Southwestern Seminary Founder’s Day chapel focuses on J.B. Gambrell
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary celebrated Founder’s Day with a March 12 chapel service focused on J. B. Gambrell, a renowned Baptist leader known as the “Greater Commoner” who played key roles in the beginning and early years of the seminary.
The chapel service is held annually on the day closest to the chartering of the seminary on March 14, 1908.
In leading the invocation, Provost W. Madison Grace noted that for more than 100 years, God has called people to Southwestern to be equipped for their calling. “We are thankful for this place,” he said.
Seminary President David S. Dockery welcomed the audience to “this special day in the life of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary” and highlighted special guests including seminary trustees, members of the Southwestern Advisory Council, and alumni. He introduced Jim Spivey, guest speaker for the chapel service, as “an amazing Baptist historian” and a friend to both himself and Southwestern Seminary. Dockery noted that Spivey, pastor of Gambrell Street Baptist Church in Fort Worth, is a former Southwestern faculty member and served as dean of the seminary’s Houston campus.
Before chapel, a special service was held in the B. H. Carroll Memorial Building Rotunda to unveil the presidential portrait of Dockery, the seminary’s 10th president.
Spivey thanked the audience for “the privilege to reminisce with you today about one of Southwestern’s most notable founders.”
James Bruton “J. B.” Gambrell was born in Anderson, S.C., in 1841. When he was 4, his family moved to northeastern Mississippi. Though he loved dogs and hunting, “his passion was reading,” Spivey said, adding that Gambrell attributed most of his Baptist views to the writings of Alexander Carson, an Irish Baptist minister who had left the Presbyterian ministry.
Spivey said Gambrell came to faith at age 15 and completed his secondary education just before the start of the Civil War. Gambrell volunteered for the Confederate Army, serving as a scout for Gen. Robert E. Lee, and was commended for his bravery.
Though the war had led him to the love of his life – Mary Corbell, whom he married behind enemy lines early one morning – the “economic oppression, racial manipulation, and political corruption of Reconstruction in the South embittered Gambrell,” Spivey said. “Instead, he said that we needed to have a society of rehabilitation through religious revival, rebuilding churches, and restoring education by the formation of colleges.
“Gambrell then began to sense a call to ministry,” Spivey added. “For example, when he heard a preacher botch a sermon on Romans 5:15, he felt urged to stand up and interrupt and tell everyone what the text really, really meant, but he resisted.”
Gambrell had a hard time following through with his commitment due to an unforgiving attitude toward the war that had killed three of his brothers, Spivey said. “Finally, deeply troubled, he headed to the woods one Sunday morning … and called upon the Lord for help. And then God gave him peace; a peace that enabled him to surrender and to preach.”
Gambrell was licensed to minister in December 1866 and led a handful of churches before beginning to write articles for The Tennessee Baptist newspaper around 1870. He enrolled in the University of Mississippi in 1871 before becoming pastor of Oxford Baptist Church the following year. While in Oxford, Gambrell attended the Southern Baptist Convention for the first time, in Charleston, S.C., in 1874, Spivey said.
Gambrell founded The Baptist Record in 1877 and served as its editor for 15 years. “His editorial policy was simple,” Spivey said. “‘Have something to write about. Avoid big words. Tell what you have in mind, and never mind the flowers.’”
Spivey said Gambrell was a lifelong opponent of the liquor trade and used his publication to write editorials against it. In 1877, his son, Roderick, a journalist who also crusaded against it, was killed by a pro-liquor opponent. “When the jury found him not guilty, a mob formed to lynch him,” Spivey said. “Gambrell himself intervened and urged them not to take the law into their own hands. He said further injustice would dishonor not only God, but the righteous cause for which his son had stood. And the mob dispersed.”
Spivey noted that Gambrell also opposed Baptist fundamentalists who contested ministerial education because they said it diverted resources from evangelism. He led the financial campaign to establish Mississippi College, and later moved his paper to Meridian and consolidated it with The Southern Baptist.
“By then, Gambrell’s homespun style of communicating, his ability to galvanize the popular opinion of his readers, and his reputation for integrity and wisdom had made him one of the foremost leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention,” Spivey said.
In the earl 1890s, Gambrell was part of a committee that established a Sunday School Board for the SBC. Others serving on that committee included J. M. Frost, B. H. Carroll, and John Broadus.
Spivey noted that, despite lacking academic credentials, Gambrell became president of Mercer University in Macon, Ga., in 1893. His wife, Mary, led the Georgia Baptist Women Missionary Workers, which later became the WMU.
In 1896, the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) voted to call Gambrell as corresponding secretary. Though he visited the Houston convention that year, Gambrell “did not want to move to Texas, and he had good reason,” Spivey said, explaining there was friction between members from former associations that had merged to form the convention.
Gambrell finally was persuaded that it was God’s will for him to accept the call, which he did in December 1896, Spivey said.
He noted that Mary did her part by leading the state women’s missionary work and keeping the financial books of the BGCT. Fluent in Spanish, she promoted missions among Mexicans and sponsored the Mexican Preachers’ Institutes that formed the Mexican Baptist Convention of Texas. Gambrell’s brother, Joel, became editor of The Baptist Standard in 1904, Spivey said, adding that the trio was “a formidable force in Baptist life. Following their threefold emphasis on evangelism, education, and benevolent ministries, the convention then boomed. When Gambrell came to the BGCT, it had 66 missionaries and 568 baptisms; when he left the position in 1910, it had 447 missionaries and 8,035 baptisms.”
After leaving the BGCT, Gambrell returned to the newspaper world, becoming editor of The Baptist Standard in 1910. However, he argued against private ownership of Baptist newspapers, saying convention oversight would help unify the denomination. “In 1914, the rest of the owners agreed and transferred ownership of the Standard to the BGCT,” Spivey said.
In a November 1905 editorial, Gambrell wrote that in parts of Texas, mission work had stalled because of the lack of trained ministers. He was a strong supporter of B. H. Carroll’s vision for a seminary, and “involved himself at every decisive step in the founding of Southwestern Seminary,” Spivey said. In 1907, he noted, Gambrell chaired the BGCT committee that considered Carroll’s plan and led the convention to support it unanimously. When the charter for the seminary was granted March 14, 1908, trustees elected Carroll as president and Gambrell as board president, a position he held until 1912.
Spivey noted that in October 1912, Gambrell resigned as chairman of the board and became professor of Christian ethics and pastoral theology at Southwestern Seminary. He taught four days a week and edited the Standard on Saturday and Monday, Spivey said.
Gambrell’s educational philosophy matched Carroll’s, Spivey said, adding that Gambrell believed “the textbook for all religious subjects should be the English Bible; he was a conservative theologian: and he opposed theological modernism and evangelical liberalism. For him, seminary—okay, students, listen to this—should not be easy, ‘but should be like a military basic training,’” he added, drawing laughter from the audience. Continuing to quote Gambrell, Spivey said, “‘It is my dream that the seminary may be a veritable war camp for training real soldiers who will go forth, not as nice ministers, not quiet and dignified, not complacent scholars, but heralds of a revolutionary gospel, holding to the apostolic fire and the apostolic doctrine.’”
“Amen?” Spivey concluded, drawing a response of “Amen” from the audience.
Gambrell died June 10, 1921, in Fort Worth. George W Truett officiated at his funeral the following day at the First Baptist Church Dallas. He is remembered for his life of hard work, Spivey said, adding, “After leaving school, he packed about 90 years of service into 60 chronological years: four years as a soldier, 26 as a pastor, 34 as an editor, eight as an educator, and 17 years as a denominational leader.”
Gambrell’s friendship with B. H. Carroll was consequential, Spivey said, adding that “this friendship helped to shape the DNA of Texas Baptists.”
Following Spivey’s chapel address, Dean Sieberhagen, dean of the seminary’s Roy J. Fish School of Evangelism and Missions, led a prayer for students who are going on mission trips during the seminary’s spring reading days next week.
“We thank You that we can continue to be globally engaged because of who You raise up and who You send out,” he prayed. “Bless them in the name of Jesus.”
