Dr. Robert Jeffress – 15 Years Of Ministry As Senior Pastor

On August 12, 2007, Robert Jeffress answered God’s call to come back and lead his home church. Dr. Jeffress grew up at First Dallas, came to Christ here, and was baptized here. He was mentored by our renowned pastor, Dr. W.A. Criswell, and served as youth pastor under him. As he preached in view of a call, Jeffress promised, “I will pour my life—everything that I have—into building this church for the glory of God.” The church elected him as its Senior Pastor, and Dr. Jeffress has kept that promise to our church.

We have called downtown our home since 1868. Throughout our history, the church has had to reinvent the campus repeatedly to accommodate our rapid growth into one of the nation’s leading mega-churches. Dr. Jeffress was the catalyst for a $135 million renovation project that has transformed our church’s campus, offering a spiritual oasis in the midst of our busy city. The new downtown campus opened on Easter Sunday of 2013, completely debt-free. In January of 2021, the church opened two additional floors on its Horner Family Center, nearly doubling the existing educational space. This has provided a beautiful worship environment with plenty of room for the growing families God continues bringing to First Dallas.

Dr. Jeffress has steadfastly maintained the historic priorities of the church, which are a commitment to biblical inerrancy and bold, expository preaching of God’s Word. Because of Dr. Jeffress’s commitment to teaching the Bible with clarity and conviction, the church’s broadcast ministry, Pathway to Victory, is now airing on national television 7-days a week and reaches every country in the world. Pathway to Victory has been the top-rated program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network for 18 months in a row.

During the early weeks of the pandemic, for the first time in its history, First Baptist Dallas closed its doors to in-person worship. But that did not stop Dr. Jeffress and the ministry of First Dallas from continuing to share the good news with the world. First Dallas live-streamed its Sunday services to millions of viewers—including President Donald. J. Trump—on Easter Sunday of 2020. Through our pastor’s leadership, what could have been a difficult time for our church turned into an unprecedented opportunity for the gospel. Over 30,000 placed their faith in Jesus Christ through our broadcast and media ministries in 2020–2021.