First Baptist Dallas to rebuild after sanctuary burns down

More than 3,000 people attended a Sunday worship service held by First Baptist Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress in temporary location after a blaze at their historic building. Congregants gathered at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center after a four-alarm fire on Friday evening destroyed the church’s 134-year-old chapel. Jeffress said over 100 firefighters worked for more than three hours to contain the fire in the historic sanctuary. The rest of the church’s campus was not affected by the flames and no one was injured. Officials have not said what caused the fire and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI joined the investigation on Saturday.

What else did Jeffress say? On Sunday morning Jeffress said that more than 2,000 children and volunteers were at the campus on Friday morning for vacation Bible school. The church is already planning to rebuild the sanctuary, he said. The refashioned sanctuary will again stand as a symbol of truth, Jeffress said. Jeffress has served as senior pastor since 2007, and grew up attending First Baptist.

Dig deeper: Listen to Warren Cole Smith’s interview with Robert Jeffress on The World and Everything in It.