Jack Hyles, pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, founder of Hyles-Anderson College in Crown Point, Indiana, and one of the leaders of the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement, died Tuesday (Feburary 6, 2001) after undergoing open-heart surgery. Between 15,000 and 20,000 people now attend services at First Baptist every Sunday. When he started there in September 1959, the weekly attendance was 44. "When he was a scrawny, nervous teenager who said he wanted to be a preacher, nobody took him seriously," writes the Chicago Sun-Times. "When the Southern Baptists kicked him out of their denomination in the 1950s for being too conservative, they said his ministry was over. When he chose the interests of poor, inner-city kids over millionaire church members, they said he'd never keep the doors of his church open. In more than 50 years of ministry, the Rev. Jack Hyles, pastor of mammoth First Baptist Church of Hammond, Ind., proved them all wrong.
Jack Hyles, pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, founder of Hyles-Anderson College in Crown Point, Indiana, and one of the leaders of the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement, died Tuesday (Feburary 6, 2001) after undergoing open-heart surgery. Between 15,000 and 20,000 people now attend services at First Baptist every Sunday. When he started there in September 1959, the weekly attendance was 44. "When he was a scrawny, nervous teenager who said he wanted to be a preacher, nobody took him seriously," writes the Chicago Sun-Times. "When the Southern Baptists kicked him out of their denomination in the 1950s for being too conservative, they said his ministry was over. When he chose the interests of poor, inner-city kids over millionaire church members, they said he'd never keep the doors of his church open. In more than 50 years of ministry, the Rev. Jack Hyles, pastor of mammoth First Baptist Church of Hammond, Ind., proved them all wrong.
