Summer 2009 | Volume 67, No. 4

Hayes Wicker

by Benjamin Hawkins

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Florida. The Sunshine State. A land flowing with oranges and everglades.

Jutting from the Southeast coast of the nation, this peninsula conjures up images of Disney World and family fun, and more than 80 million tourists a year seek peace and pleasure along its 825 miles of beaches. When Hayes Wicker moved to the state in 1992 to serve as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Naples, people advised him to adapt his preaching style to this new environment.

“Some told me that I would have to ‘water down’ the message or ‘speak to felt needs’ to get a hearing among the pagans in this pleasure-driven place,” Wicker says. “Just the opposite has happened.”

A native of Phoenix, Ariz., Wicker accepted the grace of God during a youth revival at Ingleside Baptist Church in 1965. At that point, he also realized that God was calling him to the ministry.

In 1975, Wicker received his Master of Divinity from the seminary, and he completed his Doctor of Ministry degree in 1979. When he entered the Doctor of Ministry program, it was a relatively new program, and he was one of the youngest men in his seminars.

This doctoral program, Wicker says, “forced me to discipline myself and improve the quality of my ministry as a very young pastor, providing skills and insight which have served me well over the years in ministry. … I developed life-long, mentoring relationships with professors, some of the greatest Christians on the planet. My prayer project provided a model and a foundation for all churches that I have pastored.”

Wicker has served as the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lubbock, Texas, and in other churches in Ariz., Okla., and Texas.

Wicker recalls that, when he took his first pastorate at the age of 20, he “struggled with unworthiness and the fear of taking what was called a ‘problem church.’ ” He was encouraged, however, when he read Acts 20:27-28.

“I was to ‘shepherd the church of God’ and ‘not to shrink from declaring the whole purpose of God,’” he says. “I have sought to preach through books of the Bible over the years, word for word, and not delete the difficult passages.”

So when Wicker moved to Naples, he was determined to preach the Word faithfully and completely. Since he began this ministry, the church’s membership has more than quadrupled, increasing from 1,613 to 7,675.

“I believe in building a church through preaching the inerrant Word weekly,” Wicker says, “… ruthlessly relying on the power of the text.” He also says that every pastor “must re-ignite his passion weekly and recommit himself to the study of God’s Word.

“The tools (of one’s study) are not clunkily carried into the pulpit but help reveal the richness of the truth. … I am called to build and bless, not bore the people.”

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