Dr. G. W. Truett
Here you will find a collection of old sermons by G. W. Truett taken from
cassette tapes in our collection. These sermons were preached on his
radio program and were originally recorded on audio reels.
On May 6, 1867, George Washington Truett was born as his parent’s
seventh child. He was born and grew up on his family’s mountain farm in
North Carolina. The Lord began to convict him at an early age of his need
of salvation, and although he attended church regularly he knew he was
not saved.
He finished school at eighteen and the following year filled the teacher’s
position in the school he had just graduated from, starting with fifty
students. It was during this time, at nineteen years of age, that he was
saved while attending special meetings at his church. Shortly after his
salvation he came up with a plan to start a private Christian school in the
hills of Georgia. When he was twenty years old Hiawassee Academy
opened with Truett as the principal and teacher. The student body soon
numbered three hundred students, and Truett kept always a strong
Christian atmosphere in the school, and was able to see numbers of his
students saved.
In 1889 the Truett family moved to Texas. The church his family became
members of soon elected George as the Sunday school superintendent,
and with time ordained him to the ministry. Of his ordination service it is
recorded that one of the worst men in the community attended and was
converted. Not long after his ordination, while only twenty-three years old,
he was appointed the financial secretary of Baylor University as they
struggled with an indebtedness of $92,000.00. In twenty-three months,
during 1891-1893, George was able to eliminate that debt and establish the
school as financially stable again. The following September he enrolled as
a freshman at Baylor – the school which he had just been the financial
secretary of!
While a student, Truett pastored East Waco Baptist Church and conducted
revival meetings in the First Baptist of Waco. He graduated in 1897 and the
following summer, at age thirty, he took the pastorate of the First Baptist
Church of Dallas, Texas. He began the second sunday in September, 1897,
and remained as pastor until his death in July, 1944 – a span of 47 years.
While he was the pastor, the church grew to cover an entire city block, and
was one of the world’s largest churches of the time.
Thousands were saved under his ministry in Texas, but his ministry was not
confined only to Waco. Starting in 1902 and continuing for thirty-seven
years he preached the “cowboy meetings” which were revival services held
in the Davis Mountains of western Texas. He was also one of the men
appointed by President Wilson to preach to the Allied Expeditionary Forces
in Europe during World War I. In 1920 he preached to over 15,000 people
for an hour and fifteen minutes from the Capitol steps in Washington D.C.
He was president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1927 to 1929,
and also president of the Baptist World Alliance from 1934 to 1939. During
Truett’s life, he preached to large crowds in many world centres such as
London, Stockholm, Paris, Berlin, Jerusalem, Toronto, Atlanta and many
others. As president of the Baptist World Alliance, he also toured and
preached to large crowds in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile,
England, Egypt, Palestine, India, Burma, Singapore, Hong Kong, China
and Japan.
Truett preached over 17,000 sermons during his ministry, and he is
remembered for his humble and simple but spiritual form of preaching. He
did not rant and rave, but in a very conversational form of preaching spoke
and appealed directly to people. Many called him the greatest orator of the
day, and many also referred to him as a second Spurgeon. He went home
to be with the Lord on July 7, 1944, after several months of sickness.