My name is Jared Byrns, and I’m the pastor of Central Baptist Church in downtown Lawton, Oklahoma.
God began calling me into pastoral ministry when I was in high school, and I’ve been preaching for 21 years. I’ve been here at Central since August 2020, but I’ve served as a pastor for 15 years, working with churches in Oklahoma and Arkansas. (For part of that time, I was bi-vocational, also working as a middle school French teacher.)
I trusted Jesus as my Savior at 5 and walked with Him throughout my growing-up years. However, my faith was challenged during my college years when I ran into skeptical professors at the University of Oklahoma and realized I didn’t know as much as I thought. This realization sent me scrambling to examine the arguments and evidence on all sides, and I ultimately walked away more convinced of the life-changing truth of the Gospel.
My experience at the University of Oklahoma led me to immerse myself in apologetics. As a result, after finishing my bachelor’s there, I went on to earn my master’s in apologetics and a PhD in Bible and Theology from Louisiana Baptist University. I wrote my dissertation on the textual reliability of the resurrection accounts recorded in the Gospels and Acts. Because of my interest in apologetics, my teaching has a strong focus on equipping the church “to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”1I Peter 3:15, CSB I also write books with this goal in mind. (In particular, defending the resurrection of Jesus is my favorite topic to study, teach, write about, and discuss.)
In addition to my work with my own congregation, I am involved in a number of other ministries. I am active in the Comanche-Cotton Baptist Association, and I serve on the boards of the Pregnancy Resource Center of Southwest Oklahoma and Trinity Christian Academy.
My wife, Charla, and I have known each other our whole lives, and our families have been friends for generations. We’re both native Oklahomans who grew up in Moore (the unofficial tornado capital of the world), but we like to say, “We’re from Lawton now.”
We’re blessed with five children: Benjamin (13), Madeleine (11), Charlie (7), JoJo (5), and Abigail (2). We live on a few acres just outside Lawton, where we raise chickens and some really cranky ducks.
