Pastor Ralph Douglas West Sr.

Rev. Dr. Ralph Douglas West serves as the founder and senior pastor of The Church Without Walls located in three locations in Houston, Texas.

He has an abiding commitment to the church and the academy, relating with equal ease, while using his influence to mentor ministers in both spaces. He is a visiting scholar and professor at several seminaries and divinity schools across the nation including the George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University, Duke Divinity School, and Beeson Divinity School. He lectures and preaches perennially in conferences, churches, universities, and seminaries across the world including Regent’s Park College, Oxford University.

Dr. West was recently named as the inaugural “Baptist World Alliance Ambassador for Preaching and Multiplying Congregations.” Of only three ambassadors for the BWA, Dr. West is the first and only ambassador from the Americas and the first to hold the Ambassador for Preaching and Multiplying Congregations. In his position as BWA Ambassador, Dr. West and his team will be responsible for providing strategic counsel to 176,000 Baptist churches in 138 countries and territories, 238 member partners, and for establishing and strengthening global preaching and church engagement for over 53 million Baptists.

Dr. West completed degrees at Bishop College, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Beeson Divinity School, where he earned the Doctor of Ministry Degree. He is currently a PhD candidate at Baylor University, where his research interests include: the Black Church, African American religious thought, histories of the National Baptist Convention, and women religious leadership in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Dr. West is married to Mrs. Sheretta West. They have three adult children, Rev. Ralph D. West II, Rennekia Goffney, and Rev. Raphael D. West, and one grandson, Ralph D. West III (Trey).

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