Biography
George Washington Truett was born on May 6, 1867, in a log cabin in Clay County, North Carolina, in the mountains of the western part of the state. His family was poor, and he grew up on a farm in a remote area. He had little formal education as a boy and attended a small country school. He was converted at the age of nineteen and was baptized in the creek. He felt a call to preach and taught in a school to earn money for further study.
In 1889 the family moved to Texas, and he took a position as a school principal in Hayden. He also became a leader in the Baptist church there. He worked to raise funds to rescue a college that was in debt, Baylor University, which was a Baptist institution. In the process, he showed his gift for speaking and for organization. He was invited to study at Baylor and graduated in 1897. In that year he was called to be pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas. He was thirty years old.
He served as pastor of that church for forty-seven years, until his death in 1944. Under his leadership, the church grew from a congregation of seven hundred to more than seven thousand. It became one of the largest and most influential Baptist churches in the world. He preached with a rich and warm voice and spoke in simple, clear language, with a gift for illustration. He was known for the tenderness of his appeals and for his love for his people. His sermons were often moving and many were converted under his preaching.
He was a leader beyond his church. He served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1927 to 1929. He was also president of the Baptist World Alliance from 1934 to 1939, a post that took him to many countries. He spoke to Baptists across the world and was a strong voice for religious liberty. In 1920, he gave a famous address on the steps of the United States Capitol, titled Baptists and Religious Liberty, in which he declared that the church and state must be separate and that every person must be free to follow his conscience.
His life included a great sorrow. In 1927, he went on a hunting trip with several friends. One of them was a Dallas police chief named James Arnold. During the hunt, Truett's gun went off by accident, and the bullet struck Arnold, who died. Truett was devastated. He was overcome by grief and guilt and struggled to continue in the ministry. He later said that he had come close to leaving the pulpit. His church stood by him, and he returned to preaching with a deeper compassion for the suffering. He was also known for his care for the bereaved, and his own experience of anguish gave weight to his words.
He was a man of strong convictions, and, like many of his time and region, he held views on race that fell short of the Gospel. He was a supporter of segregation in the churches, though he spoke against lynching and urged fairness. This is a part of his record that must be told. He did a great deal of good but was a man of his age.
He died on July 7, 1944, in Dallas, at the age of seventy-seven. The theological seminary at Baylor University is named in his honor. His life shows the fruit of a long ministry in one place, and the way that God can use a man who has known deep sorrow.