LITTLE JACKIE BOY

The fourth child of a family that had been touched with hardship and tragedy, Jack was painfully shy. His father had been active in the Methodist church early in his marriage, but by the time Jack was born, any church involvement had long been replaced by a love of the bottle.

The poverty stricken family moved to a small house in Dallas, where Jack and his mother attended a Baptist church two doors away.

By the age of eight, Jack realized he was lost without the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour. He considered asking Jesus for forgiveness and the gift of eternal life, but he did not want to get baptized. At the age of ten, Jack became heavily burdened about his lost condition. At the same time, his pastor and the church members spent a week in prayer for his salvation.

On Saturday night, his father's return home from a night of drinking greatly disturbed Jack. When Sunday came, Jack couldn't feel at peace with God or with others around him. He sat through Sunday School and the morning church service, and a great heaviness enveloped him.

That evening, in the break time between Training Union and the evening service, in the hallway of the Fernwood Baptist Church, young Jack Hyles knelt and asked God for forgiveness for his sins. He told Him that he believed that Jesus Christ was the Saviour, and he was trusting the Lord Jesus to save him. When he rose from his knees he had received forgiveness for sin, and God's gift of eternal life. What a happy boy he was! That night, he made his profession of faith at the evening service and was baptized.

When he was thirteen, Jack's father left the home. Jack's mother was a godly woman, willing to work long hours to support the family. In spite of her grinding schedule, she made time to teach her child Biblical principles to guide his life. When he graduated from high school, Jack went to work for the railroad. He had an idea of becoming a publicist or maybe a newspaper writer, or possibly an announcer.

That first year after high school, as he sat in church one night, he realized very definitely that God wanted him to surrender to preach. How could "Little Jackie Boy" be a preacher? At eighteen years of age, he still sucked his thumb. How could this introvert ever speak to others? Yet, that night he surrendered to God's call to preach.

At the end of the service Joe Boyd, the famous football player, walked down the aisle to tell the pastor that he had surrendered to be a preacher. Then, when the preacher announced that "Little Jackie Boy" Hyles had also come to be a preacher, a hush fell over the congregation. The pastor said: "Folks ... let's pray for Jackie!" Jack's first sermon was three minutes of stammering, stuttering, a false start and a tearful exit. It was not a very auspicious beginning!

He enrolled in college, taking some classes in speech, then attended Bible college interspersed with a stint as a paratrooper during World War II. After graduation, he pastored a church while working forty hours a week and attending seminary.

One night Jack's father came to hear him preach. After the service, he begged his father to get saved, and his father promised that he would soon, but there wasn't enough time. Shortly thereafter, he died of a heart attack. He was a drunkard, and as far as is known he never did trust the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness. His son spent hours on his father's grave, praying and crying and calling out to God for His power to reach men. He begged for God's Spirit to so touch men's hearts that they would turn to God.

After this time, when he preached, God's power began to fall. He would call on five hundred homes each month to try to win souls and build the church. One church went from ten up to six hundred in attendance. He built another church of a hundred up to four thousand, and then was called to pastor the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana.

"Little Jackie Boy", the thumb sucking, insecure introvert, who stood to preach for three minutes and sat down in tears, pastored the largest church in the world for 41 years. The Sunday School attendance averaged twenty thousand weekly, and for many years they baptized over eight thousand each year.

A soulwinning lighthouse, the church was known for dynamic preaching, and tapes of Dr. Hyles' messages went to thousands throughout the world every week. He also traveled across America, preaching over a thousand times a year. Today many rejoice that, years ago, God cared enough to save "Little Jackie Boy".