will grow in the coming months.

“I think there’s a lot of opportunity to grow,” Pipkin said.

Membership and attendance have declined at the church over the past several years, in part because many families have moved away from the area, Pipkin said. Even so, those who remain are a diverse group, and Pipkin believes the congregation has a strong foundation on which to build.

“The last two pastors have been here over 20 years each,” he said. “That’s a good sign of a healthy church.”

With a doctoral degree in leadership and church renewal, Pipkin will be looking to help the church grow its ranks again by looking for needs to meet in the community.

The religious culture has changed from when he was growing up, he added. Years ago, families stuck to a specific denomination for generations.

“Now, the young families go to where they feel their needs are being met,” he said. “It’s not any specific denomination.”

He hopes to draw in young people with a Brazilian soccer clinic coming up in August, which will bring professional and semi-professional soccer players from Brazil to run the clinic for kids. The church also will be reaching out to the immediate area to meet needs.

Pipkin is experienced in reaching out. A U.S. Navy veteran, he served numerous challenging chaplain assignments, including leading chaplain teams to the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq to prepare troops emotionally and spiritually to re-enter home life after combat; providing pastoral care to families and wounded survivors after the attack on the USS Cole in October 2000; and directing the pastoral response for all federal agencies during recovery operations following the crash of TWA Flight 800 in July 1996.

After retiring from the Navy, Pipkin served at First Baptist Church in Virginia Beach, then at St. John’s Baptist Church in Virginia Beach.

“We’re excited to be here,” Pipkin said of he and his wife, who is a literacy coach at Windsor Woods Elementary School in Virginia Beach.

West End Baptist is located at 105 St. James Ave. in downtown Suffolk.