Robert Jeffress, Jim Wicker minister at home church in Dallas as it rebuilds after 2024 fire

Editor’s Note: The following article originally appeared in the fall 2025 issue of Southwestern News.

When the historic sanctuary of the First Baptist Church of Dallas caught fire on July 19, 2024, senior pastor and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary alumnus Robert Jeffress and Southwestern New Testament Professor Jim Wicker went to the site and watched helplessly as the building where they attended church as children and were baptized was reduced to charred rubble.

Jeffress recalls Wicker turning to him, while they watched the stained-glass windows melt and the old steeple go up in flames, and saying, “‘We need to find a way to meet Sunday morning.’”

Arrangements were made quickly to use the Dallas Convention Center that Sunday, so the body of believers could have a place to gather, as they have done since 1868. Families of both Wicker and Jeffress have participated in those gatherings and in positions of leadership stretching back many years in one of the most prominent congregations in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Wicker’s great-grandparents on both sides of his family attended First Baptist. His grandmother donated the funds to build a gymnasium in the education building in honor of Wicker’s grandfather, while the current gym was named after his parents, David and Carolyn Wicker, for their years of service and support for the church. Today, the sixth generation of his family are members of the church of more than 15,000 members located in downtown Dallas.

Wicker recalls being involved in the various church activities including Sunday School, Royal Ambassadors, church choir, youth camps, and mission trips, while benefiting from the strong preaching of W. A. Criswell, senior pastor for more than 55 years.

“We were here every time the doors were open,” Wicker says. “Dad was a deacon. His dad was a deacon. And then Mom and Dad were very involved in Sunday school leadership for years. … To me, it’s normal to come to church all the time. … The church was a big part of my life and my family’s life.”

After hearing about Jesus through all the church activities, Wicker says he was nine years old when he realized during a Sunday evening service that he was a sinner in need of a Savior. At 11 years old, while attending church camp, he knew God wanted him to enter the ministry in some way, and at 13 he knew it would be as a pastor.

Jeffress’s father, Robert Jeffress Sr., was saved while serving in the United States Air Force near the end of World War II through the influence of a chaplain. He was encouraged to join First Dallas when he moved back.

The ministry of Billy Graham also directed Jeffress’s family to First Baptist, since his mother was saved during a Billy Graham crusade in 1953 and the following Sunday she saw him join First Baptist.

When he was five years old, he made the decision to follow Jesus as Lord as Criswell walked him through the plan of salvation. Two years later he was baptized.

But while saved at a young age, Jeffress says he had no intention of entering the ministry.

“Since I was about that age, until I was 15, I knew, or I thought I knew, what I was going to do,” Jeffress says of his early plans. “I wanted to be a television producer. I was fascinated by the business end of television.”

Jeffress remembers reading Fortune Magazine and Broadcasting Magazine at the library instead of doing homework because of his fascination with that field. But while attending a youth camp, he got a very clear redirection from God on the last day while walking to the cafeteria.

“God spoke to me very clearly and said, ‘You’re going to be a pastor,’” Jeffress says of that calling. “And, you know, people say, ‘Was it audible?’ I say it was louder than that. It was just very clear.”

Jeffress was not sure how his parents would respond, but Jeffress remembers, “they both said, ‘We’ve always known this was God’s plan for you, but we never said anything to you because we wanted to be sure it was God calling you and not us.’”

The paths of Wicker and Jeffress intersected at First Baptist while their parents served faithfully in various areas of teaching and ministry. They were a year apart in age and their families knew each other and served together while Wicker and Jeffress participated in church activities, especially in the youth group.

When it came time to train for their ministerial callings, Wicker and Jeffress chose to attend Baylor University, rooming together with three others from First Baptist and a sixth roommate Wicker knew from a summer youth ministry.

Wicker admits they “played lots of jokes on each other” during that time. Wicker also practiced magic tricks while Jeffress practiced accordion.

“Robert played the accordion for years, and [he’d] go do that for churches, and then I would do Gospel magic, and we’d do that for our spending money,” Wicker says.

“I’d be practicing the ‘Beer Barrel Polka’ and Jim would be pulling rabbits out of hats to practice,” Jeffress adds, saying they performed at numerous churches and other venues in the surrounding area.

The two graduated together in 1977, as Jeffress says he pushed to finish in three years since he was anxious to marry his middle school sweetheart. Jeffress first met Amy in a seventh-grade classroom, when he began praying for her and a few other fellow students who were not saved. He invited her to a youth event where Amy prayed to become a Christian.

Wicker met his future wife Dana while attending Baylor, though he admits he thought their first date had gone poorly when she had him drop her off at 11:00 instead of the normal midnight campus curfew. He later realized the hour difference was due to a time change because of daylight savings.

Wicker and Jeffress were groomsmen in each other’s wedding.

After graduating from Baylor, Wicker went on to study at Southwestern, completing his Master of Divinity in 1980, while Jeffress received a Master of Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary. Both decided they would pursue their doctoral degrees at Southwestern, Wicker in the Doctor of Philosophy program and Jeffress in the Doctor of Ministry program.  

Wicker and Jeffress both say they benefited from professors such as Jimmie Nelson, director of the Doctor of Ministry program, and others such as Roy Fish, Jack MacGorman, and Rick Yount. Wicker says he even imitates some of the teaching styles of Bill Tolar.

“But the relationships that have lasted the longest have been fellow students,” Jeffress says.

In 1985, the same year he would complete his Doctor of Philosophy, Wicker took his first position as senior pastor, and served at first Baptist churches in the Texas cities of Lavon, Farmersville, and Frisco over the next 19 years.

Jeffress finished his Doctor of Ministry and pastored First Baptist Church of Eastland, Texas, starting in 1985, and First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls, Texas, beginning in 1992.

While their ministries carried them to different areas of Texas, they remained in touch and were a source of encouragement to each other.

“We got to share war stories with each other,” Jeffress says of times they would support each other while they served their churches. “… We had a lot of common experiences. It was always an encouragement to get to visit with him.”

“It’s always helpful to talk with someone else that’s going through the same situation,” Wicker agrees.

Wicker says he planned to continue pastoring, but “felt the Lord call me into teaching at seminary,” adding “I love teaching at seminary. I didn’t plan on teaching at the seminary, but now I’ve been doing that for 25 years.”

Wicker joined the Southwestern faculty in 2000 and in May of 2025 he received the David S. and Lanese Dockery Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence for his commitment to students as a New Testament professor. He is known for drawing from his experience with magic in his classroom and for dressing up as characters related to the day’s lesson.

Wicker’s wife Dana also taught at Southwestern in the biblical counseling department for 14 years before transitioning to Dallas Baptist University in 2011, where she is a professor of psychology and counseling in the Graduate School of Ministry and the director of the Master of Arts in Christian Counseling.

After serving at FBC Wichita Falls for 15 years, Jeffress was called back to First Baptist, this time as their senior pastor in 2007. While Jeffress says he loved serving at the other churches, he confesses “there’s no place like home.”

A few years later, Wicker returned as a member. He had been serving churches as an interim pastor, but he and his wife decided “now it’s time.”

“Jim’s come back to his home church, and though he’s a great professor at Southwestern, he’s a great help to us,” Jeffress says. Wicker teaches one of the largest Sunday school classes, recently finished serving as chairman of the deacons, leads a discipleship class with his wife in the fall and spring, and helps lead a welcome team that provides guidance to visitors of the large church.

Wicker says they are “just so glad we came back here because, of course, the pastor, and then we know so many people here. … Now we’re adults, and it’s just a different paradigm.”

At this time, Wicker says there are 10 current or former Southwestern professors that are members of First Baptist, and five of them teach Sunday School classes. Likewise, Jeffress is a member of the Southwestern Board of Reference.

“We’re very blessed in that regard,” Wicker says of the connection between the church and the seminary, while Jeffress jokes “if Southwestern ever gets corrupted with liberalism it’s going to infect the church.”

Southwestern President David S. Dockery notes the connection between First Baptist and Southwestern Seminary goes all the way back to the seminary’s earliest days.

“Since the founding of Southwestern Seminary, the First Baptist Church of Dallas has been a wonderful friend and important partner in the work of carrying out the mission of faithful theological education,” says Dockery, pointing out legendary pastor George Truett was a member of the seminary’s Board of Trustees from its founding in 1908 until 1944, serving as chair of the board for 12 years.

Roy Fish and former Southwestern president Kenneth Hemphill served the church as interim pastors, Chancellor O. S. Hawkins was senior pastor for a time, and Dockery himself was an associate pastor at the church in the 1980s. Numerous First Baptist members have also partnered with Southwestern as trustees and donors.

“Indeed, Southwestern Seminary is grateful to God for the longtime and important relationship with First Baptist Church of Dallas,” Dockery says.

In the 18 years since Jeffress became the pastor, First Baptist’s ministry has extended across the world through various broadcast ministries on television, radio, and internet reaching more than seven million people each week.

“The Lord’s done an amazing job through him in the church, really growing to a ministry worldwide no one could have ever dreamed of,” Wicker says. “… It’s mind boggling. It’s hard to imagine, but I think that it’s so clear that as God gifted Robert with the interest in broadcasting, [he] was just so well prepared to come here and do this.”

Jeffress says the growth and impact of the church is due to God’s goodness and the result of faithful prayer found in the church, including 500 men who are the pastor’s prayer partners and make up a rotation of prayer during every church service. 

Starting in 2008, during the midst of the recession, the church went through a $135 million building project that included starting over on six square blocks of downtown Dallas, even demolishing six existing buildings, so they could create the current church building configuration. Only the original chapel, first constructed in 1890 and considered a historic site, was not changed. The project was completed in 2013.

But in July 2024, a Friday evening after Vacation Bible School hosting 2,000 children concluded earlier in the day, a fire broke out in that original building, destroying all but the exterior walls and causing about $150 million worth of damage, including buildings next to it that were unusable for about 15 months because of smoke damage.

Jeffress recalls being interviewed while he watched the fire on site, and says it was a “gut punch” as he heard an explosion and watched the steeple go up in flames while more than 100 firefighters tried to keep it from spreading to the new buildings very close by. He received phone calls from friends and even the current president of the United States checking on him.

“But I said then, and I still believe it even more—the church ultimately, is not about brick and mortar, it’s about people,” Jeffress says. “And while something valuable to us has been lost, nothing of eternal value has been lost.”

Wicker, who also came to the historic sanctuary the night of the fire with Dana, says it felt like the death of a loved one.

“All these memories flood back of the times you spent, and so we’re thankful for the memories. And I think there was also a positive spirit from the beginning for many,” Wicker says. “We’re gonna recover. The Lord’s gonna lead us through this. Weren’t sure how it’d worked out, but we really believed that things were going to work out and God had a plan.”

Wicker and Jeffress both speak of being baptized, licensed, and ordained as ministers in that original chapel of First Baptist, while Jeffress was married there. Four United States presidents worshiped there and renowned evangelists such as Billy Graham preached there frequently.

Wicker serves on the committee overseeing the reconstruction and said the new building will combine aspects of the old and new church structures. A groundbreaking is planned for after the New Year for the new building that will provide more space and more continuity as it will be connected to neighboring buildings.

On July 13, 2025, First Baptist set aside time during Sunday services to express gratitude to the Dallas firefighters who prevented the fire from spreading and also remember the tragedy that provided numerous new opportunities.

“We couldn’t have imagined the outpouring of support and prayers for our sake from across our nation and from around the world,” a video stated during that service. “We couldn’t have imagined the platforms and opportunities we would have to share the Gospel, to testify to our Living Hope found only in Jesus Christ.”

“What we’ve experienced this last year—the inconveniences, the disruption—any one of those things would be enough to divide most churches,” Jeffress said during that service. “But our church today is more unified than it was 12 months ago, as we’ve come together.”