Four well-known Southern Baptist ministers have been named among the greatest preachers in the 20th century, according to rankings releasing by Preaching, a non-denominational magazine.
Billy Graham was the lone Southern Baptist to make the first tier of top 10 preachers, ranking second.
The second tier of preachers included former First Baptist, Dallas, pastor George W. Truett; R.G Lee, former longtime pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn.; and W.A. Criswell, pastor emeritus of First, Dallas.
The list of preachers was created based on rankings by the magazine’s board of contributing editors after reviewing the nominations from Preaching’s readers.
The number one ranking was given to the late James S. Stewart, a Scottish preacher and New Testament professor who served a two-year term in the 1960’s as moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
“I was surprised that James Stewart was the number one name,” said Michael Duduit, editor of the magazine. “He was clearly a major figure in the century, but I would have guessed Billy Graham or Martin Luther King Jr.”
The top five preachers were Stewart; Graham; the late George Buttrick, an English-born Congregational preacher; civil rights leader King; and the late Harry Emerson Fosdick, a pastor of New York’s Riverside Church.
Preaching is an evangelical professional journal for ministers. (BP)
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