Voddie Baucham Jr. passed away suddenly on September 25, 2025, at the age of 56. Being roughly two weeks removed from his passing, I can’t help but contemplate how God used him to bless me over the last 15 years or so. I wish I would have done a spotlight on Dr. Baucham before his passing, but despite that notion, I realize his passing has caused me to assess the impact he had on me and my family, which is truly a testament to Christ.
Sunday Worship
I once heard a sermon in my early days of listening to him on Sermon Audio. The topic was Sunday (Sabbath) worship, and he outlined why Sunday was set aside for worship, rest, and mercy ministries (i.e., essential things like hospitals and first responders). He also expressed how preaching is not work but a part of worship. Moreover, he noted that focusing on worship and rest, when rightly understood, would allow for more time for devotional readings and family worship.
My life was changed forever.
At the time of this writing, my daughter is almost 16 years old. She doesn’t know of a time when we didn’t reserve Sunday for worship and rest. Thanks to Dr. Baucham’s message and the Holy Spirit’s conviction, my family have regularly worshipped at our local assembly, had family devotion time, and dedicated individual devotional time each Sunday for the last 12 years or so. We didn’t grow up with this approach to Sundays, but it’s a clear part of our lives now. In those 12 years, I’ve read countless inspirational Christian books, written a Christian book, learned biblical Greek, been learning biblical Hebrew, been blessed through prayer, and even make most of my blog posts during these weekly times of worship and rest.
Apologetics
Dr. Baucham was a champion for intellectually-sound and critically-assessed defenses of the faith, or apologetics. He helped me tremendously in this area, as he presented a clear, historical, and biblical approach to apologetics. One of his premier apologetic messages is memorialized on various occasions via YouTube. I quickly learned and memorized his salient message on “Why I believe the Bible.” He states (and I type the following from memory):
”The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents, written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses, that report supernatural events which took place in fulfillment of specific prophecy, and whose authors claimed their writings were divine rather than human in origin.”
Expository Preaching
Voddie Baucham was a fierce, thoughtful, humorous, and passionate preacher. He used the Scriptures and made profound argumentation to communicate truth. While he had an occasional topical message, Dr. Baucham was well known for extracting truth from the text and intertwining apologetic defenses to common or anticipated objections while he preached. His book, Expository Apologetics, is a must read and expresses his style of apologetics, a style that parallels Paul the apostle.
Family Emphasis (and Adoption)
Voddie’s love for family and children was also quite apparent. Several of his messages and churches where he served as pastor emphasized the importance of the collective family. They often held to a church model that did not segregate by age. It was refreshing to hear sermons where you could hear babies faintly in the background, and Dr. Baucham often gladly acknowledged those children, indicating cheerfully they were not a problem and that he could continue to preach despite their cries. His book, Family Shepherds, was instrumental in guiding me through Bible texts and how to lead a family as a shepherd, according to the Bible. To this end, he often emphasized the use of catechisms, something that we’ve used with our daughter since her late toddler years.
Not one to avoid practicing what he preached, Voddie was a champion for adoption and homeschooling, while being an unwavering opponent of abortion. To my count, Dr. Baucham and his wife had 11 children, 9 of which were adopted. His view of and preaching on children transformed my view of children, allowing me to see them rightly and biblically—that is, as a heritage and a blessing, not a burden to life’s journey.
Concluding Thoughts
Finally, in addition to visiting the various internet resources from Dr. Baucham, I encourage sincere prayer for the Baucham family. His website (picture link below) has resources and information about him to include ways to support his family. While I didn’t know him personally, I’ve been blessed to have access to his ministry efforts through technological means. From what I gathered, he will be sorely missed by his family and the body of Christ.
