It has bought 40 acres in east Gainesville with plans to build a 5,000-seat sanctuary.

"When God gave me this vision, I knew that it was big," Dix said. "It was like the feeling I had the night I met my wife, when I knew she was the woman I was going to marry: Something big is happening here."

Dix is 49, with unlined skin, salt-and-pepper hair and a Cuba Gooding Jr. smile.

He grew up down the street from what now serves as PASSAGE Family Church, in a duplex on SE 15th Street, in a family that was "very, very poor," Dix said. He attended Rawlings Elementary School, one of the two schools to benefit from the church's School Board donation.

But Dix's father, a Pentecostal minister, and his mother, who's now an active volunteer with PASSAGE, made Dix and his siblings feel like they never did without, he said.

Dix now lives in Alachua with his wife, Lady Michele Dix, and his two daughters, one who's graduating from UF and another who's getting ready to start there. His son is in Iraq with the U.S. Marines.

George Dix Sr., who Dix describes as his "father, pastor and best friend," died a decade ago.

Two years after his father's death, while serving as manager of systems control at GRU, Dix got the vision he says prompted him to change his life.

He describes it this way: He was in his room, looking at a framed photo of his kids. As he stared at the picture, their faces started to change, morphing into faces of all different ages and colors and appearances.

Dix called his wife into the room and asked her to write down his account of what he was seeing. Today, Dix said, that sheet of notebook paper describes almost perfectly the church he has created: a multi-faceted, nondenominational ministry focused on helping the neediest people in the community that included - but wasn't limited to - a church.

Dix knew better than to give his notice at GRU right away, or even to start a church immediately.

"I've seen so many young men called by a divine vision to start a ministry leave everything behind, start a ministry and then see the ministry fold after a few services," said Dix, who's been active in ministry work through his father's church for years.

So he started meeting with area ministers. And he waited for the timing to be right.

Two years later, the nondenominational Christian PASSAGE Family Church held its first tiny service in the Best Western. Within nine months, the church had grown to 90 members and had entered an agreement to rent and eventually own the 700-seat church on NE 15th Street. Within two years, its membership had swelled to 250.

Dix kept his GRU job until 2005, working long shifts for his day job through the hurricanes in 2004, leaving briefly to preach, then returning to work at GRU right after services were done.

By the time Dix told his boss at GRU he was leaving in 2005, he'd worked there as an electrical engineer and then a manager for 27 years.

"From that point on, my life took a new turn," Dix said. "PASSAGE was growing. And now I'd get to do exactly what I wanted to do for work. I had never - have never - been happier."

Dix didn't leave behind 15 years in management when he became a minister full-time. A copy of John Maxwell's "Twenty-One Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" sits next to his father's worn Bible on his desk.

The job descriptions Dix has written for roles like assistant pastor and musical director read like executive profiles, with words like "develop, execute and organize" to describe their duties.

It's a skill set Steve Matchett, director of the Action Network of North Central Florida, a coalition of area religious organizations, said has served Dix well as a pastor.

"I've seen many churches start and seen many churches fail, and not because there was a lack of commitment on the minister's part," Matchett said. "(Dix) will tell you that the credit all goes to God. But with his background in the corporate world, he's very organized and very professional. Those traits and his faith and integrity seem to click perfectly."

Alachua County Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said Dix's prowess as a leader goes beyond his past experience.

"Even when he worked for GRU, he just stood out from the crowd in a way that's hard for me to explain," Chestnut said. "You knew you were in the presence of a great leader. He doesn't have to shout from the highest rooftop to make himself heard. If he's in the room, you know it. You feel like you're in the presence of someone important."

As for Dix's flaws, sources were hard-pressed to name any.

"He's human," Dix's wife said. "That's about all I can say."

Chestnut said PASSAGE's outreach work has done more than continue a tradition for predominately black churches in Gainesville and beyond - it has practically transcended it.

"The African-American church has long been the focal point for education, community building and coalition building in communities, but I think pastor Dix and his congregation went above and beyond the call of duty when they made the presentation of $100,000 to the School Board," Chestnut said. "That was a first, and is something other churches should try to emulate."

Dix said the church has reached this level by taking the focus away from money, telling church members they don't have to give cash every week or every year if they don't have it. Dix said church members who donate their time and talent are just as valuable as those who donate hunks of cash, as the church counts four full-time employees and one part-time employee on its payroll.

"It's sort of a juxtaposition," Dix said. "We de-emphasize money here. But in showing that we care for people and not just for their money, we have seen the most tremendous generosity from our members."

The church has also donated funds and volunteer hours toward relief efforts in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and in Southeast Asia following the tsunami there in late 2004.

The international relief work is part of what Dix sees as the church's future: outreach work that would spread his vision overseas by teaching others to set up community-based foundations like his.

But first, he said, he has work to do in Gainesville.

Plans for the 40 acres on E. University Avenue include a new 5,000-seat sanctuary, a ministerial training center, a school and other amenities. Dix said he hopes the church's future donations and outreach work "dwarf" the $100,000 donation to the School Board.

"I see our children doing better academically, families that are stronger and communities that are tighter-knit because of increased engagement in them," Dix said. "I see an army of volunteers in our schools. I always want to think of our past accomplishments as small. I don't want to get in a position where we feel like we can rest on our laurels, or that we feel like we have 'arrived.' God knows, we have not arrived yet."

Amy Reinink can be reached at 352-374-5088 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The original of this article can be found here.