Our Pastor

Dr. Douglas Jacobs, interim pastor for Savannah First Seventh-day Adventist church,  retired from Southern Adventist University near Chattanooga, TN in 2018 after serving sixteen years as professor of Church Ministry and Preaching.   Before joining the School of Religion faculty in 2002, he was a pastor for 26 years in the Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. 

Since his retirement Dr. Jacobs served in 2019 -2020 as an interim pastor for Chattanooga First SDA church and has continued to write, preach, present seminars, and teach college and graduate classes as an adjunct professor.  He has been interim pastor of Savannah First Seventh-day Adventist church since March of 2026. 

The son of missionary parents, Dr. Jacobs grew up in Pakistan and attended high school in India.  He has participated in short-term mission trips to Bangladesh, the Philippines, Pakistan, Honduras, Colombia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Malawi.  His wife, Lanell Jacobs, is an R.N. who for many years served as director of Oncology Services for AdventHealth Gordon, a Seventh-day Adventist hospital in Calhoun, Georgia.  Currently she is a consultant for AdventHealth Hendersonville’s (North Carolina) radiation clinics.  Doug and Lanell have two adult daughters, Janell Lowe and Katie Jacobs.