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LC announces formation of Joseph Willis Institute

by Al Quartemont

Will focus on the history of Great Awakenings in Louisiana, America

The life and impact of the first preacher West of the Mississippi, Joseph Willis, is about to become part of Louisiana College as the school, along with the Louisiana Baptist Convention, announced Tuesday the founding of the Joseph Willis Institute for Great Awakening Studies.

Willis was the son of an Indian slave who became the first man to preach a non-Catholic sermon in Louisiana. Eventually, he planted the first Baptist church in Louisiana at Bayou Chicot, a church that remains to this day.

The new Willis Institute will serve as an academic base for the study not only of Willis’ impact but also the history of spiritual awakenings in America.

“We believe that individuals will be able to experience that awakening through the Institute,” said LC President Dr. Joe Aguillard. “Pages will come alive and will help people better understand how things have come to be by one man’s faith.”

The formal announcement for the Willis Institute was made during the morning session of this year’s LBC Evangelism Conference that is being hosted by LC.

International evangelist Sammy Tippit is the one who first presented the idea to Dr. Aguillard. He set the tone for the announcement by preaching a sermon on the impact revivals have had not only on America but also on the rest of the world.

“A generation has lost a sense of history,” Tippit said. “We need to equip future generations on the great truths of revival.”

Tippit presented Dr. Aguillard and the new director of the Willis Institute, Dr. Rod Masteller, with a box of documents, DVDs and audio discs containing historical accounts and information on the development of the Baptist faith in Louisiana through Willis’ enduring ministry.

As part of its formal announcement for the Institute, Louisiana College officials stated that the new component of the college will be a repository for both physical and electronic documents and other research material pertaining to great revivals.

The Institute will also sponsor symposiums that will bring in leading scholars to lecture on the “Great Awakenings in the history of the church.” LC also said it hopes to integrate courses on spiritual awakening into its future curriculum.

As director of the JWI, Dr. Masteller is the former pastor of Summer Grove Baptist Church in Shreveport and served as president of the LBC in 2010 and 2011. His major interested in serving in the new role is to see another Great Awakening in America.

“If God does not move,” he said. “Our nation is gone. Only God can do what we cannot do – and that’s to send revival.”

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