Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary posted a news release entitled "Vines left speechless by book in his honor." The article states:
"Moments before standing to preach a sermon in a Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary chapel service, well-known Southern Baptist preacher and former SBC president Jerry Vines was presented with a book written in his honor by prominent SBC pastors and theologians. The unexpected recognition left Vines in an unfamiliar state—speechless."
Entitled Preach the Word! A Collection of Essays on Biblical Preaching in Honor of Jerry Vines (Free Church Press, 2013: David L. Allen, General Editor. Peter Lumpkins, Managing Editor), Dr. David Allen served as General Editor of the volume. No one more qualifies to oversee a volume recognizing Dr. Vines' ministry and Kingdom service than Dr. Allen since he was both saved and called to the ministry under Vines' pastoral leadership in North Georgia. In his presentation remarks, the Southwestern Dean of Theology reportedly noted:
“For 60 plus years, Dr. Jerry Vines has been preaching the Gospel,” Allen said. “You might say that his ministry, in many ways, is John 3:16 in a nutshell. From small rural churches in Georgia all the way to the great mega-church First Baptist in Jacksonville, Fla., and everywhere in between, over the past 60 plus years of ministry, Jerry Vines has preached the Word. He has been a model, an example, a mentor, an encourager to so many of us in what it’s all about when it comes to biblical preaching, to expository preaching.”
Contributors to the volume include past SBC presidents Johnny Hunt, O.S. Hawkins, and Paige Patterson, along with other SBC pastors, theologians and historians, Stephen Rummage, Steve Lemke, Steve Gaines, Mac Brunson, Steven Smith, Emir Caner, Malcolm Yarnell, Adam Dooley, Ergun Caner, and Jeff Pennington.
Of the latter, Dr. Pennington researched his doctoral dissertation exhausting the subject of Vines' evangelistic sermonizing as a local church pastor. Presently serving as Executive Pastor at Buck Run Baptist Church in Frankfort, KY, Pennington concluded in his research leading to a Ph.D. in Evangelism from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary:
"Out of humility Jerry Vines never calculated the sum total of the baptisms tallied during his pastorates, but for research purposes I discovered that figure to exceed 23,000 people" (from the jacket of the hardback edition)
May our Lord continue to bestow upon Southern Baptists biblical preachers who take their expository preaching model from men like Dr. Jerry Vines.
You may presently purchase Preach the Word! a Collection of Essays on Biblical Preaching in Honor of Jerry Vines on Amazon (softcover only). Later this week, a full-service store will be available at Free Church Press where those interested may purchase either softcover or hardback versions at substantial savings. In fact, all Free Church Press products will be available at the on-line store.
In addition, you may also find Preach the Word! at Jerry Vines Ministries. If you'd like an autographed copy, Preach the Word! will be available at The 2013 John 3:16 Conference.
UPDATE: anyone interested in seeing the video of the celebratory event can find it at SBC Encounters.
North Carolina Baptists' Biblical Recorder picked up the Southwestern seminary news release. We expect more convention papers to follow, including Baptist Press.
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