Lyle is new Virtue Church senior pastor
“I’m back in my wheelhouse,” the new pastor said. “I love being here. This is a wonderful church. They just needed someone to kind of get at the helm and say, ‘hey, here’s what we’re doing.’”
“Reverend Lyle’s extensive experience, deep faith and commitment to community outreach make him an exceptional addition to Virtue Church,” 725 Virtue Road in Farragut, said Terry Kerbs, chairman of the search committee. “We are excited to welcome him to our church family and look forward to the sound Biblical preaching and strong spiritual leadership he will provide.”
The church appointed Lyle, a Knoxville native, six weeks ago. With more than 25 years in pastoral experience, his journey of faith began at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church, where Dr. Donald Hoke mentored him from 1980 through 1985.
Lyle graduated from Bearden High School in 1980 and earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, and studied at New Geneva Theological Seminary in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he completed doctoral coursework.
Additionally, he holds an honorary degree from Seminario Evangélico de Teología in Matanzas, Cuba.
Lyle was adjunct professor of Bible at Birmingham Theological Seminary and is a partner in missions with East/West Ministries in Dallas.
He has served congregations across Alabama, Georgia and Florida with a ministry characterized by a passion for local ministry partnerships, foreign missions and “seeing the Gospel change lives,” he said.
For the past four years, Virtue Church has been led by an interim pastor from Maryville who would come over every Sunday.
Then, “one of the members here posted a note on the Next Door app … that they had been without (a pastor), and they wanted some help,” Lyle said.
After the first meeting with church leaders, he talked to them about how he could help them find a minister.
However, after the second meeting, “they kind of flipped the script on me and said, ‘why don’t you consider it?’” Lyle said.
“My wife (Laura) and I really prayed about it, and it seemed at every junction, God kept giving us green lights, and it worked out that we’re here now,” he added.
“We’re really getting involved. In the six weeks we’ve (been) here, we already are involved with Angelic Ministries in the city of Knoxville and are getting involved in a church planning ministry in Cuba.”
Lyle was involved in developing ministries in Cuba for 14 years, traveling once or twice a year to Cuba, and started about 45 churches in the central part of that nation.
“So, I have people lined up to go with me there,” Lyle said. “They just needed somebody to point them in a direction.
“This is a great church.”
