John Meador, pastor of Woodland Park Baptist Church for the past seven years, has become pastor of the 7,000-member First Baptist Church of Euless, Tex.
The Woodland Park elders are conducting a search for his replacement. Roger Fitch, a CPA with the HLB firm, is chairman of the Board of Elders.
Rev. Meador had declined several invitations from the large church, but he said he finally felt called to accept.
Rev. Meador, who is 93 percent deaf, will preach his first sermon as senior pastor of the Euless church on Sunday.
The church's former pastor, the Rev. Claude Thomas, resigned in 2004.
The 49-year-old Meador is a 6-foot-5-inch former college basketball player.
He became deaf at age five after a high fever damaged the nerves in his inner ears. He grew up in Purcell, Okla., and has been preaching for 23 years. His father is a Southern Baptist minister.
He attended Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Okla.
He also was pastor at Emmanual Southern Baptist Church in Edmond, Okla., and at MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church in Irving, Tex.
He and his wife, Kim, have six children, ages 10 to 24.
Wayne Barber was at Woodland Park for 18 years prior to leaving for Albuquerque, New Mexico, and being replaced by Rev. Meador.