L. R. SCARBOROUGH 

1870 - 1945

“I have won somebody to Christ every way Jesus did except up a tree and on a cross. And the first chance I get I’m going after them.” 

Born in Louisiana in 1870 in a Baptist minister’s home, L. R. Scarborough was raised in West Texas. Spending his youth as a cowboy, he dated his conversion at the age of 17.

Having been encouraged to get an education, he graduated from both Baylor University and Yale. It was at Yale that he surrendered to preach. Upon completion of his seminary work at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, in 1900, he became a pastor in Texas for the next eight years.

In 1908 he went to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, as professor in the School of Theology where he served until elected president of the seminary in 1915. He served in that capacity for the next twenty-seven years until he retired in 1942.

As a pastor-evangelist-educator-author, Scarborough left an indelible impact for soul winning upon America, especially among Southern Baptists. Dr. George Truett likened Scarborough to the Apostle Paul. Another said that “he was the most compassionate Christian I ever met.” Soul winning was Scarborough’s consuming passion, and compassion for lost sinners was his constant character trait.

Some of America’s great evangelists, including Dr. John R. Rice and Dr. Hyman Appelman, were greatly influenced in their zeal for souls through the ministry of this great preacher.

Dr. Scarborough was also the able author of fourteen books, which excel in the field of evangelism. Personal revival results from reading such books as: “With Christ After the Lost” (on personal evangelism); “Endued to Win” (on evangelism in Acts); “How Jesus Won Men”; “Prepare to Meet God,” etc. The challenge to compassion, conquest for Christ and conversion of the lost cry out from almost every page and paragraph of this man’s pen. 

He died in Amarillo, Texas on April 10, 1945.