Weekly Bulletin
Sunday Morning Message
This Sunday in Baptist History
April 20
William Keen was born on this day in 1820 in Washington County, Tennessee. At the age of twenty-one, after a period of severe conviction for sin, he was born again. During special meetings at the Fall Branch Baptist Church he, along with seventy-five others, were made, as he said, “willing captives of Christ.” Four years later he was ordained to the gospel ministry. Then over a period of fifty years, Brother Keen ministered in twenty-three churches, riding on horseback between them. And early in his ministry the Lord blessed with great revival.
As a child, Keen was not able to attend school, but upon his salvation, he educated himself and began a deep study of the Word of God and eventually amassing an extensive library. About the middle of his ministerial life he had noticed that the Lord wasn’t blessing as He had earlier. He wondered, “I know more than I used to know about God and the Bible, and want to tell it. Why is it I can’t have the success in revivals that I had when I was younger and knew less?” A friend said, “Maybe you are diving too deep into theology and the deep doctrines – putting the hay to high on the rack. Try something simple; for instance John 3:16.” That night Keen’s text was “For God so loved the world.” The sermon had only begun when “the windows of heaven were opened,” and the power of God rained down. At the close of that service approximately eighty people pressed forward for prayer, and in the following few days more than a hundred joined the church after their profession of faith in Christ.
– Source: “This Day in Baptist History II,” David Cummins and Wayne Thompson