Beloved Pastor, CW Wallace Announces Retirement as Senior Pastor of Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church

By: Jackie Hardy, NDG Contributing Writer

Pastor Curtis W. Wallace will preach his final sermon as senior pastor from the pulpit of Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church on Sunday, Jan. 26, at the 10 am service. 

Wallace has faithfully served as the senior pastor for the past 30 years, and last year he announced his plans to retire as he felt the time was right to step down as the senior pastor.

“I just knew this was the right time to take a rest from pastoring,” adds Wallace via a phone interview with the North Dallas Gazette. But, Wallace is emphatic he is not retiring from preaching. He plans to continue his passion for teaching the word of God through his Curtis W. Wallace Ministries (https://www.drcurtiswallace.com/).

According to Wallace, it has been rewarding to serve as one of three pastors in the history of Pilgrim Rest almost 85-year existence. Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church’s website states the church began September 1935. The founding pastor was the late Rev. S.G. Gooden, Sr. The first service was held under a tree of a parishioner’s home. In recent years, under the guidance and leadership of Wallace, it has continued to grow in becoming one of the largest and recognized African American churches within the Metroplex.

Over the past three decades, Wallace’s vision allowed the execution of several ministries. He established a mentorship program for young boys as well as ministries to serve both single and married couples. He has also developed the Worship and Fine Arts Ministry (WFAM), Pilgrim Rest Overcomers Program (PROP), Souls Winners Action Team (SWAT), Caring, and Reaching Everyone (CARE). Also, through his vision and leadership, the church built Pilgrim Rest Village, a senior living facility in the effort to serve the aging population within the community.

Evangelism has genuinely been the center of everything Pastor Wallace has done in his tenure at Pilgrim Rest. Over the years, his heart for evangelism bore much fruit from the more than 4,500 people the church has been able to reach and lead to Christ through its Prison, SWATS, and Transition Ministries.

“Every ministry I tried to start in the church, it was biblical. The bible teaches us to ‘go ye, therefore, teaching all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,’ so to win souls and to go out on the street corner and talk to people that is biblical,” Wallace stated. He believes this is why evangelism is the central focus of his ministry work.

The Transition Ministry, started by Wallace, is also a vital evangelism component to Pilgrim Rest. The mission of the ministry is reaching the un-churched or those without hope. Giving them a Christ-centered structure to an otherwise lost community. Their motto is “Glorifying God One Soul at a Time.”

“This ministry is what the Lord gave him, and we have been doing this for 10 years now. His main focus is evangelism, and he is totally with it 100 percent,” commented Catherine Butler of Pilgrim Rest. She commended Pastor Wallace’s commitment and passion for evangelism.

Wallace grew up in Paris, Texas, a city located 98 miles northeast of Dallas/Fort Worth. He is one of 11 children to his now-deceased parents, Archie and Ola. Preaching was a part of his DNA as Wallace shares with North Dallas Gazette he comes from a long line of preachers within his family.

“I am a third-generation pastor. Both of my grandfathers were pastors on my mother’s side and even on my dad’s side. There were eight boys in my family, and all eight of us were pastors,” he adds.

He enjoyed serving in the ministry, where he shared his passion for preaching with his now four deceased brothers CB, Willie, Donald, Gerald. He also served along with his three surviving brothers Johnny, Harvey (Pastor of Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church, Oklahoma City), and Scotty. His sisters Veola, Gladys Faye, and Theodora; also deceased were much like his brothers, no strangers to ministry. Wallace shared that they were gifted musicians and singers in their own rights. One of his sisters, Veola, sang with a local gospel group called The Good Cheer Gospel Singers. 

The Wallace Family Sing is an annual family tradition that spans generations of Wallaces. They come together to fellowship on the third Sunday in March. This sacred time of coming together ends with worship and singing at Mount Pisgah Baptist Church, the church where they grew up in Paris. 

Wallace recalls how the Wallace Family Sing began with them singing and playing the piano in the house. People from the neighborhood would gather in their living room, spilling out into the front yard to listen and enjoy the family’s singing.

 “Over the years, it grew, becoming an instrumental part of the Wallace Family Reunion.”

Mount Pisgah Baptist Church, the place where Wallace’s spiritual roots began, called him to pastor early in his career. He fondly remembers being called to pastor shortly after graduating from college. In the four years of pastoring, Wallace was grateful for the opportunity to pastor some of his family members.

“It was an honor and a privilege to pastor the church I grew up at. I was able to pastor my mother and my daddy, my mother’s sisters, and just a host of cousins.”

After his time at Mount Pisgah, Wallace moved to Houston to serve as the pastor for Lily Grove Baptist Church. He served there for eight years before accepting what would be his last church to pastor, Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church.

Under his leadership, Lily Grove grew to what is now defined as a megachurch. According to Wallace, the church is still growing as he advised every pastor succeeding him has needed to expand to accommodate the growth of the church. 

“Seeing a church grow to me is almost like seeing your child or children grow,” shares Wallace in regards to one of his greatest satisfaction in being a pastor. “When I took the church in Houston, it was a very small church, and God just blessed it, and it grew and grew, but when I look back on my life and what God was preparing me for was Pilgrim Rest.”

The other satisfaction Wallace has experienced from pastoring is the relationships he’s been able to cultivate over the years. He feels he especially found his tribe at Pilgrim Rest once he moved back to the North Texas area in 1990.

“I’ve been privileged to pastor some of the greatest people I think in the world,” he states.

The feeling is mutual concerning how his staff and members feel about him. Also, their respect for the impact his leadership has made both on a church and personal level. 

“There’s a scripture in the bible that I told our church, Pastor Wallace emulates. And it’s in James 1:26-27 where it talks about that a man of God is pure in religion, undefiled before God, who takes care of the fatherless, the widow, orphans, and those that are in prison. Pastor Wallace definitely and truly is a man of God,” sentiments shared by Pastor Lee Brodie, Leader of Pilgrim’s Rest Prison Outreach Soul Saving Evangelist (POSSE) ministry and Director of Coalition of Churches in Prison Ministry (cocipm.org).

“It’s been such a wonderful journey that it doesn’t seem like 30 years,” Wallace, in summary, to capture what the past three decades have been like for him.

Within that journey, Wallace was able to share some of it with his wife of almost 50 years, Phyllis Wallace, who passed away in November of 2017. He also shared the journey with their two children, three grandchildren, and, most recently, his four great-grandchildren. 

On Jan. 24, over 600 individuals will be attending a sold-out black-tie event held at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Dallas. The grand occasion is to express their final appreciation for Pastor Wallace’s work, legacy, and leadership, Each of them believes they greatly benefited from an endearing pastor and friend.