On Wednesday, April 4, 2018, I heard Dr. Lynn Ridenhour give a remarkable presentation in the Salt Lake 21st Ward Meetinghouse at the corner of K Street and 1st Avenue. He was being hosted by my friend, Boyd Tuttle, owner of Digital Legend Press. He was introduced by Dr. Keith J. Wilson of the BYU Ancient Scripture faculty. Pastor Lynn is a natural story teller with a quick wit.
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| Lynn Ridenhour, Baptist Preacher |
Ridenhour was in Utah for the debut of his latest book entitled
Sir, That's a Book of Mormon! published by Digital Legend.
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| Ridenhour's 2018 Book |
He also presented at the FIRM Foundation Expo in Layton later that week. Ridenhour came to the attention of Latter-day Saints in a major way when he was featured in the excellent BYUtv documentary
A New Day for the Book of Mormon that aired on KSL TV in between General Conference sessions on Sunday, October 5, 2014. I reviewed the documentary in a 2014 blog article entitled "
A New Day for the Book of Mormon."
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| Opening Image from Superb BYUtv Documentary |
Ridenhour grew up in Belle, Missouri, studied for the ministry at William Jewell College in Liberty (where Joseph smith was incarcerated in Liberty Jail), and currently resides in Lake Tapawingo, a suburb of Independence. He holds a PhD from the University of Iowa. He was on the faculty of Jerry Falwell's Liberty Baptist College (now Liberty University) in Lynchburg, VA. He has pastored various Baptist churches in Louisiana, Illinois, and Missouri. He currently runs
Building Bridges Ministries which is part of Manna Ministries in Blue Springs, Missouri. Ridenhour is an ordained Southern Baptist preacher who considers himself Charismatic Baptist. He has endeared himself to Latter-day Saints because he believes both the Book of Mormon and the Bible to be the inspired word of God.
Ridenhour dined in the Lion House as Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley's guest in 2005. He spoke to the BYU religion faculty in 2008. He has been part of the Book of Mormon in Zion Conference held annually since 2014 in Independence. He gained his testimony of the Book of Mormon in 1985 through a noteworthy series of miraculous events.
Dr. Ridenhour is a student of religious awakenings such as William J. Seymour's 1906 Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles that spawned the modern Pentecostal movement with approximately 300 million adherents worldwide.
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| April 18, 1906 LA Times Article about the Azusa Street Revival |
He himself was part of the Charismatic Renewal that swept through Catholicism and mainline Protestantism in the 1960's and '70's. He likes to remind Protestant audiences that Joseph Smith and his contemporaries experienced significant outpourings of the Spirit in the early days of the Church, signs that God was at work in their lives.
Pastor Lynn has made it his life's work to build bridges of understanding between people of many different faith traditions. He longs for the day when Protestants no longer spew virulent anti-Mormon diatribes from their theological seminaries and counter cult ministries. His favorite Book of Mormon passage is
4 Nephi 1:15-17 that speaks of profound peace and unity through Jesus Christ.
