Welcoming David Dykes
David Orlo Dykes was born in Ruston, Louisiana in 1953. His father, a WWII Naval veteran who was awarded the Navy Cross for heroism, was attending college at Louisiana Tech.
David grew up in South Alabama where he came to know the Lord as a child and started preaching when he was 17. He is a graduate of Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, having received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1975. He received his Master of Divinity degree and Doctor of Ministry degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. His doctoral emphasis was on evangelism and church growth. He received post-doctoral training at Cambridge University, Cambridge, England. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate from East Texas Baptist University in 2018.
He has been preaching since 1970 and pastored churches in Alabama before coming to pastor Green Acres Baptist Church in 1991. Green Acres is recognized as one of the leading churches in America, in terms of missions and evangelism. The church has over 17,000 members and is known around the world for its emphasis on direct missions. Annually, Green Acres sends over 1,000 volunteer missionaries to various locations worldwide. Green Acres has been the #1 church among Southern Baptists in the amount given to the Cooperative Program for the last 25 years. Green Acres gave over $40 Million to missions through the Cooperative Program during the three decades that Pastor David served the congregation.
David has published articles in Moody Monthly, Church Administration and Guideposts. He is the author of twenty-two books including: Handling Life’s Disappointments, Do Angels Really Exist?, The Spiritual Powerbook, Ten Requirements for America’s Survival, Daniel: Character out of Chaos, Angels Really Do Exist, Finding Peace in Your Pain, No, That’s Not in the Bible, Revelation: God’s Final Word, What Healthy Churches Do, What Healthy Pastors Do, How Healthy Disciples Live, Jesus: Storyteller, Hope When You Need it Most, Following Jesus in the Holy Land, Lord, Heal Our Land, Pastor David’s Travel Guide to Heaven, The Inside Job, and Starting Over in a Covid World – Lessons from the story of Ruth.
Dr. Dykes also enjoys writing Terrorism Thriller novels. In 2013 he published The Cloudstrike Prophecy, under the pen name of David Orlo. In November of 2016, he published a second novel as a sequel entitled, The Jerusalem Protocol. In 2019, he published the third novel in the series entitled, The Masada Proposal.
David and Cindy have two grown daughters and five grandchildren. Their elder daughter, Jenni, is a Dermatologist and her husband, Jason, is an Palliative Care Physician. They live in Tyler with their children, Lizzie, Caroline and Grant. The Dykes’ younger daughter, Laura Grace is the Coordinator of the Honors Program at UTTyler. Her husband, Joe, is Professor of Communication Stuides, Director of Forensics and Debate Team Head Coach at UTTyler. They have two children, Ada and Sam.
Dr. Dykes has served as a trustee for The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, East Texas Baptist University, The University of Mobile, the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, and LeTourneau University. Locally, he has served as a Director of the Tyler Chamber of Commerce, and as board member for The American Red Cross.
David enjoys leading educational tours to Israel and has visited the Holy Land over 30 times.
After serving as senior pastor at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler for over 30 years, Dr. Dykes retired in September of 2021. Since that time, he serves the Lord as Pastor Emeritus of Green Acres.