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Evangelist breaks with Southern Baptist Convention
On this day in 1956, evangelist and humanitarian Lester Roloff broke
with the Southern Baptist Convention by delivering a sermon at Baylor
University against denominationalism. Roloff, a Texas native, determined
to preach at age eighteen. To pay for his room and board at Baylor
University, he took his Jersey cow, Marie, with him and sold milk. After
pastoring several different churches, he accepted the pastorate of Park
Avenue (later Second) Baptist Church in Corpus Christi in the mid-1940s,
which was henceforth his home base. There he organized the Baptist
Ministerial Alliance, of which he was first president, and in 1944
launched his "Family Altar" radio program. Almost from the time he began
preaching, Roloff was in demand as a revival speaker, and in 1951 he
resigned his pastorate and became a full-time evangelist. Whether from
the pulpit or over the airwaves, Roloff preached a scripturally based,
no-nonsense Gospel message that reflected his conservative background
and fundamentalist approach. His tenacious refusal to compromise his
personal convictions resulted in a gradual break with the Baptist
General Convention of Texas and the Southern Baptist Convention,
finalized by his 1956 sermon. Under his leadership his ministry founded
a number of humanitarian programs. Controversial to the end, Roloff
engaged in a series of court battles with the Texas Department of Human
Services in the 1970s over the licensing of his youth-rescue projects.
He died in 1982.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- ROLOFF, LESTER LEO
- BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
- BAPTIST CHURCH
- TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
- FUNDAMENTALISM
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Future Texas publisher born in Tennessee (1857)
- Fort Inge established on Texas frontier (1849)
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