The Rt. Rev. D. L. Hayes, DD, Ph.D.
Exchequer

In the beginning God foreknew and ordained, Elder Donald Lee Hayes be delivered into this world September 4, 1953 to the care of Lee Grant and Beulah Mae Hayes at the Marion Hospital in Marion County, Mullins, South Carolina. He was the fourth son and has an identical twin brother named Ronald.

At the age of thirteen, Bishop Hayes accepted the LORD’s Christ as his personal savior and became a dedicated servant of God. The mark of God was visible upon his life and everywhere he went people noticed the calling of God. He was a willing worker, and whatever his hands found to do in the LORD, he did it with all of his might, giving God the Glory.

In 1971 he graduated from Mullins High School. Upon completion of his secondary education, he went to New York to live with one of his siblings and while there he enlisted into the United States Air Force and was stationed in, California.

At the age of 23 the Lord called him into the ministry. He was licensed in September 1976 and he preached his first official sermon in December of that same year. He was ordained and commissioned as a Elder in March 1978. He was a young man full of faith, wisdom and the Holy Ghost. He had zeal of God according to knowledge.

On March 20, 1977, Donald Hayes married Cheryl Regina Smith and this union was blessed with one daughter, Alicia Nicole; two sons, Brian Keith and Donald Jr. Bishop-Designate and Co-Pastor Hayes are now enjoying four handsome grandsons, Kaleb, Joshua, Daniel, and Brian; one gorgeous granddaughter, Brianna.

In 1978 Elder Hayes was stationed in RAF Upper Heyford, England and while there was appointed Pastor to the Gospel Worship Service, where many souls were saved, healed and delivered by the Word and the Power of God. This worship service experienced mighty exploits in the name of the LORD. It was here that his pastoral career began and God used him mightily in his four-year tenure to strengthen the Body of Christ on the Military Bases and help unite other Gospel Services in the United Kingdom.

In 1981 he and his family was stationed in Great Falls, Montana and while there he was appointed Pastor of the Union Bethel Community Church. God again poured out manifold blessings upon his people. The Word of God was precious. It was here during this four-year tenure that God taught him the cost of being a Godly leader. This was in fact his pruning ground, his place of brokenness and surrender, his garden of Gethsemane. And through it all, in His Name and through faith in His Name, he came out more than a conqueror. Visions and victories followed his ministry and the demonstrative Word of God was his foundation, “line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little, here a little and there a little.”

Bishop Donald L. Hayes, Ph.D. has always had a love and a passion to see souls come to Christ and experience the WONDERFUL, SAVING GRACE of the LIVING SAVIOR. He reaches out to as many as is humanly possible offering them the plan of salvation, as well as encouraging and assisting them in this life and sharing the wisdom God has so richly blessed him to have in counseling, and mending broken relationships.

In 1985 they were stationed at Carswell AFB, Texas and in 1987 he was unanimously appointed the Pastor of the Gospel Services reaching out to the military families. In 1989 through God’s divine appointment, “The Gospel Inspirational Fellowship, Incorporated” was officially chartered and so named.

Our Heavenly Father has given him a “COAT OF MANY COLORS”- his life houses treasures full of divers gifts and talents, all “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

Like Joseph, Bishop Hayes is filling a vital role in the history of the Church and the entire world. In 1997 he was appointed Head Chaplain of the DFW International Airport Chaplaincy, the third busiest airport in the world and he is the first African-American to hold this position. It is a ministry of “Presence” that reaches all people.

Bishop Hayes is a graduate of Covenant Bible College & Theological Seminary, earning his Doctorate of Philosophy in Theological Studies. He received Episcopal Reaffirmation at the hand of Apostle++D. E. Chase, Ph.D. on June 14, 2009 and was bestowed full lines of Apostolic Succession.