J. Darren Ely
Pastor
A native of Oklahoma and Texas, John Darren Ely attended church all his life but it wasn’t until his junior year in high school that he really began hungering for God. Darren was seventeen when he yielded his life to Jesus as he knelt beside his bed one evening. Within a couple of years he began attending a small Baptist church, and became involved in its inner‐city youth ministry and later, the college ministry. It was during these early college years that Darren began to sense God’s calling into full‐time service to preach the Gospel and make disciples.
Shortly after graduating from Texas A&M University in 1996, Darren attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He did so full‐time for a season, then part‐time while also serving on staff with the Navigators®, a collegiate ministry, on the campus of Texas A&M. Darren finished his Master of Divinity degree in 2003 and thereafter joined the pastoral staff of a small Baptist church in Bryan, where he directed the college ministry and the planting of a church in Mexico.
Darren’s ministry experience has been enhanced through a variety of additional training:
- MasterLife Discipleship Training
- Certified Leader, Biblical Financial Study, Crown Financial Ministries
- Certified Counselor, Biblical Counseling Certification Program (completed all three levels), Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
- Counseling and Discipleship Training (over 30 hours), Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC), fka National Association of Nouthetic Counselors (NANC)
In 2011 Darren resigned his pastoral position, joined the Conference of Texas Baptist Evangelists and founded Frontlines Ministries, Inc., through which he continues to minister as a vocational Discipling Evangelist, discipling men and working primarily with pastors and church leaders across the state of Texas and the world, particularly in Latin American countries, to bring revival through the fulfillment of Christ’s Great Commission.
In 2020 Darren began sensing God’s call back to pastoral ministry, and in February 2021 King Oaks Fellowship called Darren to become our Pastor.
Darren and his wife Gina have been married for twenty years, and the couple has eight children. They reside in Bryan.
kingoaksfellowship.org 