A light to the community. A launching pad for the nations

Editor’s Note: The following article originally appeared in the fall 2025 issue of Southwestern News. A sidebar to this article can be read here.

Cliff Lea is his father’s son.

That’s the testimony of many who know both Cliff (’96), senior pastor of the multi-site First Baptist Church of Leesburg, Fla., and Tommy Lea (‘64, ‘67), the highly revered, late New Testament professor and dean of the School of Theology at Southwestern Seminary.

“There’s something about Pastor Cliff—something familiar,” David Persson (’89), a new member of First Baptist Leesburg who began attending in early 2025, recalls telling his wife, although he couldn’t put his finger on why.

One day in the grocery store, when he saw the pastor, he thought to himself, “maybe Cliff is related to Tommy Lea,” his New Testament professor while he was a Southwestern student.

The next Sunday morning following worship, Persson, who retired in 2024 as a director of missions in northern New Jersey, asked Cliff, “Is your dad’s name Tommy?” The next thing Persson knew, he was “enveloped in this huge hug” and Cliff told him, “We’ve got to have lunch together!”

Although Persson doesn’t recall many details about the senior Lea, “I remember this welcoming, easygoing spirit. And Cliff has some of that in him.”

Others compare the similarities in the Leas as pastors, preachers, and Bible teachers.

More than anyone else, though, it’s Cliff’s own testimony—an honored one—that he is Tommy’s son.

“I’m always a proud son,” Cliff says, before his voice breaks and tears well up in his eyes.

Suzy, Cliff’s wife of 34 years, says her husband often gets emotional when talking about his father. “I was so honored to be connected to him.”

The 2015 book, Give Me Your Heart, is Cliff’s tribute to his father as a model parent and a challenge to fathers to “go for the hearts of your kids and to be an example so they would see Christ in you,” he says. The book’s title is based on Proverbs 26:23.

The senior Lea died in 1999 from prostate cancer at the age of only 60, just three years after Cliff received his Master of Divinity diploma that included his father’s signature as School of Theology dean.

As a student, Cliff was only able to take two of his father’s classes because he primarily attended seminary at the then-Lubbock extension while serving at a church in Abilene.

A course he took on the pastoral epistles with his father demonstrated the close bond of father and son as the professor/father answered a question about women posed in class by the student/son.

“‘Cliff, you have noticed how I treat your mother,’” Tommy began his answer as if they “were in the living room jawing,” the younger Lea recalls. “‘Oh, I’m sorry, class. By the way, this is my son, Cliff.’”

“It was just awesome to have him as a prof. I wish I could have had him for so much more,” he says.

Southwestern President David S. Dockery (‘81) is one of those people who are well acquainted with both Leas.

Tommy was pastor of Dockery and his future wife, Lanese, at Hunter Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in the 1970s and later tapped him to be minister to students at the church when Cliff was a “well-mannered, precocious preschooler.” Lea also performed the wedding of the Dockerys, and Lanese was greatly influenced by Beverly Lea, Tommy’s wife.

“Cliff, in many ways, models his father’s commitment to the church, to the Scriptures, to application-focused preaching, and to faithful and caring pastoral ministry,” Dockery says.

Tommy Lea’s Southwestern legacy—professor of New Testament, 1979-1995; dean, 1995-1999—is “carried forward” by the current New Testament faculty of Southwestern.

Tommy Lea is among those included in the recently released volume edited by Dockery, Madison Grace, and Malcolm Yarnell, Shapers of the Southwestern Theological Tradition (Seminary Hill Press, 2025).

“What stands out for all of us who knew him well, which I am sure would be echoed by other current faculty and former students, is the Christlikeness of Tommy Lea,” Dockery says. “His love for the Lord and His Word, and his deep affection for his family, were obvious to all who knew him.”

Tommy’s ministry legacy is being carried forward by Cliff.

Ministry-based evangelism

Cliff was called to First Baptist Leesburg in 2007, following the legendary 30-year pastorate of Charles Roesel, who led the congregation to embrace the poor, substance-addicted, and people in need of care through the establishment of its Christian Care Center (CCC). The Central Florida community located about an hour north of Orlando is known for its senior population, including “snowbirds” who migrate to the Sunshine State fleeing northern climes during the winter months.

Following ministry posts as youth, college, and missions pastors, as well as two senior pastor roles, Cliff initially declined the Leesburg post, believing that the timing was not right. However, a few months later, Cliff and Suzi independently came to the same conclusion that the Lord may be calling them to First Baptist. Cliff reached out and discovered the congregation had not yet called a pastor.

“It just blew our mind,” he says about touring the church campus and seeing the work of the CCC, which today includes eight different ministries, some of which have been started under Cliff’s leadership, offering a range of services to those in need.

Cliff says he has always been drawn to people who are different than himself. “I just felt more comfortable around hurting, poor people that were kind of down and out than I did others.”

His interest in ministry-based evangelism grew while he was the missions pastor of Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth, 2000-2003. Pastor Michael Dean (’80), who helped Tommy and Beverly Lea get home from the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in 1999 after his cancer debilitated him just a few weeks before he died, became a mentor to Cliff, he says.

During his days at Travis Avenue, Cliff became aware of the Leesburg ministry. He read Roesel’s book, Meeting Needs, Sharing Christ, and even planned to attend a conference the church was hosting, although it was canceled.

The community ministries Cliff led at Travis Avenue “prepared me for the Christian Care Center” at First Baptist Leesburg, he says.

In his 18 years as pastor in Leesburg, Cliff says the congregation has taught him to “go the distance with people,” even when they relapse or fail. “Jesus doesn’t write people off,” he says.

Innovative church

The congregation also has taught him to be willing to innovate. Although “primarily a senior adult population church, they’re very willing to try new things,” says Cliff.

The feature film, No Vacancy, tells the story of the church’s willingness to purchase a rundown motel that has become the Samaritan Inn, offering transitional housing for women and children as part of its CCC. TV’s Superman, Dean Cain, stars as Cliff in the film.

The movie is the church’s “cinematic calling card,” says Art Ayris, a church member for more than 40 years and staff member in various capacities for more than 30 years, who produced the film through his company, Kingstone Productions.

Ayris, executive pastor of administration, commends Cliff’s commitment to the CCC ministry. Cliff “wholly embraced” the CCC, Ayris says, adding “not only did he take what Charles [Roesel] did, but he built upon it,” citing as an example the Samaritan Inn.

Dockery says the “holistic ministry” of the church “reflects the leadership” of Cliff.

The pastor points to the congregation’s innovating spirit both in supporting those in need and expanding the church’s reach despite its “land-locked” property in Leesburg.

Multi-site ministry

In 2015, the church launched Village Park, its first satellite location, named after its first temporary meeting space in The Villages, a nearby seniors’ community, and the neighboring city of Fruitland Park. The church would later build its permanent campus eight miles away with two other satellites later added: South Campus, eight miles south of the main campus, and Oxford Campus, 15 miles northwest, which was approved by the congregation in the spring of 2025. Altogether, the four locations of the church now draw from three adjoining counties in Central Florida: Lake, Marion, and Sumter.

With total weekly attendance averaging 2,660 in 2024 and peak attendance (when the “snowbirds” return to Leesburg) averaging about 2,800, the congregation has been named by Outreach Magazine among the 100 fastest growing in the nation for three consecutive years.

“It’s a ton of work … but definitely there’s an aim to be one church in four locations,” Cliff says, noting that he has a “distaste” for the way some churches do satellite campuses.

To avoid effectively becoming four different churches, he says, all the campuses hear the same sermon each week—written in collaboration between himself and the other campus pastors—and with Cliff preaching at each campus on a rotating schedule. Also, the campuses feature common worship music, intra-campus ministries for men, women, and missions, a common deacon body, and First Wednesday Prayer meetings held each month in which all the campuses gather at the downtown campus.

Ayris says Cliff “leads the best prayer services I’ve ever been to in my entire life.”

The pastor is also praised by Ayris for leading the congregation to trust God in transitioning to a multi-site congregation.

“This church has got to be at the top of the crazy, zany list—the stuff that happens here with all these ministries and addicts and everything,” Ayris says.

Vision statement

The church’s vision statement, “A light to the community. A launching pad for the nations,” Cliff says, encapsulates both the CCC ministry expansion and multi-site strategy with an increasing commitment to international missions.

Inspired by sermons by John Piper, Cliff says the church leadership adopted the vision statement formally about three years ago after he regularly used the slogan with the congregation.

“I want us to continue to do a thorough job of reaching our community for Christ as we seek to do so with our Christian Care Center, but at the same time focusing on God’s heart to reach the ends of the earth,” he says. “So, I’d like us to launch prayers, resources, and people to places that have never heard the Gospel.”

In recent years, First Baptist has established international partnerships “across the world,” including Cambodia, Nepal, Argentina, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and in some nations that cannot be publicly named, with other partnerships in the planning stages.

With senior adults constituting a significant part of the congregation, a “Rehired” missions emphasis employs retired members of the church to serve on the mission field for short-term assignments of three or four months.

Southwestern’s influence

The Lord used Southwestern missions professor Bud Fray to “develop a heart for missions” within Cliff as a Master of Divinity student, he says. Suzy adds, “He would come home and reteach everything Dr. Fray had taught him every day to me, and I was just soaking it up.”

Indeed, the Leas left Southwestern with “world evangelization” on their hearts, believing they would be international missionaries, which seemed likely several times without making the connection with the right position, they say.

Cliff says the influence of Southwestern on his ministry is “almost hard to describe,” starting with his father, a Southwestern two-time graduate; Brian Hall, a Southwesterner youth minister who discipled him in eighth grade; Travis Avenue pastor Michael Dean (‘80); and various professors beyond his father, including Jimmie Nelson, Calvin Miller, Ebbie Smith, and Curtis Vaughn, his New Testament professor who was also his father’s professor. As a staff member at Travis Avenue, Cliff also enjoyed times with Vaughn, who was a member, sharing meals at Chili’s by Hulen Mall, talking theology and Tommy Lea, he says.

Southwestern’s influence on Cliff goes beyond his father.

Cliff’s sister, Marcie Funk and her husband, Alan (’94), are retired career International Mission Board missionaries to East Africa who settled in Leesburg about four years ago and joined First Baptist. The Funks and Leas were in each other’s weddings and for one year shared the home of Tommy and Beverly Lea during the senior Leas’ sabbatical leave in England when Cliff and Alan were Southwestern students.

“We’ve shared a lot of life together,” says Alan Funk. “I’ve seen Cliff in all kinds of settings, totally unrelated to church, and he definitely practices what he preaches.”

Cliff remains a committed Southwesterner, with Dockery commending him for his service on the seminary’s Board of Reference.

Suzy and family

If Cliff is Tommy’s son, he’s also Suzy’s wife.

“Roo” is how Cliff addresses Suzy, the “consummate pastor’s wife,” based on a childhood nickname and now her chosen name as grandmother to five (with three other grandchildren anticipated before the end of 2025).

Asked about how he met the woman who would become his wife, Cliff gets choked up like he does speaking about his father, a regular emotion for him, says Suzy.

“That’s the best part of my whole story. … I remember right where I was,” he says of when Suzy introduced herself to him at a youth retreat as encouraged by Cliff’s sister, Marcie.

As students at Hardin-Simmons University, their first date was a Twila Paris concert in Abilene. The Christian singer told the audience, “‘Grab the hand of the person on your right,’” recalls Cliff with a wry smile. “And so, I was like, ‘Thank you, Twila.’ … Twila never said, ‘Let go.’ So, I didn’t.”

Married in 1992, the Leas are parents to five sons born in the span of seven and one-half years, Suzy notes.

The Leas’ affection for each other and their marriage is a model to others, say church members, CCC residents, and staff members. (Find out what Cliff learned about marriage during a class he took at Southwestern on the seminary’s Equip The Called website, www.equipthecalled.com.)

Will Goubert (’23), next generation pastor for the South Campus, says the senior pastor is “someone I really look up to,” especially as a husband to his wife, Tori (’23), and soon-to-be father. “He absolutely loves his wife, and he cares for his wife, and he is just such a great example of what a godly husband is,” says Will, especially since he did not “have a father growing up.” Will began his PhD program in missiology at Southwestern in the fall of 2025.

Daryl Hersom, a CCC graduate and assistant director of Samaritan Inn, credits Cliff as matchmaker for his marriage to Emily, who is Cliff’s secretary.

Even in his mid-40’s, Cliff had the “birds and the bees talk” with him as the pastor would generously spend time with Hersom as the recovering drug addict was getting his life together in the CCC.

Pastoral leadership

Cliff’s exemplary home life is matched by his example in pastoral leadership, say church staff and members.

“Cliff is a super model for a pastor,” says Ayris. “… Cliff is top shelf.”

He adds that one of the reasons for the stability of First Baptist and its recent growth is attributable to the long-term pastorates of Roesel and Cliff.

“Pastor Cliff is the reason why I am here,” says David Ciment, chairman of the deacons and member since 2017 at the Village Park Campus.

During the start-up phase of the campus, while meeting at a local Legion Hall with many distractions in a non-sanctuary environment, “There were so many reasons why we shouldn’t have come,” says Ciment. “But it was Pastor Cliff’s words [as a preacher] that kept bringing us back.”

Bill Dyer, baptized by Cliff and a church member since 2019, says as a pastor, husband, and father, he is a “most honorable example for our congregation,” adding, “Pastor Cliff works hard to define and uphold sound biblical doctrine.”

Stephen Wolgamott, the worship pastor who was Cliff’s first hire at First Baptist in 2008 and his closest friend, says, “I believe Cliff to be the most genuine believer I have ever meet. This is not because he’s a pastor, but because he truly is a devoted, intentional follower of Christ.”

The future

The ministry legacy beginning with his father is not just thriving in Cliff’s life; it also is being extended in the life of his son, Tommy.

The youngest of the Leas’ five sons is named for his grandfather because they learned she was pregnant as the senior Lea was in the last days of his life and promised to name him in his honor.

“He’s the one most like his grandfather, and the only one that’s been called to ministry,” Cliff says. “So, the irony—the spiritual irony—is quite replete.”

Recently, Tommy joined the staff of First Baptist Leesburg as a youth pastor. “I removed myself from the search process,” Cliff quickly notes.

Cliff and Suzy will soon move into the “grandparenting house” they are building in the community. Having served for 18 years and seeing the “benefits of a long-term pastorate,” Cliff, 55, adds, “I feel so connected here that I think it’s only a wise and healthy assumption that God” will allow him to retire as pastor of the congregation.

The burden of pastoring a large, multi-site congregation is mitigated by his father’s example, says Cliff.

“I remember my dad had a lot of responsibility” as professor, dean, author, and preacher, he recalls. Even as his responsibilities grew “dad was slow to moan about his schedule or let his responsibilities cloud his mind at home. He always kind of walked lightly and joyfully.”

Today, with his own expansive duties, “I think he helped me the way he lived it out, and the way he showed it at Southwestern modeled to me that when you have a lot of responsibilities, don’t shirk from it; give it to the Lord.”

Indeed, Cliff is his father’s son.