Dave Doran remembers Dr. William R. Rice

Thanks Dave for the tribute. Dr. Rice was a great man of God. I’m grateful for the years I was able to benefit from the seminary that was born humanly speaking out of Dr. Rice’s labor. Also grateful for the theological influence of Grace Seminary on DBTS. A God-honoring approach to ministry indeed.

Straight Ahead!

jt

Dr. Rice was my first pastor when I moved to the Detroit area and joined Inter-City Baptist Church. More than some pastors I have known, he had a deep, tangible, visible love for God that burst out in his preaching and in his approach to worship. I remember several times when he made the congregation repeat a great hymn because he sensed we had not sung it with our hearts and minds engaged. I recall more than once before his opening pastoral prayer for Sunday morning worship he stood on the platform and called stragglers in from the hallway outside the auditorium and waited for them to be seated before he started the service. Sounds maybe a little harsh in our more warm and fuzzy day, but it evidenced his love for God and his desire for Him to be worshipped properly with reverence and without distraction.

I remember his sermons were resolutely theological and expositional, and the affects of 40 years of this type of preaching produced an incredibly stable and mature lay leadership which has continued to this day in the church. There’s a reason why Dr. Doran was called to be the successor to Dr. Rice with a 100% first time vote – it was the God-given result of decades of Dr. Rice’s solid preaching, teaching, and leadership which produced unity and maturity amongst the lay leadership and the congregation. This was an amazing blessing from God as we transitioned from a 40-year pastorate to a new, younger leader. And, as Dr. Doran alluded to in his blog post, when Dr. Rice left the pastorate he left with not a ripple of discord or second-guessing and moved out of state to Florida. I remember on his final Sunday with us he told the congregation in stern tones that if anyone came to visit him in Florida they had better not try to criticize the new pastor or that conversation would be swiftly shut down. And when Dr. Rice spoke that way disobedience was not an option! :-) What a glorious blessing from God to our congregation.

I praise the Lord for Dr. Rice and the thoroughly God-focused legacy he left behind at Inter-City. It is with earthly sorrow we see our great leader pass onto his reward, but the health of our church and its ongoing ministry speak volumes to his selfless leadership and his love for his Savior. Soli Deo Gloria!

He Feared God
I entered DBTS, (then Detroit Baptist Divinity School) as a student , in 1978. One of the first people I encountered was Dr. Wiiliam R. Rice. It was an impressionable occasion. He was teaching Pastoral Theology at that time and began the class with the statement, ” What the world needs is men who fear God! There are precious few who do and those of us who are called of God to preach the Word must fear Him before we can truly serve Him!” I have never forgotten that statement. It can be said of Dr. Rice that he feared God, by that I mean he had a great reverential awe and respect for Him. This was evident in his life and all the ministries of Inter-City Baptist Church.

Kent McCune has mentioned the influence of Dr. Rice continuing to this day in Inter-City Baptist Church. It is true. Often when a strong leader such as Dr. Rice leaves there is a shift in philosophy of ministry and theology that proves disastrous for the local church. When it was time, Inter-City with Dr. Rice’s blessing chose one of its own to replace him. A young man who was saved by the grace of God and raised-up under the watchful eye of a loving and careful pastor. As a result there was no such shift. In fact one could say the ministry has been strenthened as a result of the leadership of Dr. Doran (I would agree). This is a tribute first to the grace of God and then to the careful concern for the local church by a pastor who knew what was needed to see the work of God go forward.

Dr. Doran is one of many young men in the ministry today as a result of the ministries initiated by Dr. Rice at Inter-City. He was used of God to built a truly great local church that has a heart for God’s work. Such is his legacy, Dr. William R. Rice, a builder of men. I praise the Lord for him. “Yet we will meet once again on those beautiful shores.” :)

When I left the pastorate to begin a new ministry as a regional representative for Bob Jones University, the Christian schools in Michigan were embroiled in struggles with the State of Michigan. Although the Downriver area meant I would have to do more driving, there were 2 reasons why Chris and I decided to move to Allen Park: Inter-City Baptist Church and Inter-City Baptist Schools. When I was in seminary at Grand Rapids Baptist Theological Seminary (pre-DBTS;-) I had a professor, Dr. John Balyo (former pastor, member of the GARBC Council of 18, etc.). discuss Pastor Rice during a class in pastoral epistles. He said, “While so many of us were flying around the country trying to build an association (General Association of Regular Baptist Churches at which time Inter-City was affiliated)…’Bill’ Rice stayed home and built a church.”

He had such a sense of humor. I remember having guys ask me “…is Dr. Rice ‘losing’ it?” and when I shared that with him, he just laughed and quipped, “No, they’re confusing me with _____ !” (his brother in law!) And, another time we chatted about people coming and leaving the church, the school, etc. He pined, “I’ve helped build a number of churches in the area….”

Definitely one of my heroes….

jhr

Dr. William R. Rice leaves a great legacy for the hundreds of people that were impacted by his ministry. Dr. Rice was my (only) pastor for 33 years. In addition, I had the privilege to be on the pastoral staff for nearly 11 years. There are so many ways that he helped shape my life. Under his ministry (and godly parents) I was saved, baptized, and grew spiritually. As a child, I sought to model my life after him. His sermons were theologically rich and gave the congregation clear exposition of just about every book of the Bible. I especially remember hearing many sermons from Acts, Ephesians and Philippians. Because of Dr. Rice’s leadership in Christian education, I was able to receive all my training from 7th grade through seminary (except for four years at BJU). He was an advocate of a strong camp ministry and youth ministry which were also very instrumental in my life.

Inter-City continues to be a place that stands for the historic separatist Christian faith. It is a testimony of the solid foundation that he laid and the smooth transition to another faithful servant—Dr. David Doran. I thank the Lord for a godly man and other faithful leaders at Inter-City who taught me so well. Dr. Rice also was one of my heroes. May the Lord comfort and bless his family in this time of loss. Glen Currie

I must add my deep appreciation and respect for Dr. William R. Rice. Dr. Rice brought me to Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary in 1981 as Dean of the Faculty. With the resignations of some seminary personnel, Dr Rice and I brought on board Drs. William Combs, Robert McCabe, R. Bruce Compton and Gerald L. Priest and forged a new beginning and a lasting and stable faculty. Dr. Rice looked especially for two qualities in hiring his associates, teachers, professers and Christian workers: spiritual character and sound theology. He himself had earned a ThD from Grace Theological Seminary and he was determined to have a strong theological foundation and superstructure for Inter-City Baptist Church and DBTS. Dr. Rice often likened the founding and ongoing of the Seminary as “the frosting on the cake.” He founded many ministries within Inter-City and led the church with continuous expository preaching and strong administrative abilities. His love for Almighty God was always evident in his preaching, praying, teaching and conversation. His devotion to the Scriptures was translated into an unashamed fundamentalism, one that was “worth saving” when many self-proclaimed, if not renowned, fundamentalists, institutions, fellowships and associations became wobbly, unstable and untrustworthy. While keenly aware of what was going on in the ecclesial world around him, Dr. Rice kept preaching the healthy doctrines of the Scriptures and disdained the fundamentalist turf wars which he thought were often carried on by small men on petty issues. But when the time came to take action and be counted, Inter-City was fully informed and stood solidly with Scripture and its pastor. The tireless efforts of Dr. Rice to build the church which he shepherded resulted in a large and responsible ministry of 40 years in that place, and yielded a seamless transition to his successer, Dr. David Doran. Dr. Rice had a strong and disciplined study an work ethic, a no-nonsense philosophy of administration, and it ws my privlege to work with him at DBTS from 1981 until his retirement in 1989.

Rolland D. McCune