Jimmy H. DeMoss – along with Henry Wood and others – was instrumental in the organization of Texarkana Reformed Baptist Church (TRBC) in 1978 and has since that time served as pastor/elder of the church.  He and his wife of 55 years, Lillian (Lil), have five grown children and nine grandchildren.  Jimmy was born and raised in Houston, Texas. 

He was converted in 1957 shortly after a three year hitch in the Marine Corps.  While attending the University of Houston he was convinced that he should prepare for the gospel ministry.  He attended the U of H until 1960.  In January of 1961, he, Lil, and their two small children left Houston for Lexington, Kentucky, where he spent the next three and one half years attending Lexington Baptist College.  He graduated in 1963 with a B.A. and in 1964 with a Th.B.

Jimmy has been in the pastoral ministry since he graduated from college.  From 1964 to the present he has pastored three churches, one in West Texas and the other two in Texarkana.   During his pastorate in West Texas he worked as a draftsman for the Texas Highway Department. After moving to Texarkana he began teaching high school and retired after 27½ years with the Texarkana Arkansas School District.  While teaching at Arkansas High, he earned his M.Ed.  degree from East Texas State University at Texarkana. (It was during his teaching at AHS that, through the influence of the head of the Art Department, Josephine Morgan, he became interested in painting. He has been “hooked on art” ever since.  He especially enjoys realistic landscape painting, but enjoys painting animals and flowers as well.) 

During the first 20 years as pastor/elder of TRBC, Jimmy shared the pulpit ministry with the other elders.  Since the mid-1990′s he has been primarily involved in teaching various Sunday School classes, pastoral counseling, visiting the elderly and members of TRBC, and most of the administrative functions of the church. 

Some 15 years ago Lil said to him on their way to the Lord’s Day services, “You know, the church is our life.”  That’s Jimmy’s sentiment as well.  “We thank the Lord for his mercies to us at TRBC.”