The first Sunday that Gary Jared served as pastor at Stuart Heights Baptist Church, he preached to an audience of around 30 people in a sanctuary on Hixson Pike that could hold 100. On his last Sunday serving as senior pastor, the congregation is three campuses strong and sees about 900 in attendance between all services on a given Sunday.
Jared, 67, will give his last sermons Sunday at the church’s Hixson and Chattanooga campuses after 35 years at the church.
“I’m getting to be an old dude,” Jared said, smiling.
Jared felt God calling him to ministry when he was a senior in high school. Jerry Falwell Sr., a Baptist preacher who founded Liberty University, spoke at a youth rally at the church Jared attended in his hometown of Detroit, and Jared made up his mind that night, he said.
Pastor who grew Stuart Heights Baptist to three campuses will retire after 35 years
“I hadn’t even decided where I was going to school,” Jared said. “I remember I finally went forward and just (asked) God, ‘Let me feel good about this. I don’t want to be a fool. This is your leading. I want to do it.'”