Jerry Jones was born March 28,1932 in Tipton County, Tennessee to Floyd and Sadie Jones. His father had become a minister when Pastor Jones was 8 years old. He knew at the age of 12 that he would be a minister. He preached his first sermon at the age of 17 at his father’s church in Ripley, Tennessee. He graduated from Ripley High School in May of 1950 and left soon after, with only a one-way Greyhound bus ticket to Broken Bow, Nebraska where he was to meet a young lady, named Lucille Cole, with whom he had been a pen pal for most of his senior year. They would marry in September of that same year.

Much of his early years were spent as an evangelist traveling across the country. He pastored his first church in Rutherford, Tennessee in 1953. He later pastored churches in Manchester and Memphis before moving his family out west.

In 1962 the family moved to the San Fernando valley in California. It was here that God brought Ira Virgil Grove into Pastor Jones life and, in 1963, a daily half-hour broadcast called Gospeltones on KHOF FM evolved.

As part of his love for gospel music, Pastor Jones started Saturday Night Sings, where he would bring in well-known gospel quartets and singers. Among those would be the Blackwood Brothers, the Spear Family, the Cathedrals and Andre Crouch, just to name a few. The Saturday Night Sings continued from 1965-1974.

Shortly after starting the Saturday Night Sings, Pastor Jones formed his own Southern gospel quartet, called the Galileans. This group made two albums in the four years they were together (1966-1968) and toured across the county performing in churches and concert halls. Each concert would be followed by Pastor Jones giving a sermon and altar call.

As the ministry continued to grow, so did the outreach. Burbank Community Church was originally started in a small, upstairs office in a building on Burbank Blvd. October 23, 1968. It came out of a group of approximately 40 people who had been radio listeners and saw the vision that Pastor Jones had, and wholeheartedly joined in to make that happen. It wasn’t long until they had outgrown that little upstairs office and expanded to the office next door to give them twice the size.

During this time, Pastor Jones had driven past the old, boarded up California Theater, hundreds of times. One day, in the summer of 1969, he literally made a U-turn in the middle of the road because something told him to get the phone number on the “For Sale or Lease” sign and call them. The deal was sealed, and the small congregation spent the next 30 days and nights, literally on their hands and knees, pulling out moldy carpet, scraping years of gum and concession food from the floor and repairing leaks in the roof so they could have their first service there on New Year’s Eve. Over the years the congregation grew and Pastor Jones led the congregation until his retirement in 2004. Following his retirement as a full-time pastor in 2004, he knew that his work was not done. In 1995 he reunited with Pastor Ed Smith of Zoe Christian Fellowship in Whittier, California and began counseling one day a week there, as well as preaching periodically and conducting various leadership training meetings. He also conducted several marriage ceremonies and became a “father figure” to many of them. He was also a “minister-at-large” filling in at various churches, “minister-at-large” filling in at various churches, as needed and conducted two Bible studies a week and mentored new pastors.

Missions were a cornerstone of what he did. This included purchasing a caribou and hundreds of pounds of rice to be shipped to third world countries. He supported and traveled to speak in many countries including Africa, Korea, the Philippines and several trips to the Holy Land. His service extended well beyond the walls of the church. He was an active and involved member of his community and worked to build relationships and bridges between the church and community. He was given a key to the City Dec. 10,1989, by the City Council, for 40 years of service to the community.

He was a member of the Burbank Ministerial Association and served nine years as President. He was very active in VFW programs and spoke at the Veterans Day Memorial Services in the Park. He served on the Board of Directors of the Burbank YMCA, the Foothill Youth Services Project and Burbank Housing Corporation and was the founding President of the Boys & Girls Club of Burbank and President of the Burbank Noon Rotary Club

He had an amazing green thumb- especially when it came to growing roses and sculpting trees. In his yard you could find trees in the shape of birds and dolphins and the sweetest, most fragrant roses in bloom. His garden was meticulous, and he took great pride in it.