Elmer Towns

Church/Ministry Name

Thomas Road Baptist Church/Liberty University

elmertowns.com

Church/Ministry Description

Dr. Elmer Towns prefers to be known as a college and seminary professor, he is an author of popular and scholarly works (the editor of two encyclopedias), a popular seminar lecturer, and dedicated worker in Sunday School (he has developed over 20 resource packets for leadership education). He began teaching at Midwest Bible College, St. Louis, Missouri, for three years and was not satisfied with his textbooks so he began writing his own (he has published 50 books listed in the Library of Congress, 4 listed in the Christian Booksellers Best Selling List; several becoming accepted as college textbooks. He is also the 1995 recipient of the coveted Gold Medallion Award awarded by the Christian Booksellers Association for writing the Book of the Year, The Names of the Holy Spirit.)

Experience

He was President of Winnipeg Bible College for five years, leading it to receive American Accreditation and Provincial authority to offer degrees (1960-1965). He taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, in greater Chicago, Illinois, in the field of Religious Education and Evangelism (1965-1971). He is Vice President and co-founder of Liberty University, with Jerry Falwell, in 1971, and was the only full-time teacher in the first year of Liberty’s existence. Today, the University has over 7,500 students on campus and he is the Dean of the School of Religion. Dr. Towns has given theological lectures and taught intensive seminars at over 50 theological seminaries in America and abroad. He holds visiting professorship rank in five seminaries. He has written over 2,000 reference and/or popular articles and received three honorary doctoral degrees. Two doctoral dissertations have analyzed his contribution to religious education and evangelism.

Education

Bachelor of Arts, Northwestern College, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1954. Master of Arts, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, 1958. Master of Theology, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas, 1958. Master of Religious Education, Garrett Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois, 1970. Doctor of Ministry, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California, 1983.

Family

His wife of 51 years, Ruth, teaches a Christian Woman class at Liberty University. They have three children and ten grandchildren.

Hobbies

Loves to golf.