Preaching Hall of Fame

I have had the privilege to sit under the preaching of some very excellent preachers. In my earlier years, it was Rev. Joe Dixon, Dr. Bailey Smith, Dr. Jimmie Draper and Rev. Danny Frazee to name a few. Every preacher has their own style of delivery and philosophy about how they preach – I know I do also. Having attended three different seminaries, I have seen how some try to form preachers in a certain mold. But I am thankful that the Holy Spirit is in charge of preachers and how they preach.

I listen to five to seven sermons a week because I love to hear good preaching. In fact, it has taken the place of watching television. Some of my favorite preachers are still alive today and with modern technology that allows me to download sermons from websites, I am able to listen at will. This page is dedicated to the excellence of preaching and will feature men of God from who I have benefitted during my sojourn here. I hope you will take the opportunity to listen to them as frequently as you can. Usually, I will provide a link to their website so that you may download their messages. While I will provide a limited amount of biographical information (one can find that from other sources), I intend to highlight the various aspects of their preaching style that I admire and more importantly find to be God-honoring.

 

An extraordinary preacher and philosopher of our day in Dr. R.C. Sproul, Senior Pastor of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Sanford, FL. and founder and president of Ligonier Ministries.  We have supported Ligonier for quite some time and I have always enjoyed reading Tabletalk.  Dr. Sproul’s wisdom and humor amaze me more every month as we look forward to his monthly preaching CD.  We were thrilled to attend the National Conference on the Holiness of God several years ago in Orlando and then to attend St. Andrews while their new construction was in progress was wonderful!  We also got to tour the new facilities but not the church itself as it was not finished at that time.  I’ll have more on R.C. later.

R.C. Sproul

Dr. R.C. Sproul
Senior Pastor, St. Andrews Chapel
Sanford, FL
http://www.ligonier.org

 

 

Bailey Smith

Dr. Bailey E. Smith

Bailey Smith Ministries website:
http://www.baileysmith.org/

Bailey was my pastor as First Baptist Church Del City, OK from around 1974-76. I remember him for his fiery preaching, his heart for evangelism, his humor, and for a book he wrote “Common or Committed” which had a great impact on my life.

I remember one worship service we had in which Sam Cathey was a visiting preacher (another great one), and he made the comment, “There just one thing Bailey Smith has that I don’t – hair!” I think there is probably a lot more to Bailey’s bio than what is listed below, but I provide the following for those who don’t know who he is. There is a book by Emir Caner and Ergun Caner, The Sacred Trust : Sketches of the Southern Baptist Convention Presidents (Nashville Tenn.: Broadman & Holman, 2003) in which Bailey’s bio is given as well. (Just as a side note, this is an excellent read!)

Biographical information is taken from http://missionpointjubilee.org/speakers/bailey_smith.htm

January 30, 1939, BAILEY EUGENE SMITH was born the first son of Frances and Ezell Smith. Bailey grew up in Dallas where his father was a Baptist pastor. Bailey graduated from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas and Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

The National media has described Bailey Smith as:

• a formidable figure, a fiery, red-haired, old style prairie stemwinder. . . -TIME
• a capable and growing leader. . . -NEWSWEEK
• a leader. . . -U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT
• inerrancy superstar. . . -CHRISTIANITY TODAY
• His oratorical skills have proven him to be one of the Baptist’ more popular preachers. . . -LOS ANGELES HERALD

As a pastor. he has led more people to Christ than any other Southern Baptist pastor in an equal period of time in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention. As age 34, he became pastor of the second largest church in the denomination. He became the youngest man ever to serve as president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention and of the Oklahoma Baptist Convention simultaneously. When he was president of the Pastor’s Conference of the Southern Baptist Convention, he had the largest attendance in history at that point in time. Bailey Smith is the only man in Convention history to baptize 2,000 people in a local church in one year. He is the only former president of the Convention to enter Crusade Evangelism. He is the only man of any denomination to leave a 20,000 member church to enter evangelism. He is the representative for the Southern Baptist Convention to the Baptist World Alliance. He is the author of the best seller Real Evangelism and has several books to his credit such as Taking Back the Gospel, Real Christianity, Real Christian Excellence, and The Grace Escape.

Pastor of Grace Community Church

Dr. John MacArthur, Jr.

Grace Community Church
Panorama City, CA USA

website: http://www.gty.org

Born: June 19th, 1939

In my opinion, Dr. MacArthur is one of the foremost of preacher/theologians in the past 50 or 60 years. His commitment to sound exegesis and the expository preaching of the Word of God cannot be overstated.

I have had the opportunity to meet Dr. MacArthur but also to know people who have had much closer contact with him. They have shared some amazing anecdotes about this fine preacher and pastor that I have passed on to others. Dr. MacArthur is often criticized for some of his positions, but I have found very little I have disagreed with him about. He is a futuristic premillennialist and reformed in soterieology (issues of salvation), and he supports believer’s baptism.

 

Dr. Paisley

Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley

Martyrs Memorial Free Presbyterian Church

Born: April 6^th, 1926

Dr. Paisley would be considered a controversial figure by many because of his positions in politics and in the Church. He is a large man with a large booming voice even now at 84 years old. He preaches with zeal and clarity the gospel of Jesus Christ with a pleasant Irish accent.

I wouldn’t characterize this fine preacher as one who exposes the Scriptures in the manner of a MacArthur or Piper, but I would say he is a proclaimer. His heart for the Lord is very apparent in his message and although I have not had the privilege to meet him, I would like to some day.