About Us

We work to be a diverse, multi-ethnic, multi-generational church family that seeks to be pleasing to God in all we do.
We focus on following Jesus and His priority of the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.
We call on Christ followers to engage others through their witness.
We are streamlined, concentrating our energy and effort on God's mission for the church.
We seek for the entire church body of Christ to serve in some capacity in ministry in the church or the community.
We desire to build a culture where prayer involves our entire church.
We celebrate serving Jesus, knowing that it brings great fulfillment.

The Oaks Church is a regional church with a long history of more than 130 years of ministry in the South Dallas area. On August 20, 1890, a small group of people met in a little red schoolhouse in the township of Oak Cliff and formed First Baptist Church of Oak Cliff. It was there that the rich legacy of ministering to all people took root in The Oaks at a time when many congregations were separated by the color of their skin. First Baptist Church of Oak Cliff took a strong stand not to segregate in worship or ministry. This decision has kept missions both in our community, nation, and around the world a priority through the decades

God is using our passion for life transformation to bring together people from a variety of non-religious and religious backgrounds. Each week, people who have never belonged to a church or have been disconnected from church for years gather to passionately worship God. While our teaching is Baptist in nature, God continues to use us to bring people with different religious backgrounds, such as Catholic, Methodist, Church of Christ, Charismatic, Lutheran, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Non-Denominational, Nazarene, and Independent Baptist, together. This diversity is truly a mosaic of God's grand redemption story.

Barry Jude serves as lead pastor for The Oaks Church. A native of West Virginia, Barry brings diverse and deep experience to the pastoral team at The Oaks. His prior ministries have included pastoring churches in Kentucky, Florida, Arizona, Alabama, and Ohio.

“Life in Christ and as a pastor has been an adventure,” according to Barry. “Being open to God’s call has taken me places I never imagined I would go and developed my life in such amazing ways. My prayer is that God uses the experiences He has entrusted to me to enrich The Oaks and our community.”

Barry treasures his family as the greatest of his earthly blessings. He and his wife Kima are the parents of four adult children and the grandparents of three young children.

Barry graduated from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with a master of divinity degree and from Luther Rice Theological Seminary with a doctor of ministry. He loves sports and is an avid football fan—he attended Liberty University on a football scholarship and proudly proclaimed himself a Dallas Cowboys fan long before he settled in Texas.

His favorite pastime, however, has always been sharing Christ and seeing Him change people’s lives. “Jesus saved me. Through Him, I learned confidence, found purpose and, live in peace and with great joy. It gives me enormous satisfaction whenever I share salvation with others and help them experience the abundant life I’ve found in God.”