Tribute: Dr. W.O. Vaught

I never realized expository preaching wasn't common for all churches as I grew up because it was all I knew. This post is a tribute to Dr. W.O. Vaught of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock and his faithful preaching and teaching of scripture. His consistent, biblically-centered messages shaped my life and my preaching.

I wrote the following for a part of our Tributes Series on our church blog and wanted to reproduce it here:

My family began attending Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas when I started junior high. They were drawn to IBC by the preaching of Dr. W. O. Vaught. I was extremely active and involved in the youth group there and loved the games, fun, camps and Bible studies with my peers, but it was Dr. Vaught’s preaching that was used by God to cultivate within me a love for scripture.

I didn’t know it at the time, but solid, line-by-line expository preaching was (and is rare) in American evangelicalism. I like how Tim Keller defines it:

“Expository preaching grounds the message in the text so that all the sermon’s points are the points in the text, and it majors in the texts’s major ideas. It aligns the interpretation of the text with the doctrinal truths of the rest of the Bible (being sensitive to systematic theology). And it always situates the passage within the Bible’s narrative, showing how Christ is the final fulfillment of the text’s theme (being sensitive to biblical theology).” (Tim Keller – Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism)

Dr. Vaught would take a year or more to preach through a book of the Bible on Sunday mornings, and he’d preach through another book of the Bible on Sunday evenings and yet another at Wednesday night Bible study (following the traditional mid-week Baptist meal). The folks at IBC feasted on food and scripture through Dr. Vaught’s careful, loving, joyful and Christ-centered preaching/teaching.

Dr. W. O. Vaught (1911-1989)

I was too young to be “friends” with my pastor. However, I remember how he would make an appearance at summer youth camps or retreats, stopping by long enough to solidify our belief that he was our pastor too.

38 years of faithful preaching

IBC had a “tape ministry” in those days, and Dr. Vaught’s sermons were sent through the mail via cassette tape literally around the world. He began pastoring there in 1945 and continued until he retired in 1983. He preached faithfully from God’s Word and embraced expository preaching near the second half of his ministry. He grew in his conviction that expository preaching was the way to ensure that, like Paul, he “did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20:27) He navigated some of his generation’s thorny theological issues and then had to deal with political realities as Governor Bill Clinton joined the church.

Bill Clinton’s pastor

Vaught may be known more infamously as being Bill Clinton’s pastor.I remember then Governor Clinton singing in the choir (Hillary never attended with him; she went to a Methodist church across town), and on a few occasions, the Governor would play his saxophone to accompany worship. It’s a bit surreal.

In his Billy Graham’s autobiography, Just As I Am, Graham shared that in 1989 (the year Dr. Vaught passed away) when Clinton was Governor, that Graham came to Little Rock for a crusade. Clinton asked Graham to meet with him and Dr. Vaught. Though Vaught was under 100 pounds and was near death, he preached to Graham and Clinton from his bed for 30-40 minutes (p. 652). Dr. Vaught was excoriated by other churches at times for not excommunicating/practicing church discipline on Clinton for his renown sexual antics. I am not privy to Vaught’s reasonings, but he remained a counselor to Clinton until his death in 1989. (Wouldn’t you like to know the content of that sermon!?)

Finding expository preaching (and Dr. Vaught’s influence) at college

When I went to college in 1986, I soon joined Third Street Baptist Church in Arkadelphia. Gary Turner was the pastor, and he preached nearly identically to Dr. Vaught – line by line expositional preaching. Little did I know until after I joined that Dr. Vaught had taken Gary as a teachable young minister and encouraged him to embrace expository preaching.

A tribute

So as a young boy, I sat under the faithful exposition of scripture every week. As a young man in college, I sat under the faithful exposition of scripture every week. I didn’t know any difference. It became how I taught scripture. God’s Word truly was a lamp for my life, and I grew up experiencing it taught in a way that demonstrated that every single part of the Bible was powerful, relevant, true, and reliable. God grew me up spiritually through the teaching of His Word under Dr. Vaught’s Christ-centered scriptural passion.

I am deeply grateful to the simple, faithful, weekly commitment to preaching God’s Word to his congregation by Dr. W.O. Vaught. He was never “flashy” and never sought to be “relevant.” He simply wanted to preach scripture faithfully. My verdict is that he did. And I am truly, eternally grateful.

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Rebecca Hile
Rebecca Hile
February 23, 2022 1:42 pm

My name is Rebecca and I am Dr. Vaught’s great granddaughter. I just wanted to let you know how appreciative I am for you writing about him. I grew up with stories about him and his church ministry and have started listening to his sermons. As a child my favorite story was about Bill Clinton coming to visit him when he was dying. I just wanted to let you know how appreciative I am of your writing! Unfortunately his son, my grandfather passed away about twenty years ago now, but I’m going to pass along this website to my mother… Read more »

TRake
TRake
July 15, 2022 10:12 pm

W.O. Vaught is possibly one of the least appreciated and recognized expositors who use solid exegetical Greek work for the congregation in his teachings. Any Minister and in fact Any Sunday school teacher would be doing themselves a great favor to get their hands on copies of all of his work it is a gold mine

Martha McCain
Martha McCain
January 8, 2024 7:40 am

Jeff, I went to Immanuel Baptist for many years. Dr. Vaught meant a lot to me because my parents were not going to church anywhere. My father was an ear nose and throat doctor in Little Rock and he had a patient named Marlon Haney. Marlon invited my dad to come to Emmanuel. This church was perfect for my parents, because there were so many professional men in the congregation and I just am so thankful for his ministry. I think at the time when I went to that church, I didn’t really appreciate his ministry until now as I… Read more »

Julie
Julie
April 10, 2021 10:59 pm

Hello! Do you know of somewhere we could listen to Dr Vaught online? My dad loves his sermons.

Ron
Ron
February 20, 2024 7:14 pm
Reply to  Jeff Noble

The link doesn’t work.

garry Williamson
garry Williamson
July 5, 2021 2:16 pm

Jeff My grandmother (Mrs. M. Williamson) was a long time member as far back as I can remember and I spent many a Vacation Bible school there. I can still remember his deep voice.

Phil Chamberlin
Phil Chamberlin
April 26, 2024 8:42 pm

My mother was Virginia Chamberlin who was a Kays. Her mother was Lida Vaught Moore whose mother was Laura Vaught who was a cousin to WO Vaught. I actually own a gold pocket watch from WP Vaught (i believe he is WO’s grandfather).

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