The late Doug Baker, former pastor of Berea First Baptist Church, Greenville, is remembered fondly as a masterful preacher. Even though he is no longer with them, members can still hear the beloved preacher’s distinctive Canadian accent.
Nine of the 3,000-plus messages that Baker preached during his 30-year pastorate have been compiled into a three-volume CD set, entitled “By Faith He Still Speaks.” On a recent Sunday evening, the Berea congregation listened to one of the former state convention president’s memorable messages once more.
Doug BakerAbout a year after Baker’s death in 1995, Ron Vaughan, Berea First’s current pastor, discovered a treasure – boxes of recordings of Baker’s sermons – in a church storage room. Vaughan enlisted the help of Baker’s wife, Harriet, to select several of the messages to be included in a sermon collection. She chose nine from the hundreds of tapes, and then added a brief introduction for each message.
Though not necessarily her favorites, she grouped her selections for the CD set around three topics. The first three messages focus on salvation and the church: “The Greatest Offer Ever Made,” “The Greatest Task Ever Given to Mankind,” and “The Church is Here to Stay.” The second three messages deal with Christian living: “Bloom Where You are Planted,” “Get Your Third-Class Ticket,” and “When Trouble Comes.” The last group is seasonal: “Thankfulness -The Way Back to God,” “Christmas Spoken Here,” and “Easter – A Threefold Event.”
“Doug’s passion was preaching. He did it for more than half a century. He not only practiced what he preached. He actually preached what he practiced,” Harriet Baker, a ladies Bible study teacher at Berea and a fifth-grade schoolteacher, wrote for the CD. “He inspired others to holier living not only by his words but also by his deeds.”
During his 50 years of ministry, Baker preached on four continents, including North and South America, Europe and Africa. In addition to Berea First, which grew from around 600 members to more than 2,500 during his tenure, Baker’s other South Carolina pulpits included College Street Baptist, Walhalla; East Side Baptist, Liberty; West Side Baptist, Greenwood; and Rutledge Memorial Baptist, Charleston.
Elected as president of the state convention in 1989, Baker also served on the trustee boards of Anderson and Charleston Southern universities. He also was a chaplain for the Greenville County’s Sheriff’s Office and for SLED.
While listeners enjoy the nine messages again, Harriet Baker urges them to “look beyond the wisdom of his words, the vibrancy of his voice, and the posture of his presence to remember the legacy of his life.”
“Even though I treasured his spoken words, his life, to me, was his greatest sermon,” she said.
“By Faith He Still Speaks” is available by contacting Berea First’s church office at 864-246-1921. Cost of the three-CD set is $20, and proceeds will be donated to the church’s Rick Evans Scholarship Fund to support students in their college education.