Building Dynamic Faith
At the age of 22, having just graduated from college in June of 1956, Jerry Falwell returned to his hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia, and started Thomas Road Baptist Church with 35 members. The offering that first Sunday totaled $135. Today Thomas Road Church has 24,000 members and the total annual revenues of all the Jerry Falwell ministries total over $200 million.Falwell also created theOld-Time Gospel Hour,a daily local radio ministry and a weekly local television ministry that was seen and heard in every American home and on every continent except Antarctica. He also founded Lynchburg Christian Academy in 1967 and Liberty University in 1971. Falwell was best known for organizing the Moral Majority in 1979, which encouraged millions of people of faith to vote for the first time in 1980 and help elect Ronald Reagan and many conservative congressmen and senators. On May 15, 2007, Dr. Jerry Falwell passed away at the age of 73, leaving behind his wife of nearly 48 years, Macel, as well as three grown children and eight grandchildren.