Apostle Don Lyon July 1931 - October 2020
For over 60 years, Apostle Don Lyon had dedicated himself to ministry, which is a notable and humbling accomplishment. This had caused him to be accepted as an apostle and father to many pastors, evangelists and ministry leaders. He was often introduced as a “pastor to pastors”.
Apostle Don Lyon was born on July 9th, 1931 to Frank and Florence Lyon in Egeland, North Dakota. Then later moved to the state of Oregon where he was raised. While attending Open Bible College in Des Moines, Iowa, Don married his childhood sweetheart, Donna Faye Swaggart in Eugene, Oregon in 1951. They have now been married for 64 years with 4 children that follow the Lord, 1 in Heaven, 7 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren. He then graduated from Open Bible College in 1953 with his Bachelor’s in Theology.
In 1973, he received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree from Florida Beacon College and Seminary. In March of 1954, Don and Donna Lyon moved to Rockford, Illinois where they founded Open Bible Center in the Loves Park area, and it grew in attendance to 800 people. They pastored Open Bible for 23 years. During those years, Open Bible produced a weekly thirty-minute television program entitled “Quest for Life”. It aired not only locally, but nationwide for 16 years. During that time, God gave Apostle Don a vision of a mobile television van that was able to pull up to live events and film an event on location. This was the first ever to be developed and was leased by all three national broadcast companies (ABC, CBS, NBC) to film live events and soon built their own based off from the one Apostle Lyon had built. At Open Bible Center, Apostle Lyon built the first Christian Academy in the Rockford region, Open Bible Academy; preschool through the 12th grade. He also built a Bible school that was fully accredited, The Rockford School of Theology, which trained ministers and lay leaders. While pastoring at Open Bible, Apostle began the first Christian radio station in the Rockford area, 100.9 WQFL.
In 1978, Apostle Lyon started an interdenominational church, Faith Center International Ministries. During Faith Center’s 35 years of ministry and outreach, he has built Faith Academy Christian school for pre-school through 12th grade. In 1991 he went on to start 88.3 WFEN radio station. Faith Center continues to grow in the following ministries today: children, youth, music, prayer, “young at heart” for seniors, small groups, special needs ministry, feeding our local families, WFEN radio, and video/audio outreach. There is over 64 ministries total in Faith Center International Ministries.