Dr. Voddie Baucham: [I want to be remembered] that I made much of Christ’

Dr. Voddie Baucham, Jr., a pastor, apologist, evangelist and fierce advocate for home education, died suddenly on Thursday. He was 56.

The beloved teacher and preacher had previously undergone quadruple bypass surgery in 2021 after suffering from heart failure. Although in fragile health, he’s maintained a full ministry schedule, including serving as founding president of Founding President of Founders Seminary in Florida. 

Throughout his four-decade ministry, Dr. Baucham stressed the importance of the family, especially the value of a happy marriage and the critical role fathers play in the home. He once observed:

“The greatest source of security our children have in this world is a God-honoring, Christ-centered marriage between their parents.”

Although his ministry focus was broad, Voddie was a mentor to many men, challenging males to lean into the calling God has placed on their lives. Over the years he often pointed out that the top prayer request of Christian mothers was to have fathers step up and spiritually lead the family.

“I boil it down to the four Ps,” he one told Warren Smith. “Priest, prophet, provider, protector. [He should be] the spiritual leader, the one who is the priest or intercessor for his family; the one who’s the prophet, the one who’s the instructor in his family; the provider, the one who sees that his family has what they need; and the protector, the one who puts himself between his family and anyone or anything that would do them harm.”

As dad to nine children and married to Bridgett for 36 years, Baucham was sometimes criticized for his unapologetic bluntness. But it was this clarity that made him effective, drawing large and receptive crowds full of men hungry for guidance.

“It has been said that as goes the family, so goes the world,” he preached. “It can also be said that as goes the father, so goes the family.”

It was while serving as a pastor in Texas that Dr. Baucham began to appreciate the value and importance of home education. Although their two oldest children were enrolled in the church’s Christian school, his thinking and convictions regarding it began to evolve.

“The idea of being able to tailor education to the needs of our children and to the specific desires of our family just became more appealing to me,” he observed. “The idea of not being sort of burdened down by someone else’s schedule and agenda and even curriculum, those things just became more and more appealing to me. Those are the things that began to lead us in that direction.”

Even more so, though, Dr. Baucham was drawn to home education because of a personal conviction to disciple their children and not leave the task up to other people.

“Education is discipleship. Whomever is educating our children is discipling our children. Jesus said, “A pupil is not above his teacher, but everyone, when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher.”

Dr. Baucham was principled and bold, never worried about speaking up in the midst of cultural confusion. As a black man, he sometimes surprised people by not going along with those who emphasized or stressed concerns regarding racial division. “I think there are people who have a vested interest in things not being better, or at least a vested interest in not allowing people to acknowledge the fact that things are getting better,” he once said. “The racial-grievance industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry.”

He always had a keen ability to synthesize a situation and interpret things thru a biblical lens.

Following the death of Charlie Kirk earlier this month, Dr. Baucham quoted Soren Kierkegaard: “The tyrant dies, and his rule is over. The martyr dies, and his rule begins.”

World Magazine once asked Voddie how he wanted to be remembered. His reply?

“That I made much of Christ. That’s what I want the judgment to be, that I made much of Christ.”

He certainly accomplished that goal.