Senior Pastor
Email: pastorjoel@oxfordbaptist.com
Pastor Joel Frye has served as Senior Pastor since January 1999. Before coming to Oxford Baptist, he served as both a Minister of Students and Associate Pastor. He is happily married to his lovely wife, Tricia, and God has blessed them with two beautiful children, Abigail and Joshua.
Having been blessed with a Godly hertiage, Pastor Joel was saved at the age of five and surrendered to full-time Christian ministry at the age of eighteen. He holds an Associate of Religion/Church Ministries degree from Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religious Studies from Gardner-Webb University. His favorite Scripture passage is Philippians 3:10-14.
Pastor Joel believes in the verbal inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of the Word of God. He consistently preaches expository messages through different books of the Bible and attempts to make each sermon practical to the lives of the hearers. He believes in ministering to the entire congregation from rejoicing with the parents of a newborn at the hospital to comforting the bereaved family of an aged senior adult at the graveside and every possible opportunity in between.
In addition to his full-time pastorate, he serves as volunteer chaplain for the Catawba County Emergency Medical Services and the North Carolina State Highway Patrol. In these roles, he ministers to paramedics, firefighters, troopers and their families as well as to crisis victims, through on-scene spiritual care, personal friendships, counseling and intercessory prayer. Pastor Joel also serves on the Board of Directors for Tri-City Christian School.
When not involved in ministry endeavors, Pastor Joel enjoys spending time with his wife and children, especially their athletic interests. He also enjoys bass fishing and is a fan of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Indianapolis Colts.
“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”. Philippians 3:10-14