GABC pastor recalls his call to ministry as he prepares for transition into retirement

TYLER — The longest-serving pastor in the life of Green Acres Baptist Church will be retiring August 31. On Wednesday, Pastor David Dykes told KTBB News how his call to ministry began. “I did have a pretty dramatic call experience, like some of the people in the bible, like Gideon and Moses…in the sense that I was sitting in a service one night with a bunch of other teenagers and the preacher, who was maybe middle-age at the time said, ‘God called me to preach when I was 17 and I have been doing it ever since.’ I happened to be 17, and there was just a voice that was louder than an audible voice that said in my heart, David that’s what I want you to do.” Pastor Dykes has served at GABC since March of 1991 and has lead the church to over 17,000 members.

Pastor Dykes went on to say he doesn’t think that people were surprised by his announcement of retirement, “Because, over the last couple of years, I have been dropping hints about retirement and we have been trying to sort of prepare the church for transition.”

Pastor Dykes says, “One of my great passions has always been missions and global missions. Green Acres has always had missions in their DNA. In fact, the very first pastor, Cecil Johnson, was missionary to Mexico and was bilingual. He was only here for about three years, but he sort of breathed that passion for missions into the church. So, the church has always been involved in local and global missions.”

Pastor Dykes is said to be assisting church leadership in the search for his replacement. Learn more here.