W. A. Criswell

==First Baptist Church of Dallas==
[[File:WAC FBC.jpg|250px|left|thumb|<span style="font-size:100%;">For over fifty years Criswell was the 
pastor of the downtown First [[Baptist]] Church of [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]], [[Texas]], known for its Bible based teaching.</span>]]

In 1944 Criswell was called to replace [[George Washington Truett]] as the pastor of the [[First Baptist Church (Dallas)|First Baptist Church]] in [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]].  He would spend the remainder of his life at First Baptist, preaching more than four thousand sermons from its pulpit. During his pastorship membership grew from 7,800 to 26,000, with weekly Sunday School attendance in excess of 5,000. The church expanded to multiple buildings covering five blocks in downtown Dallas, eventually becoming the largest Southern Baptist church in the world. The popular evangelist [[Billy Graham]] joined the church in 1953, became a close friend of the Criswell family, and remained a member of the Dallas congregation for 55 years.

Criswell was part of the pioneering movement in the modern [[megachurch]] phenomenon.  He was also a visionary, who introduced a number of innovations at First Baptist Dallas that became a model for growing churches all over the country.  By the early 1950s he had hired professionally trained educational directors for each age group of the church, organized a sophisticated multi-level Sunday School program, added a full-time business manager to the staff, and broadened the church into a youth and family life center featuring a bowling alley, skating rink, and gymnasium with a track and basketball court.  He greatly expanded the church's long-standing Silent Friends ministry, creating for the deaf their own Sunday School, Training Union, Vacation Bible School, and summer camp ministries. His vigorous outreach efforts to the community included sponsoring thirty-seven inner city missions, a [[crisis pregnancy center]], the Good Shepherd and Dallas Life Foundation ministries for the homeless and disadvantaged, Spanish-language chapels, and extensive television and radio ministries.  Church services were locally televised as early as January 1951 and eventually were carried on stations nationwide.<ref name="McBeth">McBeth, Leon ''The First Baptist Church of Dallas: Centennial History (1868-1968)'', Zondervan, 1968, pp 240-347.</ref>

[[File:W. A. Criswell by Blair Buswell 1993 Criswell College Dallas Texas.jpg|thumb|right|Statue of Criswell at [[Criswell College]].]]
Criswell's accomplishments include helping to engineer the conservative resurgence of the Southern Baptist [[religious denomination|convention]], a transition  which began in the late 1970s. He was awarded eight honorary doctorates in addition to his earned postgraduate degree.  He published fifty-four books, including an annotated ''Criswell Study Bible'' (in later editions the ''Believers Study Bible'' and ''Holy Bible, Baptist Study Edition'', Thomas Nelson Publishers), and founded both [[Criswell College]] with its radio station [[KCBI]], and [[First Baptist Academy of Dallas|First Baptist Academy]].

At Criswell's request in 1988 a search committee was formed to identify and call a new pastor.  On Thanksgiving Sunday evening 1990 First Baptist called Joel C. Gregory as pastor, following the unanimous recommendation of the pastor search committee and the deacons. Gregory became pastor while Criswell took the title "Senior Pastor."  At the Wednesday evening service on September 30, 1992, Gregory announced his resignation, indicating that the intended succession of Criswell had not taken place. Gregory subsequently wrote ''Too Great a Temptation'' (Summit Group, 1994) describing his experiences during this period.

In 1993 First Baptist called O. S. Hawkins as pastor and Criswell entered semi-retirement as pastor emeritus. He continued to preach at conferences, First Baptist's annual pre-Easter series, Sunday school and college lectures, and occasional Sunday morning messages for the remainder of the decade.