Sam Dennis has served the purposes of God and His church since college. While earning a BA in English Literature from Wichita State University in the late 60s and early 70s, he served as a youth pastor of his home church through a ministry parallelling the time-period and spirit of the “Jesus Movement.” After graduating from college Sam moved to Dallas, TX. to follow his passion for music, songwriting, and copywriting. After a few years of freelancing and performing in local Dallas restaurants and pubs, Sam founded a small advertising agency that operated through early 1986.
In May of 1986 Sam joined the staff of his home church, Northway Baptist Church of Dallas, which led to his becoming the church’s Executive Pastor. Then in early 1989, while serving at Northway, Sam was approached by Denton Baptist Association and the Baptist General Convention of Texas to plant a new church/mission in the growing area where Dallas, Denton and Collin counties converged. On Easter Sunday of 1989 ParkwayHills Baptist Church was launched. That same year Sam entered seminary to earn an MDIV with Bible Languages from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. ParkwayHills eventually bought property on what would become the North Dallas Tollway and Sam was blessed to serve as pastor for 29 years as the church grew to over 2,000 members. In 2017 Sam stepped aside to become Pastor Emeritus and to turn his attention to the support, training and mentorship of other churches and pastors.
In 2018 -2019 Sam was invited to serve as a visiting professor of East Texas Baptist University in Marshall Texas and today he and Belinda remain strong supporters of ETBU with Belinda serving on its Board. In the fall of the same year Sam also led in the revitalization of the Junius Heights Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Originally established in 1917 near downtown Dallas, this church was where Sam had attended with his family as a preschooler. The church had fallen on difficult times, disrepair and meager attendance. But once more, through support from the Baptist General Convention of Texas (Texas Baptists) and the Dallas Baptist Association, Sam was blessed to see to the church’s resurgence and to lead them in calling a young, full-time pastor and thrive once again.
Today, Sam and Belinda live near their children and grandchildren in Oklahoma City, OK. Each year he leads a church-planting and strengthening mission to Brazil through Project70.org https://www.project70.org/ with whom he has started over 80 new churches. Sam also leads annual tours to the Holy Lands – visiting Israel, Turkey and Greece – to walk where Jesus walked and to learn of Christianity’s early history and expansion by visiting ancient sites and the journeys of the Apostle Paul.