BPH: 75 Years of Publishing Sound Missionary Baptist Literature

By Dr. Ronnie Johnson

The Baptist Publishing House began on May 25-26, 1950, at the organizational meeting of the North American Baptist Association (NABA, now known as the Baptist Missionary Association of America or BMAA). Choosing the association’s name, adopting the Doctrinal Statement and Principles of Cooperation and electing officers and standing committees were some of the important decisions made between worship services at that meeting.

Two standing committees were elected — Missions and Publications. According to Dr. John Duggar, who was present and wrote in his book, The Baptist Missionary Association of America 1950-1986, “Missions was to be the main thrust of the new association... Next to Missions in importance during that first year was Publications.”

The Publications Committee was tasked with producing a series of Sunday School and Baptist Training Service curricula. The committee set an optimistic deadline to publish the first curriculum by the third quarter (July-September) of 1950. Two paid publication officers were elected — Secretary-Treasurer Walter Griffin and Editor Dr. J.E. Cobb. G.E. Jones was nominated as writer of the Adult Sunday School Quarterly. Other writers were elected for all age groups. Many had been writers for the American Baptist Association (ABA) literature.

There was little time left before the third quarter, but limited curriculum materials were ready by July. The first full series of books was published by the fourth quarter (October-December) of 1950. Dr. Duggar acknowledged the determined efforts of the Publication Committee in this way: “During the first year, the churches were not furnished with all the teaching materials they needed, but neither pastors nor churches offered any harsh criticism; they were patient.”

In the formative years, there were suggestions to adopt the International Series to be used by churches. A motion passed in the committee in 1950, but a subsequent motion was made in the same meeting to reconsider in order to “arrange our own series of publications.” When the idea was considered a few years later, Dr. Duggar stated that “the majority of churches and pastors believed that the International Series fell short of teaching the whole Bible and even avoided some scriptures which Baptists believed should be taught.”

From the beginning, publications supported missions. Efforts were made to support missions with publications in various languages. According to Dr. Duggar, “Both Missions and Publications cooperated in all phases of the associational work. They helped one another, rejoiced together and were burdened together.”

Producing biblically sound literature was the goal of the Baptist Publications Committee from its beginning. This is how the first order blank from September of 1950 introduced the literature: “Order Blank: For Old Line (Association) Baptist Sunday School and B.T.C. Literature — The Bible Plus Nothing and Minus Nothing.”

The Baptist Publishing House continues to produce church curriculum and ministry resources focused on the Bible and the gospel. “Our Sunday School curriculum is based on expository Bible study, going verse-by-verse through books or large passages of the Bible. It is designed to teach people how to study the Bible.”

You can learn more about us at baptistpublishinghouse.com.

References used for this article were: The Baptist Missionary Association of America, 1950-1986 (1988) by Dr. John Duggar, produced by Baptist Publishing House in Texarkana, and The Lakeland Review (Sept. 25, 1950), produced by Baptist Publication Committee in Little Rock.