Jimmy Swaggart - Ordination and Early Career

Ordination and Early Career

Preaching from a flatbed trailer donated to him, Swaggart began full-time evangelistic work in 1955. It was then that Swaggart began developing a revival-meeting following throughout the American South. Swaggart began attending Bible college in 1957. In 1960, he began recording gospel music record albums while building up another audience via Christian radio stations. In 1961, after graduating from Bible college, Swaggart was ordained by the Assemblies of God; one year later, Swaggart began his radio ministry. By 1969, Swaggart's radio program, The Camp Meeting Hour, was being aired over numerous radio stations throughout the American Bible Belt. In the late 1960s, Swaggart founded what was then a small church named the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; the church eventually became district-affiliated with the Assemblies of God. The Family Worship Center grew from barely 40 members in 1970 to over 500 by 1975 and over 1000 by 1980. During the 1970s the church grew from a one room church to a more modern building with new additions being built every couple years.

In the late 1960s, Swaggart began airing a weekly 30-minute telecast over various local television stations in that city and also purchased a local AM radio station, WLUX in Baton Rouge (now WPFC). The station broadcast Christian feature stories, preaching and teaching from various fundamentalist and Pentecostal denominations and played a blend of black gospel, Southern gospel, and inspirational music. As Contemporary Christian music became more prevalent, the station avoided playing it. Swaggart would ultimately sell his radio stations gradually throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.