Biography
Robert Greene Lee was born on November 11, 1886, in Fort Lawn, South Carolina, in a farming family. His parents were poor, and he grew up in hard circumstances. He was the child of a large family, and he worked in the fields from an early age. He was a thin and sickly boy, but he was determined to get an education. He was converted at the age of nine in a revival meeting at a Baptist church. He felt a call to preach as a teenager. He attended Furman University, in Greenville, where he studied for his degree, and he worked at odd jobs to pay his way.
He was ordained in 1906 and began his career as a pastor of small country churches in South Carolina. He was a gifted speaker, with a rich and powerful voice, and he soon attracted attention. He served in a number of churches in the state and became known for his preaching. In 1927, he was called to the pulpit of the Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, one of the largest churches in the Southern Baptist Convention. He served there for thirty-three years, until 1960. Under his leadership, the church grew from a few thousand members to over nine thousand. It became a major institution in the city. He led it through the Depression and the war. He was known for his plain and pointed preaching and for his gift of vivid language.
His most famous sermon, Payday Someday, was delivered more than a thousand times. It dealt with the story of Ahab and Naboth, who was killed so that the king could take his vineyard, in the first book of Kings. It was an account of how sin brings its reward. He used a style that was rich with rhetoric, alliteration and vivid word pictures. The sermon was famous for its length and for the dramatic way in which he delivered it. He said that the sermon was to show that a man can sin for a time but that there will be a day of reckoning. It was recorded and published and was heard by millions.
He was a leader in the Southern Baptist Convention, and he served as its president for three terms, from 1948 to 1951. He was a strong supporter of the conservative cause in the denomination. He was a man of conviction who stood for the inspiration of the Scriptures and who took a stand against modernism. He was also an outspoken man in matters of morals. He opposed the use of alcohol and gambling. He wrote a number of books, including Payday Someday, The Great Physician, and Scars and Stars. He also wrote a series of volumes of sermons. His style was colorful and sometimes ornate.
His approach had weaknesses. His sermons were said to be sometimes too elaborate, with a richness of language that obscured the content. He was criticized for a lack of depth in his teaching. He was also a man who held a number of the views of his time and place on social issues, which are open to question. He was a supporter of segregation in the churches and did not take a stand on the matter. His defenders say that he was a man of his era, and that he had a heart for those who were in need.
He was a devoted husband and father. His wife, Bess, was a faithful companion. He was a man who worked at a heavy schedule and was often away from home. He retired in 1960 and continued to preach for many years. He died on July 20, 1978, in Memphis, at the age of ninety-one. His life shows the effect of a poor farm boy who became a pulpit orator, and the lasting force of a single sermon.