SPECIAL SERIES:  BAPTIST HERITAGE AND THE 21ST CENTURY
Published by the Baptist History and Heritage Society

The Ten Most Influential Baptists
by Pamela R. Durso

If you ask fifteen Baptist historians, theologians, and denominational leaders to name the ten Baptists who have most influenced Baptist life in America, you will get a long list of names. I discovered this truth in March. I sent an e-mail asking for a top-ten list and received back more than seventy-five names. I have concluded that, like most questions in Baptist life, on the question of who has most influenced our denomination, total agreement does not and will never exist. But I have greatly enjoyed putting together my own top-ten list.

1.      Thomas Helwys (c.1570-c.1616). In 1609, while living in Amsterdam, Holland, Helwys helped found the first Baptist church after he and John Smyth embraced the principle of believer’s baptism. In 1611, Helwys returned to his native England and formed the first Baptist church on English soil. He then wrote A Short Declaration of the Mistery of Iniquity, considered by many historians to be one of the earliest pleas for liberty of conscience to be published in English. Soon after the book’s publication, he was imprisoned in Newgate Prison, where he died sometime around 1616.

2.      Roger Williams (c.1603-1684). A Separatist minister who arrived in America in 1631, Williams clashed early and often with Puritan leaders. He was forced to flee to an area outside the Massachusetts Bay colony, where he founded the settlement of Providence. In 1638, Williams embraced Baptist beliefs and founded the first Baptist church in America. A few short months later, Williams abandoned his Baptist convictions, but he continues to be heralded as the founder of the Baptist movement in America.

3.      John Leland (1754-1841). For nearly seventy years, Leland pastored and preached in Baptist churches, but his most remarkable contribution was as a spokesman for religious liberty. Through his preaching, writing, and advocacy work, Leland worked tirelessly to ensure that religious freedom would be guaranteed to all Americans.

4.      Adoniram (1788-1850) and Ann Judson (1789-1826). In 1812, the Judsons sailed to India to serve as foreign missionaries for the Congregational denominational. En route, the Judsons adopted the Baptist interpretation of believer’s baptism. Their new convictions forced them to break ties with the Congregationalists and to seek the endorsement of Baptists in America, who quickly pledged their support. Thus, the Judsons became the first American Baptist foreign missionaries. In late 1812, the Judsons traveled to Burma, where they produced a Burmese dictionary, began translating scripture into Burmese, and sought to win converts. Ann died in 1826, but because of her letters and great courage, she attracted the attention of American Baptists and gained much support for mission work. Adoniram continued the work, and at his death, he left a flourishing Burmese church of 7,000 members with more than 100 national ministers.

5.      Annie Armstrong (1850-1938). In 1888, Armstrong helped to found the Woman’s Missionary Union, an organization that helped to support and encourage Southern Baptist mission work. She was elected as the WMU’s first corresponding secretary and continued in that position until 1906. Throughout her life, Armstrong served as a strong advocate for missions, mission funding, and mission education.

6.      E. Y. Mullins (1860-1928). During the early twentieth century when Baptists struggled with controversies over evolution and fundamentalism, Mullins served as a denominational leader and a statesman. He became the principal theologian of Southern Baptists and published numerous books on Baptist doctrines. During his career, Mullins pastored both Northern and Southern Baptist churches and taught systematic theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for thirty years. He also served as the president of Southern Seminary (1899-1928), as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (1921-1924), and as president of the Baptist World Alliance (1923-1928).

7.      Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918). An American German Baptist educator and pastor, Rauschenbusch served as the theologian of the Social Gospel movement. He provided a biblical and theological defense of Christian social responsibility and challenged Christians to deal with the social problems of the day—poverty, unemployment, crime, urbanization, industrialization, and immigration. Throughout his life, Rauschenbusch advocated a gospel that did not separate the personal and social dimensions of faith.

8.      Helen Barrett Montgomery (1861-1934). A social activist and pioneering reformer, Montgomery served as the first woman member of school board in Rochester, New York, and as the first president of the Woman’s Educational and Industrial Union. As a Baptist, Montgomery was elected in 1920 as the first woman to serve as president of the Northern Baptist Convention (now the American Baptist Churches, USA). In 1924, she became the first woman to prepare an English translation of the Greek New Testament, which was published by the American Baptist Publication Society.

9.      Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968). As a Civil Rights leader in the 1950s and 1960s, King worked for desegregation of public accommodations and voter education and registration of African Americans. As a Baptist, he served as pastor of two influential Baptist churches, was the first African American minister to address a meeting of the American Baptist Convention, was active in the Northern Baptist Convention, and assisted in 1961 in the founding of the Progressive National Baptist Convention.

10.  Billy Graham (1918- ). During the 1940s, Graham began his long career as an evangelist, preaching on the radio, touring the country, and conducting crusades. In 1950, he founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association with a team of evangelists and musicians. Graham never emphasized his denominational affiliation, but he holds membership in a Baptist church and has been a frequent speaker at Baptist convention meetings and the Baptist World Alliance. His passion for evangelism and his preaching style have influenced numerous Baptists around the world.

My top-ten list will surely change many times, because in Baptist life, thousands of men and women have served as people of influence. They have spread the gospel message, provided denominational and church leadership, influenced theology and missions, and been true servants of the Kingdom of God. I am grateful for their lives and their work.

Pamela R. Durso is associate director of the Baptist History and Heritage Society in Brentwood, Tennessee.