Batsell Barrett Baxter's impact to be celebrated at special dinner Sept. 29
Kim Chaudoin | 615.966.6494 |
“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”
Few people have personified this well-known observation by Teddy Roosevelt as profoundly as Batsell Barrett Baxter.
Baxter spoke softly when he preached with the “big stick” of the gospel for more than 40 years. Through his “soft style of preaching” and his approach to preparing for a sermon, Baxter influenced generations of preachers and became one of the most influential preachers in the Churches of Christ in the past century. In addition to preaching, Baxter became the primary presenter on the national television show, Herald of Truth, from 1959-1982.
Lipscomb University’s College of Bible & Ministry will celebrate Baxter’s influence on preaching and on the university with a special dinner on Thursday, Sept. 29. Baxter, chair of Lipscomb’s Bible department from 1956-1980, would have been 100 on Sept. 23.
The 100th Birthday Celebration: Batsell Barrett Baxter begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Paul Rogers Board Room in Lipscomb’s Ezell Center. The event is free, but reservations are required. To RSVP, call Kathy Bickel at 615.966.6053.
Baxter’s education led him to both preaching and teaching, first at Pepperdine University and then, in 1945, at Lipscomb, where he chaired the speech department and taught both Bible and speech. His work at Lipscomb spanned almost four decades and encompassed some of the most significant developments in the school's history.
“Of course the strongest influence on me was Batsell Barrett Baxter,” said Harold Hazelip, Lipscomb student from 1948-50 and university president from 1986-1997. “He had such a kind way about him and was such a genuine person, that I was just drawn to him. He could preach conversationally. He didn’t need ‘karate’ before he began delivering lessons. Not that everyone I heard did, I don’t mean to indicate that. But it was just kind of an approach that influenced my life a great deal.”
“Besides that, he was always prepared,” said Hazelip. “I heard a lot of people speak who didn’t know how to prepare. I have to say he was the most influential faculty person on my life.”
As much of an impact as Baxter made in the classroom, preaching was his life. He preached his first sermon in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1933, at the Chapel Avenue Church of Christ. He preached at the Trinity Lane Church of Christ from 1946 to 1951 and for Nashville's Hillsboro Church of Christ from 1951 until 1980, when he retired. During these years he became one of the best-known preachers among Churches of Christ.
His preaching style focused on understanding the listeners and meeting their particular needs, tailoring the content by incorporating real life situations into his message. His style was very different for the time, emphasizing a softer side to the gospel.
“Batsell Barrett Baxter was the most influential preacher of his generation among Churches of Christ and the most high-profile church leader in Lipscomb’s history,” said Leonard Allen, dean of Lipscomb’s College of Bible & Ministry. “I saw him on television when I was growing up. He was a man who was widely loved and admired, almost a larger-than-life figure.”
“He brought the ‘soft style’ of preaching into the Churches of Christ that was a contrast to the hard, debating style that was always drawing boundaries. On that stage, that approach was new … a Christ-centered, gentle, loving vision of the Churches of Christ. He sometimes got into trouble for that. He represents a significant turn in the recent history of Churches of Christ. His way of practicing preaching influenced a generation of preachers.”
In fact, the Encyclopedia of the Stone Campbell Movement (2004) said Baxter trained hundreds of preachers and his influence was such “that at one time many could readily tell if a preacher had trained at David Lipscomb College.”
Allen said that it is important to remember the past and to celebrate it through events such as the special dinner on Sept. 29.
“I think it’s important to remember our past as we can,” said Allen. “Those parts that we view as really important we need to honor. There are still many people alive who loved him and admired him. He was a major part of Lipscomb’s fairly recent past.”
“My view is that the way you move forward is by building respectfully and creatively on your past,” said Allen. “You keep re-narrating it. You don’t tell the exact same story that they told about who we are. But you do incorporate that older story into what we’re becoming and what we are now, and you honor it. To me that’s the significance of this event.”
Rubel Shelly, longtime minister, former Rochester College president and current professor of philosophy and religion at Lipscomb, said Baxter’s influence was far-reaching.
“Before moving to Nashville in 1978, I had only met Batsell Barrett Baxter a couple of times. Even so, he had influence on me at a distance,” said Shelly. “His gentle manner with the gospel message was evident. I received his weekly sermon manuscripts from the Hillsboro Church for years, and they taught me more than I realized at the time about preaching. Once I moved to Nashville, Dr. Baxter and I had numerous opportunities to be together. His authentic faith and wise counsel helped me in so many ways.”
Preaching was more than just a job for Baxter.
“In my opinion he never viewed preaching as a ‘profession,’” recalled Shelly. “It was a calling from above that allowed him to serve God by serving God’s people. It generated humility rather than pride in his pursuit of faithfulness in fulfilling his calling. His special effectiveness as a teacher and preacher grew out of his humility, gentleness, and dignity in sharing the gospel.”
In 1982, the elders of Hillsboro Church of Christ in Nashville established the Batsell Barrett Baxter Chair of Preaching at Lipscomb in Baxter’s memory and funded it with monthly gifts of $1,500. In 1986, they decided a more permanent method of funding the chair would be beneficial and they launched a drive to raise the $500,000 necessary to fund a permanently endowed chair. On Sept. 22, 1988, Hillsboro hosted a “victory dinner” to celebrate reaching this milestone.
Ken Durham, former preaching minister at the University Church of Christ on the campus of Pepperdine University and for congregations in Falls Church, Virginia; Springfield, Missouri; and Stamford, Connecticut, has held the Batsell Barrett Baxter Chair of Preaching since Jan. 1, 2010.
“There was something almost regal about Dr. Baxter—a stately but modest dignity,” recalled Durham, who also served as campus minister at the University of Texas and the University of Kentucky during his professional career. “A gentle smile, reassuring and affirming. I especially recall the way he held a Bible when he preached—firmly and comfortably positioned before him, as though he was drawing strength from it and offering it to us at the same time.”
Durham keeps a portrait of Baxter on the wall across from his desk in the Ezell Center.
“Though gone from us these many years, Batsell Barrett Baxter remains for me and so many others a benevolent ongoing presence in our lives, the legacy of a man who summoned and stimulated my generation of preachers, teachers and church leaders to ‘rightly handle the word of truth’ as it says in 2 Timothy 2:15,” he said.
“That’s why, whenever I have a ministry student captive in my office, or when someone asks me, ‘What exactly is the Baxter Chair of Preaching that you occupy?’, I love to say, ‘Well, let me tell you about Brother Baxter.’ And I tell them he was my first and best preaching professor, a greatly admired and beloved figure at my university for many years. I tell them that he was an authentically godly man and mentor,” Durham continued.
“And I tell them that he lives on in the best of what Lipscomb produces today—men and women trained to rightly handle the word of truth in pulpits and Sunday school classrooms and living room Bible studies and mission fields everywhere … and encouraged to do it with the grace and gentle humility of Dr. Baxter.”
In addition to his preaching and teaching, Baxter authored 11 books, including When Life Tumbles In, Speaking for the Master and I Believe Because.