Oaklawn Baptist Pastor

Having wanted to be a pastor since he was a young boy, Jay Boyce’s dreams have been fulfilled as he takes over as lead pastor at Oaklawn Baptist Church.
Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Boyce attended Lake City Baptist Tabernacle, where he developed his interest in becoming a pastor.
“It’s all I have really ever wanted to do,” he said. “I think my mom even has cassette tapes of me preaching when I was young.”
After high school, Boyce attended Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, Florida, where he met his wife, Samantha Swift Boyce. There, he also took courses in church ministries and music, concentrating more on vocal training. Boyce graduated from Trinity Baptist College in 1995.
“My wife is a Kernersville native, so that is how we ended up back here in Kernersville,” he said.
The Boyces have two sons, Grady and Judah, who both attend Triad Baptist Christian Academy.
Boyce found his first position in the ministry at Tabernacle Christian School, a Christian school in Alabama. After that, they moved to Kernersville, where Boyce worked in a secular job for six years and attended Gospel Light Baptist Church and got involved with the youth ministry.
“My first full-time church job was in 2001 at Trinity Baptist Church in Asheville,” he said, noting they were there until 2009 before moving back to Kernersville. “I was the college and career pastor and the music minister there.”
Once they moved back to Kernersville, Boyce was hired to work at Oaklawn Baptist Church as the worship pastor (music minister), and in 2011 he took over as the youth pastor as well.
“In July of this year, I took over as the lead pastor,” he said noting that he continues to lead the music ministry. “When people come here, they’ll see that I wear two hats, but while I am thankful for the gift of music, pastoring has always been my first love.”
Boyce said one of the things he enjoys most about being a pastor is visiting with people.
“I love the people, which is important for a pastor’s role. I also enjoy doing pastoral care and visiting people. Our challenge here is that we want to reach people with the Gospel and be known as the church that loves and cares for people,” he said. “This area is becoming diverse and that’s also what I want us to be. I want us to care for all people and I want our congregation to be diverse.”
Boyce said within the church there are several groups and ministries, but their main goal is to preach.
“We want to preach Christ to the world and be known as the church that cares and loves people. That is very important to me,” he remarked.
When it comes to his style of preaching, Boyce said he has been told he is very animated.
“I preach expositional, explaining the scripture verse by verse,” he said. “It’s not about opinions and I don’t get into politics from the pulpit. I just keep it biblical, preaching truth and love.”
Boyce noted that of the ministries at Oaklawn Baptist Church, there are three fairly new ministries, including their mobile soup kitchen, clothing closet, and food pantry.
Boyce said they held their first mobile soup kitchen recently by taking food to downtown Winston-Salem on the corner of Northwest Boulevard and Patterson Avenue, where they fed about 100 people.
“Whoever came by, we fed them. There were several people who were homeless that came by and we fed them and prayed with them,” he said. “We fed so many people that we ran out of food. We are doing another mobile soup kitchen on December 5.”
As for their food pantry, they will be holding their second one today from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
“We basically fill 30 – 40 bags of groceries that will feed a family for three to four days,” Boyce said. “Last month was our first time doing this and it was a great success.”
He said they are still in the process of getting the clothing closet together and are still collecting items.
“We are still in the process of getting that rolling, but we would like to provide coats for kids and things like that,” he said. “We have a mission team that has been community driven to help families in need.”
Oaklawn Baptist Church is located at 3500 Kernersville Road. For more information, visit www.obcyes.com.