![\"George](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/gwtruett-may17.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
If you know of George W. Truett<\/a> today, there’s a good chance it’s because\u00a0Baylor\u2019s seminary<\/a>\u00a0bears his name.\u00a0That honor was based largely on his half-century as\u00a0one of Texas’ (and even our nation’s) leading pastors — but the important role he played\u00a0in keeping Baylor University alive at the turn of the 20th century should not be forgotten, either.<\/p>\n Truett was born May 6, 1867,\u00a0in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, and\u00a0spent his youth in North Carolina and Georgia before following his parents to Texas as a young man. Even at a young age, his abilities were evident; he began teaching at the age of 18, and even founded a school as a 19-year-old before moving to Texas and eventually coming to Baylor.<\/p>\n Almost immediately upon his arrival at Baylor in 1891, Truett made a meaningful impact.\u00a0The school was facing major debt problems — more than $90,000, an incredible sum at the time — and needed someone who could tirelessly raise funds to right the ship and keep the university afloat.\u00a0President Rufus Burleson<\/a>\u00a0chose Truett\u00a0to lead the effort, and the 24-year-old (who had not even attended Baylor yet) came through, raising enough money to eliminate the debt in\u00a0just two years.<\/p>\n With\u00a0his task completed (and the university on solid financial footing again), Truett enrolled as a student in 1893 and graduated four years later. \u00a0Along the way, he also\u00a0met his wife, fellow Baylor graduate Josephine Jenkins-Truett (an 1890 Baylor graduate).<\/p>\n Shortly after graduating from Baylor, Truett accepted the pastorate of First Baptist Church of Dallas — a spot he would hold for almost 50 years, until his death in 1944.\u00a0Under his leadership, the church grew to become the nation\u2019s first megachurch — from about 700 members to nearly 8,000 —\u00a0and Truett became a household name throughout Texas\u00a0and even across the country.\u00a0During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson chose Truett as one of 20 ministers to go on a six-month tour to preach to Allied forces stationed around the world. He also served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention and Baptist World Alliance.<\/p>\n Many of Truett’s sermons were recorded, and a 26-album set was released by Waco’s Word Records in 1966. Those and many others have recently been digitized and made available online through Baylor’s\u00a0George W. Truett Sermons Collection<\/a>.<\/p>\n Truett\u2019s name can be found elsewhere, from\u00a0Dallas ISD\u2019s George W. Truett Elementary School<\/a>\u00a0to a church in North Carolina<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0various university and seminary buildings across the country; even Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy<\/a> was named for the prominent preacher.\u00a0But it\u2019s at Baylor where Truett’s\u00a0legacy remains strongest, as thousands of ministers are trained at George W. Truett Theological Seminary to \u201cprepare persons to carry (the) Gospel to the churches and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Sic \u2019em, George W. Truett!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you know of George W. Truett today, there’s a good chance it’s because\u00a0Baylor\u2019s seminary\u00a0bears his name.\u00a0That honor was based largely on his half-century as\u00a0one of Texas’ (and even our nation’s) leading pastors — but the important role he played\u00a0in keeping Baylor University alive at the turn of the 20th century should not be forgotten, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}