IRVING, Texas (BP)–Ron Dunn, a Bible teacher and former Southern Baptist pastor, died June 29 in Irving, Texas, following a yearlong illness. He was 64.
Dunn, who began preaching revival meetings when he was 15 and was pastor of his first church at age 17, was a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
He was pastor of MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church in Irving, Texas for nine years before resigning in 1975 to devote full-time to a wider ministry of Bible teaching in conferences and churches.
Dunn was president of LifeStyle Ministries in Irving, which sends out an average of 2,000 Bible study cassettes a month to pastors, missionaries, students and laymen around the world.
He is the only American preacher to be invited to preach at Keswick Convention in England.
A native of Poteau, Okla., he was the author of several books, including Any Christian Can; Don’t Just Stand There, Pray Something; When Heaven is Silent and Surviving Friendly Fire.
While at MacArthur Boulevard, Dunn began an annual conference for pioneer pastors called “The Encourager Conference.” Since that time, more than 250 pastors and their wives have been treated to a week of encouragement.
The last sermon Dunn preached was May 27 at First Southern Baptist Church in Del City. Three days later, he was in the hospital in a coma. During funeral services July 2 at First Baptist Church in Euless, Texas, First Southern pastor Tom Elliff said Dunn was the “Columbo” of Southern Baptist preachers.
“He suckered you in to thinking he was a bit bumbling in his way, then, when you least expected it — wham! He would nail you,” said Elliff.
David Allen, current pastor of MacArthur Boulevard, and Dunn’s pastor, said Dunn was known for his superb ability to take biblical truth and cast it in a profoundly simple way.
“He knew so well where we all lived,” Allen said. “He was the master illustrator in his preaching. His illustrations, because they were taken from common, everyday experiences of life, adorned his sermons like freshly cut flowers with a pungent fragrance.”
Allen said last year, at a preaching conference at Criswell College, the guest speaker, who was from London, England, made reference to the importance of illustrative preaching.
“He paused and said, ‘The man who does this better than anyone I know is a fellow named Ron Dunn, who I think lives somewhere in Texas,'” Allen related. “From the back of the room, I grinned, knowing that he lived not 20 miles away, and I was his pastor. The anecdote illustrates the far reach of Ron’s ministry.”
Survivors include his wife, Kaye, son, Stephen, and daughter, Kimberly, all of Irving, and a brother, Barry. He was preceded in death by a third child, Ron Jr., who died at age 18.
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