Remembering Slayden Yarbrough, Former BHHS Executive Director (1943-2026)
By Baptist History & Heritage Society
The Baptist History & Heritage Society is remembering the Rev. Dr. Slayden A. Yarbrough, who led the Society from 1996 to 1999 and remained connected to its work for the rest of his life. Yarbrough died May 22 in Vancouver, Washington at the age of 82. He was a longtime professor, pastor, editor and author.[1]
Yarbrough’s years at what was then the Southern Baptist Historical Society came at a turning point. The Southern Baptist Convention had voted to close its Historical Commission, the Society’s parent agency since 1952. Yarbrough helped oversee the commission’s final years while helping guide the Society toward an independent future.[2]
Over more than five decades of Baptist ministry, Yarbrough taught religion at Southwest Baptist College and Oklahoma Baptist University, led state and national historical organizations, edited the Society’s journal, Baptist History & Heritage, and authored seven books and more than 40 journal and encyclopedia articles. After retiring from the classroom, he continued preaching and teaching in American Baptist churches. His scholarship ranged from early English Separatism to religious liberty and modern Baptist identity.[3]
Guiding the Society
Yarbrough had served eight years as a Historical Commission trustee and chaired its board before becoming interim executive director in June 1995. That year, the SBC approved a restructuring plan that eliminated the commission. The Southern Baptist Historical Society voted to become independent, and Yarbrough became its executive director in 1996 while continuing to lead the commission through its final months. The organization changed its name to the Baptist History & Heritage Society in 2001.[4]
When the commission closed in 1997, Yarbrough brought the Society’s office and publications to Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee. He drove the inventory from Nashville in a U-Haul truck and then ran the organization while teaching full time. Dr. Albert Wardin and Dr. Rosalie Beck also helped guide the transition. Janis Yarbrough served as part-time assistant to the executive director from 1997 through 1999, and the Society honored the couple with the Carolyn Blevins Meritorious Service Award in 1999.[5]
From Oklahoma Baptist University, Yarbrough handled the Society’s daily administration, membership work, publications and annual meeting. In a 1998 report, he said the arrangement amounted to two full-time jobs and argued that it could not be permanent. He called for a full-time director, a stable location, adequate staff, stronger finances and outreach to Baptists beyond the SBC.[6]
Professor, Pastor and Historian
Yarbrough began teaching religion at Southwest Baptist College in 1972 and moved to Oklahoma Baptist University in 1979. He became an associate professor in 1982 and was appointed to the A.A. Dickinson Chair of Religion in 1987. When he retired in 2001, OBU named him professor emeritus of religion. His research appeared in publications including Church History, Perspectives in Religious Studies, Quarterly Review and Baptist History and Heritage.[7]
Yarbrough’s work as a historian extended beyond the classroom. He served on the Oklahoma Baptist Historical Commission from the mid-1980s and chaired it in the late 1980s. The commission credited him with proposing a distinguished service award for Baptist history and named Yarbrough its 1995 recipient.[8]
After retiring from OBU, Yarbrough continued serving churches in Colorado and the Portland-Vancouver region. He supplied pulpits, taught Baptist history and polity and served as an interim pastor, including at Grant Park Baptist Church in Portland and First Baptist Church of Oregon City.[9]
Editor and Author
Yarbrough also served as general editor of Baptist History and Heritage from 1995 through 1999. When the Historical Commission closed, the independent Society became the journal’s sole publisher. As editor, Yarbrough set clear expectations: articles should meet scholarly standards, come from qualified writers, represent a range of Baptist viewpoints and remain free of partisan agendas. He also called for an editorial board to strengthen the journal’s work and accountability.[10]
Yarbrough viewed independence as more than a change of address. He emphasized preserving records, publishing research, helping churches understand their history and building relationships with Baptists beyond the SBC.[11] He also used Baptist History & Heritage to document the Society’s transition. In two essays published in 1999, he explained its move to independence and considered how its historical work might develop in a new century.[12]
Yarbrough wrote more than 40 journal and encyclopedia articles on subjects that included early Baptist history, English Separatism, creedalism, biblical authority, religious liberty, academic freedom and the First Amendment. His article “The Origins of Baptist Associations Among the English Particular Baptists,” published in Baptist History & Heritage, received the Society’s 1989 Norman W. Cox Award for best article. In 2000, the Society presented him with the W. O. Carver Distinguished Service Award for his wider contribution to Baptist history.[13]
Yarbrough wrote or co-wrote seven books. The Lengthening Shadow chronicled the first century of First Baptist Church of Shawnee, while I Am … Storytelling in Worship collected dramatic readings and monologues for congregations. His 2023 memoir, We Coulda Been Killed!, recalled childhood adventures with his brother and others. Another long-running project examined Southern Baptist history and identity through three successive books, culminating in the 2021 volume Southern Baptists: A History of a Confessional People, written with Dr. Michael Kuykendall.[14]
Yarbrough’s final book, Fired for Heresy!, was published in 2024. Part memoir and part denominational history, it recounts the Southern Baptist conflict, the closure of the Historical Commission and the Society’s transition to independence from Yarbrough’s firsthand perspective.[15]
Yarbrough’s formal leadership of the Society ended in 1999, but his relationship with BHHS did not. He remained a lifetime member and faithful supporter, stayed interested in its publications and programs and encouraged those who followed him in the executive director’s role.[16]
“From the time I began serving as executive director in July 2024, Slayden was a faithful supporter and a generous source of encouragement to me and to the Society,” said Aaron Weaver, BHHS executive director. “His interest in our work never belonged only to the past. He continued to care deeply about the Society and its future.”
As BHHS remembers Rev. Dr. Slayden Yarbrough, the Society gives thanks for his leadership during a pivotal chapter in its history, his contributions to Baptist scholarship and the support he continued to offer long after his formal service ended.
Celebration of Life: A Celebration of Life service for Slayden Yarbrough will be held at 1:30 p.m. Pacific time (4:30 p.m. Eastern) Saturday, Sept. 12, at First Baptist Church Gresham, 224 W. Powell Blvd., Gresham, Oregon. The service will also be livestreamed.
Memorial gifts: Gifts to BHHS in honor of Rev. Dr. Slayden Yarbrough will help create opportunities for graduate students and emerging scholars to participate in the Society’s annual conference, share their research and build relationships within the Baptist history community.
[1] “Slayden Alex Yarbrough,” obituary, Legacy.com, accessed August 4, 2026, https://www.legacy.com/legacy/slayden-yarbrough; Grant Park Church, “Why Baptist? Session 2: Baptist History Pt. 2 with Rev. Dr. Slayden Yarbrough,” YouTube, ca. 2021, https://youtu.be/M5PZfgB7ZFQ.
[2] Baptist History & Heritage Society, “History of the BHHS,” https://www.thebhhs.org/about/history-of-the-bhhs/.
[3] Legacy obituary; Oklahoma Baptist University, “Yarbrough Returns to OBU to Present Gaskin Lecture Oct. 6,” September 29, 2003; BHHS, “Baptist History & Heritage Journal,” https://www.thebhhs.org/resources/baptist-history-heritage-journal/; Parson’s Porch, “Fired for Heresy! | Slayden Yarbrough.”
[4] Slayden A. Yarbrough, “The History of Southern Baptist History: Restructuring and the New SBHS,” Baptist History and Heritage 34, no. 3 (Summer–Fall 1999): 108–20; Southern Baptist Convention, Proceedings, 1995 and 1997; BHHS, “History of the BHHS.”
[5] Yarbrough, “Restructuring and the New SBHS,” 113; “Twelve Major Assets of the Baptist History and Heritage Society,” Baptist Heritage Update, Summer/Fall 2006, 2; Charles W. Deweese, “BH&HS Independence, 1995–2005,” Baptist Heritage Update, Winter 2005, 6; Baptist Press, “Historical Commission Trustees Honor Staff, Agency’s Legacy,” April 23, 1997; BHHS, “Carolyn Blevins Meritorious Service Award,” https://www.thebhhs.org/awards/carolyn-blevins-meritorious-service-award/.
[6] Yarbrough, “The SBHS: 60 Years and Counting,” Baptist History and Heritage 33, no. 2 (Spring 1998): 4–6; “Twelve Major Assets of the Baptist History and Heritage Society,” 2.
[7] Oklahoma Baptist University, “Yarbrough Returns to OBU to Present Gaskin Lecture Oct. 6,” September 29, 2003; OBU, “OBU Spring Commencement to Honor Students, Faculty,” May 16, 2001; OBU, “OBU Board Approves Senior Faculty and Emeriti Recommendations,” November 30, 2001.
[8] Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, Annuals, 1986, 1988, 1989 and 1996.
[9] Legacy obituary; Grant Park Neighborhood Association Newsletter, September and December 2015; Baptist News Global, “Transitions for the Week of 10-12-18,” October 11, 2018; Grant Park Church, “Why Baptist? Session 2,” YouTube, ca. 2021, https://youtu.be/M5PZfgB7ZFQ; Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, “Oregon Interfaith Leaders Sign Statement of Unity,” September 16, 2024.
[10] BHHS, “Baptist History & Heritage Journal”; Yarbrough, “Baptist History and Heritage Publication Principles,” Baptist History and Heritage 32, no. 2 (April 1997): 4–6, esp. 5.
[11] Yarbrough, “Why Do Southern Baptists Need the Historical Commission?” Baptist Heritage Update 9 (Summer 1993): 5; Yarbrough, “The SBHS: 60 Years and Counting,” Baptist History and Heritage 33, no. 2 (Spring 1998): 4–6; Yarbrough, “The History of Southern Baptist History,” 108–20.
[12] BHHS Dropbox archive, EBSCO result-list snapshots of Yarbrough’s Baptist History and Heritage contributions; Yarbrough, “Baptist History in the Twenty-first Century: Dreams and Visions,” Baptist History and Heritage 34, no. 3 (Summer–Fall 1999): 95–107; Yarbrough, “The History of Southern Baptist History,” 108–20.
[13] Legacy obituary; BHHS Dropbox archive, EBSCO result-list snapshots of Yarbrough’s Baptist History and Heritage contributions; BHHS, “Norman W. Cox Award,” https://www.thebhhs.org/awards/norman-w-cox-award/; BHHS, “W. O. Carver Distinguished Service Award,” https://www.thebhhs.org/awards/w-o-carver-distinguished-service-award/.
[14] Legacy obituary; Open Library, Southern Baptists (2000), https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6799376M/Southern_Baptists; McFarland, Southern Baptists: A History of a Confessional People (2021), https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/southern-baptists/; Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, “Recent Books by Our Researchers”; Baylor Magazine, class notes, 2021–23.
[15] Parson’s Porch, “Fired for Heresy! | Slayden Yarbrough,” accessed August 4, 2026, https://parsonsporch.squarespace.com/baptistbooks/fired-for-heresy-slayden-yarbrough; ISBN 978-0-692-63932-0.
[16] BHHS membership records and organizational correspondence, 2004–26.