by Dr. Mac Brunson, Senior Pastor, Valleydale Church
The heart and soul of a church and congregation is the pulpit. The great old Baptist teacher John Broadus said:
When the message from the pulpit has been uncertain and faltering, the church has been weak; when the pulpit has given a positive, declarative Message, the church has been strong.
One could say, as the pulpit goes, so goes the church. This was certainly true of that grand old pulpit at First Baptist Church Dallas.
No one is alive who can recount the appearing of the pulpit there. It was paid for by a Sunday School class in 1891 according to Tom Melzoni. However it appeared, the stately George Washington Truett stood behind that sacred desk for over forty years. Then for over fifty years, the unmistakable voice of Walley Amos Criswell thundered from that great pulpit. He was followed the erudite Joel Gregory, and then the ever-eloquent O.S. Hawkins. Now from that street corner comes a voice reared in that preaching palace from childhood, and recognized nationally as the voice of Robert Jeffress.
How could one church be so blessed by the pulpit ministry of so many stellar, straight, and superb pastors? It is a μυστηριον that will be revealed only in God’s good time.
I think of all the men who have stood in that pulpit. The Baptist triumvirate - Adrian Rogers, Charles Stanley, and Jerry Vines. The great Baptist statesman, Jimmy Draper graced the pulpit week in and week out for a period of time. Men from Baptist past like Herschel Hobbs, and Robert Naylor. Baptists’ own Billy Graham not only preached there but joined and placed his membership in that great church. Baptists from around the world like the Korean Billy Kim and the South American Luis Palau have stood behind that pulpit.
It was not the men, it was the message that rang out from that pulpit. A message that was ever clear, ever evangelistic, ever calling for decision that has impacted a people, a city, a nation, and a world across three centuries. It was from that pulpit that paupers and presidents heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that men and women came to bow in the shadow of that old prow that stood there, year in and year in anticipation of the next sermon – the next invitation.
Make no mistake, the heart and soul of the church in Dallas has been on fire - often. It has been set afire over and over by men called of God, used of God, for the glory of God. No singular church anywhere can claim anything close to the pulpit of First Baptist Church of Dallas.
So this past Friday, as the old preaching palace burned, it could not hold a candle to the fire that has burned from the pulpit of the historic First Baptist Church Dallas.