Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives – The Life of Elder James S. Coleman – Part Five of Nine

Thomas E Kresal Admin · August 5, 2020

Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives – The Life of Elder James S. Coleman – Part Five of Nine

Dr. Coleman is living with his second wife, who is a worthy woman and a true helpmeet. They have been living together for twenty years, and in their old age are serving the Lord as husband and wife in a way that is beautiful to behold.

The churches he has served as pastor have been as a rule small country churches. He was invited to the Walnut Street Church, Louisville, Ky., with a view to the pastorate, but declined. He was called to Sacramento, California, and declined. His Superior ability would have secured him almost any church, but he preferred to remain in the Green River country and work with the small country churches. He has never lived over thirty miles from Beaver Dam, and he is now living on a part of that thousand acres which his great-grandfather purchased, and near the place in the stream where the woman baptized herself.

He organized the church in Greenville and served it for a part of his time for thirty years. He was pastor for one year of the First Church, Owensboro, Ky., during which time there were two hundred and fifty additions, and the Walnut-Street Church was planted that year, which has become a strong, aggressive church. He held a meeting in the Walnut-Street Church and there were three hundred and fifty professions of faith. At the end of this meeting he was paralyzed and was not able to preach for a year, and hence he gave up his great work in Owensboro. After he recovered from his paralysis he returned to the Walnut Street Church and served it about four years, during which time there was built an elegant brick house.

At Whitesville, Daviess County, he served for a part of his time for thirteen years, and he held one protracted meeting in which there were one hundred and thirty-two additions to the church, and in another, one hundred and five, still another, seventy-five additions. No other pastor in Kentucky has had so great success in evangelistic work.

Presented by Thomas E. Kresal from: Pillars of Orthodoxy by Ben Bogard, 1900 pg. 338-40