May 4, 2024
JONESBORO, Ga. — Pastor and author Henry Blackaby is being remembered as “a great Bible teacher” who inspired untold numbers of missionaries, church planters and everyday believers to “watch where God is working and join Him.”
A funeral for Blackaby, author of the best-selling Experiencing God Bible study, has been set for 3 p.m. on Feb. 25 at Jonesboro’s First Baptist Church where his son, Mel, serves as senior pastor.
“He will be greatly missed, but his influence on the lives of untold numbers of people through his Bible teaching will live on,” said evangelist Franklin Graham in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
People can also pay their respects during a visitation scheduled from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Feb. 24 at Ford-Stewart Funeral Home in Jonesboro.
“He was a humble, quiet messenger who spoke powerful words,” said Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board.
Blackaby’s son Richard described his father as a spiritual giant.
“He helped countless people experience God,” Richard said. “Now he is experiencing God in ways that surely surpass even his most cherished dreams."
“I just arrived home from South Africa with lots of people in Africa wanting me to tell Dad how his life and work had changed their lives,” Mel wrote on Facebook “I hear that same sentiment all around the world.”
Experiencing God sold some 8 million copies, but Blackaby is probably best known for practical advice to believers: “Watch and see where God is working and join Him.”
News of Blackaby’s death triggered an outpouring on social media with thousands of people heralding his ministry.
Southern Baptist evangelist and author Jay Strack called Blackaby one of the most significant leaders of his generation.
“Henry Blackaby was a man who experienced God,” Strack said. “He was a man who saw a revival. He was a man who was a leader to leaders.”
Blackaby served as founder and president emeritus of Blackaby Ministries International, an organization built to help people experience God. He was serving as pastor in southern California when a fellow pastor approached him about returning to his native Canada to be pastor at Faith Baptist Church, a small, dying church in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in his native Canada.
Over the next 12 years, the church grew from 10 members to a thriving congregation that launched 38 mission churches as well as the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary and College.
Blackaby has said that church is where the principles of Experiencing God took shape.
Blackaby’s son Richard now leads Blackaby Ministries International and writes and speaks on spiritual awakening, experiencing God and the Christian life. In 2022, Lifeway re-released the Bible study.
After pastoring Faith Baptist Church, Blackaby served as director of missions in Vancouver for two years before moving to the United States to become the director of prayer and spiritual awakening at the North American Mission Board. He later served as special assistant to the presidents of the International Mission Board, North American Mission Board and Lifeway.
Blackaby was born April 5, 1935, in British Columbia. He is preceded in death by his wife, Marilynn, and survived by their five children and 14 grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Blackaby Ministries International or to the Blackaby Chair of Spiritual Leadership at the Canadian Baptist Theological Seminary and College.
