Rathit

DALLAS -- The Rev. Robert Jeffress is coming home.

After 15 years as pastor of First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls, Jeffress is returning to lead First Baptist Dallas -- the church where he was baptized, married and ordained and where he preached his first sermon.

The new pastor was"overwhelmingly affirmed"Sunday by 3,000 congregants at a 9:30 a.m. service, a church spokeswoman said.

Reached after the news was official, Jeffress said that returning to his childhood church is an"honoring and humbling experience."

"It is good to be going back to a church that has given me so much,"said Jeffress, 51."But what's really important to us is to be in the center of God's will. God led us back home, and I feel very fortunate."

The Dallas church, founded in 1868, has been without a senior pastor since February 2006, when the Rev. Mac Brunson resigned to pastor First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla. About 3,500 people attend First Baptist Dallas regularly. Bill Anderson has served as interim pastor.

Jeffress was recommended by First Baptist Dallas'pastoral search committee, which considered more than 100 possible leaders during an 18-month search. He is scheduled to conduct his first service as pastor Sept. 16.