Great Fundamental Leaders of today

While, many if not all, of those mentioned (I am not familiar with some) no doubt rate merit as among the great fundamentalist leaders, several of those have long since gone home to be with the Lord, hence don't really qualify as "Great Fundamentalist Leaders of Today".
Several Christian leaders just recently, this year (Dr. Robert G. Witty, age 100; and Dr. Lee Roberson, age 97; Dr. Tom Malone, age 91; Dr. Jerry Falwell, age 73, Ruth Bell Graham, age 87, come to mind.

I wonder whom the Lord will raise up "to stand in the gap" of these (mostly) fundamentalist leaders?

Ed

 

Paul Chappell, Pastor of Lancaster Baptist Church and President of West Coast Baptist College....and many on his staff. They are training many pastors and mssionaries who are grounded in the Word and the Truth.


He has written several good books that are wonderful for soul-winning classes.

Debbie Mc

 

Would Billy Graham and his wife really be considered Fundamentalists ?

 

Nope. Billy would be shocked at the suggestion. He very deliberately left Fundamentalism and rejected the term in 1957 at the time of his New York Crusade. Fundamentalists, led by Jack Wyrtzen, wanted Graham to come under their auspices, but he deliberately put together a committee with a known liberal on it.

 

Excellent point John, but I question one aspect of it - "wanted them to come under their auspices," makes me very uncomfortable as a fundamentalist. I see myself, humanly speaking at least, as under the auspices of my local church. Because of being a missionary I am also to an extent under the auspices of other supporting church and my mission agency.

I would bristle at being invited to be under anyone else's auspices.

 

I agree with you, Roger. The older I get the more of a local church man I am. :thumbs:

Here's a simple version of how it worked with the crusades of an evangelist in the 1950's. An area committee of pastors would invite the evangelist. He and/or his advance man would meet the committee to discuss things. The committee would work with the advance man to do PR work, advertise, enlist counselors, etc. The crusade would happen, and the evangelist's people would coordinate the contacts with of those who made decisions, etc.

So that we don't rehash the whole thing here, for those interested in knowing more about what happened in 1957, I did a thread on this shortly after joining the BB. I had no idea what I was getting into! :tonofbricks:

See it at: http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=4309

With poetic justice, my two main opponents on that thread, both very vocal, attacking rather than refuting the facts of history that I carefully documented, were later banned from the BB.

 

He was when he was young, but just like Falwell, he bowed to pressure from men to become more liberal.


Debbie Mc

 

You are of course entitled to your opinion re: Jerry Falwell, but many (myself included) would disagree.

 

I am one who would agree with you Debbie...

 

Revising my list here to now read...

Dr. Shelton Smith
Dr. Tom Malone
Dr. Lee Roberson
David Sorenson

 

Dr. S.M. Davis is my pastor. I grew up in the church he pastors (32 years and going). He is a great friend and a wonderful pastor.

Johnny Pope is a good friend that never seems to grow old. He spoke at our church here in Arkansas this spring.

Kenny Baldwin is a favorite of my children. Brother Kenny has been very available to my 19 year-old son. They talk on the phone every now and then. I can't tell you what that means to me as a father to have him take the time to be a positive influence on my son.

Sam Davison preached the last revival I held when I pastored. He is as "down to earth" as any man I've had the privilege of knowing.

Scott Baker spoke at our college commencement ceremony. He is a faithful preacher that has been consistent in his stand through the years.

Anyone ever hear of Evangelist Darrell Murphy? He is a tremendous preacher that God is using all across our nation.

I would also add Dr. Jack Thompson, Dr. Don Green, and Dr. Homer Smith to the list.

 

Amen to that ! That is my Pastor !! :thumbs:

There are so many great men of God on staff at Lancaster Baptist that I have the privilege to hear preach and teach God's word.

Dr. Mark Rasmussen, Dr. John Goetch, Dr. Don Sisk and of course Pastor. They have all written incredible books grounded in truth.

Other Leaders not listed here...

Dr. R.B. Oulette ( great author as well)

Dr. Paul Kingsbury- best message I have ever heard on Bitterness. If you go to www.lancasterbaptist.org and listen to Uprooting the root of Bitterness it will bless you. We talked about this one for weeks after it was preached.

Clarence Sexton - Crown College

These are all men who are striving to teach the next generation to serve the Lord while holding to the fundamentals of the faith.

 

I don't know a lot of these men, I have been gone for a while now. So these comments are not intended to judge any of them.

I am curious how many measure up to Jesus' standard for greatness?

"Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant."

How often do we measure men's greatness by their ability to serve others? We even call this thread "Great Fundamental Leaders..." yet Jesus told the Pharisees that greatness was not found in authority but service.

Jesus of course set the pattern by washing the disciples feet. If we measured greatness by serving others who would make our list?

Is writing books and preaching "great" messages service? Praise God for faithful preachers and skilled writers. I am thankful for the, but is this what Jesus meant when he said to wash each other's feet?

No agenda - just throwing in some thoughts to consider.

Would a great fundamental leader be the one who would grab a toilet brush to clean a church toilet if he found it dirty?

One of the great fundamental leaders I know pastors a little Baptist church in eastern central Tennessee between Nashville and Chattanooga. He is and excellent preacher and a good leader of his local church. What makes me see him as great? I was there last year to preach and rode to church with him. When we got to the church he parked as far as possible from the door and no one else was there. When I jokingly asked him why he didn't take the typical "pastor's spot" (right at the entrance) he said, "Ah Roger, there are people in my church who need those places."

 

My Favorites

I haven't got to read all of the posts but I can tell you that most of mine are different but here are the ones that I think have been a huge influence. The first few that I have only had the honor of hearing on tape or radio that are great are Bro. Lester Rolloff and Dr. Oliver B. Greene; Some others that were a blessing were Bro. Maze Jackson, Dr. Harold B. Sightler and Bro. Ralph Sexton Sr.- I believe these men blazed a trail for God and if we had more preachers in the pulpit like these great men then maybe we could see more of a difference in the church and the world...JMHO

The ones who are a blessing to me today first of all My Pastor who has stayed in the same church 16 years and truly shows his love for his people. Dr. Phil Kidd who preached the night that I got saved and still stands for the truth even though so many people don't like him. Finally Preacher Doug McDaris is a man who stands for the truth too. These men preach it straight and I love them for it. I know there are more but I can't think of any right now.:godisgood:

 

Yep, Dr Chappell's Grandmother, Uncle, and many cousins attend my church here in Cortez, Colorado. His Dad, Dr Larry Chappell, retired from
our pulpit about 8 months ago, and now we have a West Coast graduate, Pastor Andrew Reed.

 

C4K said:

Thanks for this thought C4K. I used to attend fundamental conferences in which the speakers praised each other and referred to each other as "great" with, what I would regard in retrospect as, sickening regularity. In fact, I remember one praising another as great and saying that he had known the other for many years and had been around him at great length and he had never met a more godly or spiritual man. The one doing the praising later turned out to be a child molester and the praised one later turned out to be an adulterer.

Thankfully, in the fundamental conference that I attend now on a fairly regular basis, the speakers don't refer to each other as great and no one stands in line for hours afterward to get them to sign their Bible. The conference I attend is not as large as the old one was, but I regard the men who lead it as genuinely spiritual shepherds. I think they are truly serving the Lord and I don't think they will ever do the harm to the church that the other guys wound up doing.

 

Bapmom,

Long time, no see. Tried to send you a PM but your box needs to be cleaned out.

Others please pardon the intrusion.

 

You know there is a save function for the PM, bapmom. Now as a missionary you want the Lord to use you for a lot of saving, right? Might as well get started! :thumbs:

So save a bunch of BB people, and get rid of the rest! :smilewinkgrin: (Did I just say that?)