A Brief History
Dr. D. James Kennedy

In 1959, a young seminary graduate arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to pastor his first church. He was disappointed that an old back injury prevented him serving as a missionary in Africa. Discouragement was shortly added to disappointment. Rather than growing, the new congregation began to shrink. As Dr. D. James Kennedy recalls, "I soon had that group of fifty down to seventeen."

Now even questioning his call to the ministry, Dr. Kennedy spent a week in Decatur, Georgia conducting a series of revival meetings with Pastor Kennedy Smartt, a seminary classmate. He soon saw that real revival was taking place during Rev. Smartt's personal visits to present the gospel. As Pastor Kennedy sat with Rev. Smartt he saw young people, elderly people, upstanding citizens, prostitutes and alcoholics - all kinds of people - responding to a clear, one-to-one explanation of the work of Christ.

Gone was his disappointment. His doubts about his call to the ministry were forgotten. He saw the gospel change lives. Back home in Fort Lauderdale he began presenting the gospel in the same way and seeing lives changed just as he had in Decatur. The church began to grow. But the evening visits were leaving very little time for him to be together with his wife. The solution? She started going with him to share the gospel. Without realizing it, the first EE trainee was receiving on-the-job training.

Soon two men also from the church asked to go along on these pastoral calls. In 1962, the Kennedys received an excited phone call from one of these men. He had just led someone to Christ! Even from those first days, the hand of God can be clearly seen. By 1996, the Lord had used one discouraged pastor to grow a global ministry in every one of 212 countries of the world.