John R. Rice is a household name in fundamentalism, substantially growing the independent fundamental baptist (IFB) churches in America and subsequently worldwide during the 1950's, 60's, 70's, and 80's. The "evangelist" Rice laid the foundation for the advent of the IFB mega-churches in the '70s, while mocking “ bland, self-assured 'Bible teachers' preaching to little groups of saints, ” and lumping “ doctrinally sound sermons ” with “ entertaining sermons ” that were “ devo

Updated: July 5, 2025 John R. Rice started the Sword of the Lord ( SOTL ) on Sept 28, 1934 while pastoring Fundamentalist Baptist Church of Dallas, TX (later called Galilean Baptist). Though SOTL has existed predominantly as an Independent Baptist publishing ministry, distributing a bi-monthly 24 page newspaper (peaking at 300,000 in 1975), while holding campaigns and conferences across North America and around the world, it has never been governed as a ministry of a local

John R. Rice the great revivalist icon of Independent Baptist (IB) Fundamentalism (IFB), was a big leader in the Old Boys Club and a compromised and heretical man for a number of important reasons. Let’s consider a few: 1. Rice the mega-church guru and despiser of small churches . He laid the foundation for the advent of the IFB mega-churches of the '70s, while mocking “bland, self-assured "Bible teachers" preaching to little groups of saints,” and lumping “doctrinally sound