Jerry D. Porter
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Jerry D. Porter (born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) is a minister and general superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene.
Porter graduated from Bethany Nazarene College in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion. In the summer of 1972 he received a Master of Arts in theology degree.
Porter took his first pastorate in Angleton, Texas and was ordained in 1974 on the Houston District Church of the Nazarene by General Superintendent Charles H. Strickland. After pastoring in Angleton for two and a half years Porter and his wife Toni were appointed to be missionaries to the Dominican Republic to start the Nazarene work in that country. After serving in the Dominican Republic the Porters were assigned to San José, Costa Rica, where he served as rector of the Nazarene Seminary of the Americas.
Porter was elected by the General Board of the Church of the Nazarene to be the regional director for the Church of the Nazarene in the Mexico/Central America Region in 1986. The region was made up of eight nations from Panama to Mexico.
While the Porters' daughter Amy was receiving treatment for cancer in Dallas, Texas, in 1992, Porter was elected by the Mid-Atlantic District to be the third district superintendent. This district includes Maryland, Delaware, south central Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., and eastern West Virginia. During this period he also served on the Board of Trustees of Eastern Nazarene College and Nazarene Theological Seminary.
Porter was elected to be General Superintendent at the 24th General Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene in San Antonio, Texas, in June 1997.
