Purpose of This Site & Biographical Background

Purpose of This Site

We are making these sermons available on a website because we think that they are among the finest ever preached and because we have had many requests for Dr. Paul Tudor Jones’ sermons since his death in 1999. Though they were not written to be read, they read so well that we felt we had a unique opportunity to provide an extraordinarily wise and experienced minister’s thinking on religion, human nature and historical events as expressed in sermons over a sixty-five year period. These sermons are wonderful examples of effective preaching on every serious aspect of life and its connection to Biblical truth. They bring clear focus to the mind of Christ and show so well how to relate Biblical texts to the human condition. They are written with a clarity that helps the reader understand some very complex ideas about man’s relationship to his fellow man and to God. They are the best of guides for understanding the Bible, Christianity, and what it means to be a Christian – how to live to the highest levels of the spirit. They are about life’s meaning and purpose. All spiritual and moral questions are addressed here and while there is much that exceeds the reach of reason there is nothing that is contradictory to it. Here is a theology that is highly spiritual and deeply reasoned.

The sermons are even more powerful when matched with the extraordinary example of Dr. Jones’ life. Few thought and studied as hard for as long about man’s duty in this life to carry out God’s will in living it. His life was completely devoted to his idea of God’s purpose for him and wholly consistent with his sermons.

No one ever came in contact with Paul who did not benefit in some way from the contact, if only from his joyous nature. He was the type of person you would most like to have by your side in tragedy or triumph. His compassion, empathy and patience were inexhaustible and his optimism was contagious. He was the great encourager.

His sermons were guided by inspired prayer and by exhaustive study of the Bible and the best writings on Christianity, philosophy, history and literature, and by his vast experience with human beings under intense stress and in everyday life. He had almost unparalleled experience in seeing character developed, tested and revealed under almost every challenge life has to offer. He had a deep understanding of human nature. The sermons are also a record of historical events as he interpreted them to his congregations. Because he saw every major social problem from true Biblical perspective he achieved nearly perfect balance in the positions he took.

This was no cloistered scholar. Most of his time was spent in taking care of his congregation, person-by-person and family-by-family, and in church and denominational administrative and organizational work. He was the wisest of counselors and the most compassionate and indefatigable. Many of his good works were performed in secret because he was helping people in tragedy or trouble, whether with sickness or death, financial affairs, or family relationships, and he never revealed a confidence. He was a great organizer and natural leader but only sought leadership roles in matters of serious concern. He had no fear of taking the unpopular position. He was the soul of courage – one of the great heroes of the faith.

This is a brief background followed by biographical material on Dr. Jones that will give you a more
comprehensive idea of his character and career.

Paul Tudor Jones’ parents were both genuine Christians who lived their faith. Paul Sr., a leading businessman and community leader in Corinth, Mississippi, put such effort and compassion into helping others that he surpassed the pastoral care of many ministers. The Jones’ were a loving and very close family who were intensely loyal to each other. Both Dr. Jones’ brothers had distinguished careers and have led exemplary lives.

Paul graduated from Southwestern, now Rhodes College, Memphis, in 1932, and continued his education at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary and Union Theological Seminary in New York.

He had pastorates in First Presbyterian Church, Greenville, Mississippi; First Presbyterian Church, High Point, North Carolina; and Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Virginia. He was pastor of Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis from1954 until his retirement in 1975. After retirement from Idlewild, he served interim pastorates at many churches throughout the Mid-South.

Dr. Jones was elected president of the Memphis Committee on Community Relations in 1960 and in 1961. Throughout his ministry he was a leader at Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly levels of the Church. He was a Trustee of Rhodes College and Louisville Seminary. Louisville Seminary has a Paul Tudor Jones Professorship of Historical Theology.

Paul had a remarkable ability to sense God’s presence and guidance in prayer. Few have so unerringly seen where their duty lay. He had an innate sense of joy and a gentle and kindly disposition, but an iron determination to stay the right course against all adversities and adversaries.

His was the wisest and most orderly of minds. His organization of thought and action were such that,
while doing the work of ten, he never appeared to be rushed. He lost no time.

He was always an optimist and when his faith was tested he was always able to restore it with renewed strength. His constant care for others in adversity strengthened and refined his spirit of kindness. He had no critical spirit. He deplored sinful behavior but saw it as a tragedy for the sinner, who had either lost control of his passions or lost his sense of moral direction. He always kept clearly focused on what really mattered and wasted no time or energy on the non-essentials.

He felt that if you want to get the most out of life, to live at the highest levels of awareness and intensity, you have to give it away – spend it to the limit in service to God and fellowman. His was a life so lived.

He was born with tremendous talents and he made the best possible use of those he had. He studied the life and character of Christ as a lifelong practice and followed that pattern to the very limits of his extraordinary abilities. He allowed his imagination to be captured by the mind of Christ.

Included below is material that will give more insight into the kind of person he was, but the best way to know his character and understand the example of his life and teaching is to read his sermons. He never advised an approach to life he did not follow himself. The pattern of ethical morality by which he lived is clearly set out in his sermons. He practiced what he preached to the letter and if you study his sermons you will realize that this is an even more extraordinary claim than it seems.

A letter written by Dr. Jones 2 years before his death for the:

SESQUICENTENNIAL EDITION
RHODES COLLEGE – 150 YEARS

1848 – 1998

Dr. Diehl was a strong influence on me when I was a student, both as the president and as my friend. He asked me to travel for the college to solicit students for three summers, and from then on we had a warm relationship.

Attending Rhodes was, of course, the preparation for my whole professional ministry. And for my personal life, too, because during my freshman year I met the love of my life, Anna Hudson Jones. After I graduated and finished seminary, I had several pastorates before I came back to Memphis.

Dr. Diehl influenced many of my moves from one pastorate to another, including recommending me for the Greenville, Mississippi Presbyterian Church, where he had once been pastor. He and Dr. Rhodes, the next president and an elder in the Idlewild congregation, were instrumental in my being asked to come to Idlewild Presbyterian Church in 1954.

One of the experiences that stands out in my memory happened during World War II. We were in the midst of a campaign among the Presbyterians in Mississippi to raise some money for the college, and I came from Greenville to talk it over with Dr. Diehl. His nephew, William Ireys Hunt, had just been killed in the Pacific. I knew him quite well in college, and all of his family were members of my congregation in Greenville, so I was coming to talk with Dr. Diehl about including a memorial to his nephew as part of the campaign. (The memorial is the Hunt Memorial Gateway at University Street and Phillips Lane.)

Dr. Diehl said to me that he wanted me to work hard on the campaign, not only in memory of his nephew, but because unless we could be successful in saving the independent church college in America, we would be facing attack from a godless tyranny of political powers in the United States.

He said that one of the first things that fell in Germany under Hitler were the universities. Most of them were controlled by the politicians and that the churches were the next to fall; all of them were subservient to whatever political power controlled the government coffers.

He emphasized that the church in this country, the Presbyterian Church in particular, is independent of any kind of central subsidy, and unless we could save the church, we would be in danger of falling as they did in Germany, because “whoever pays the piper calls the tune.” Through the years I have thought how we must thank God for that independence of Southwestern, now Rhodes College. Jim Daughdrill subscribes to the same concept, which is one of the reasons I glory so in his presidency.

I’ve reached the age where I can’t serve actively anymore on the Board of Trustees, but they have given
me the privilege of being an honorary trustee. And it also means so much to me to have the intellectual
stimulus of the things that go on on the campus that we are welcome to attend, such as the lectures and
classes that interest us.

I enjoy the contact with the students. Of course, they don’t have a whole lot of time for us old folks, but I observe them. They’re a mixture, but there’s always a very stimulating solid core of the ones that I feel are the hope of the future.

Back to Top of the Page

 

Mr. Moderator, Ladies and Gentleman of the 105th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.:

I take great satisfaction in offering in nomination for the office of Moderator the person I earnestly feel to be the best qualified to lead us in the critical and challenging year ahead. He is Paul Tudor Jones, pastor of the Idlewild Presbyterian Church, Memphis, Tennessee.

A master of the spoken and written word, you will find him at home with poets, playwrights, and novelists who portray the prevailing mood of any given generation as well as theologians who employ the craftsmanship of words and thoughts to attempt to convey the unsearchable richness of God in Christ Jesus.

But Dr. Jones is not merely one who appreciates the value of study, the right word for the idea under consideration. He uses these words, not with any contrived or theatrical effort, but to put plainly yet compellingly the message of the Gospel, the whole message! His sermons do not dally around the outer edges of those issues in which man may so easily lose their souls. They get quickly, intelligently, factually to the heart of the matter and serve to bring men and women and young people to an honest understanding of the sovereignty of God over all there is of every life.

His preaching, while extremely relevant, is not controversial for the sake of controversy. He has more royal business to accomplish than merely to become the central focus of a side-taking division among people. His sermons, while hueing closely to the Biblical foundation upon which they are always built, are presented in such a loving, sincere fashion that even those few who differ with his point of view rejoice in the wholesomeness and genuineness and reality of the man presenting them.

From his church young students in the colleges of Memphis go out to undertake their tasks as scholars and later as leaders in all the disciplines of life. His quick and cultivated mind has provided the bridge over which more than one puzzled and disturbed student has been able to walk from the agonizing contradictions of this unideal world to the total power of the grace of God in Christ. Dr. Jones does not check his mind at the foot of the stairs when he enters the pulpit. He believes thoroughly that God meant it when He called upon His followers to serve Him with our minds.

His preaching, because it is so truly Biblical, moves from the surface of the mind to the motive centers of the will and men do differently because they have been made new by God through the preaching of this man.

I would hasten to point to another phase of Dr. Jones’ ministry other than the power and persuasiveness of his preaching. That is the work of pastor.

I have been amazed at the catholicity of appeal Dr. Jones has, and a very unusual way of making all kinds of people with all sorts of differing needs feel comfortable and at home in his presence. This is true simply because people know that here is a man whose interest in them is genuine; whose ability to help will be made totally available to them; whose concern is not judgmental but redemptive.

Dr. Paul Jones is and has always been a diligent presbyter. He has carried his share, and more, of the work of Presbytery, Synod and Assembly for a good many years. But in it all he has successfully resisted the temptation to become so concerned with the machinery that he forgot the purpose it was created to meet. That is no easy trick! Let me quickly list some of the areas in which the considerable and varied talents of this dedicated man have been put to work in leading our denomination through the years.

He has been moderator of three Presbyteries, and two years ago was Moderator of the Synod of Tennessee. Both in Virginia and North Carolina he has served as Clerical Chairman in the Assembly’s Negro Work Campaign. For two years he served on the ad-interim Committee on World Missions. He was a valued member of the board of trustees of the PSCE from 1951 to 1960. He has served his denomination as accredited visitor to the Sao Paulo meeting of the Presbyterian and Reformed World Alliance and represented our General Assembly at the North American Area Council of the Alliance of Presbyterian and Reformed Church, in January of this year.

The office of Moderator of the General Assembly is the highest office open to a member of this denomination. While it is indeed honorable, it is in no sense honorary. It is a working task to which we call our Moderator.

This is an office of dynamic leadership. In the person of the Moderator this entire denomination finds visual summation again and again. Both within and outside the regional boundaries of this denomination this man will travel, will stand before the leaders of our culture and will represent the general mood and mind of this Assembly. He ought, therefore, to be the sort of person whose life has already been doing this in a fine fashion, and whose vitality gives promise of his being able to do it well through the extremely busy days of his Moderatorship.

Dr. Paul Tudor Jones is eminently qualified for this office. Devoted husband and wise father, continuing scholar in a world whose seams of knowledge are fairly bursting; at home in the arts and without guile in his wisdom among the leaders of business; courageous, prophetic, compassionate preacher; administrator of one of our most active and sizable churches; diligent presbyter, carrying out a creative stewardship before God in all the courts of our church; skilled in the difficult art of presiding over bodies in which widespread differences of opinion are to be heard; effective counselor of the troubled and able inspirer of the young; leader in the community that lies beyond the organizational framework of the congregation but not beyond the redemptive love of God, I take it as a singular honor to present now in nomination for the office of Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, Dr. Paul Tudor Jones.

Seconding Speech For Moderator of General Assembly 1965

Mr. Moderator, Ladies and Gentlemen:

The process of electing a Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, U.S. requires of all of us the use of the very best guidelines that we can find. As great as the honor is of holding this position, our duty transcends merely doing honor to any particular man. Our task is the soul-searching one of finding that individual best equipped to serve our church in these days of challenge and opportunity. Paul Jones is such a man. His entire career as a servant of the church has been spent as a minister of congregations down at the grass-roots level where the real work for Christ must eternally be carried on. He has used his great capacities of body and mind and heart to provide the inspired leadership that has made him more than just a minister to his own congregation. In every place in which he has lived and labored — in Lexington and Greenville, in Liberty and High Point, in Richmond and Memphis — he has been a powerful and beloved voice for good in the whole community.

Even though he has the wisdom and maturity that come with thirty years in the pulpit, Paul Jones at fifty-three has all of the strength and dynamic energy of a man accustomed to working eighteen-hour days. But with all of his drive and his ability to get things done, the most remarkable attributes of Paul Jones are his humility, his patience, his compassion, and his great understanding of and concern for his fellow man. In a time when issues fraught with controversy swirl about us and forces that would confuse and divide us are at work, we Presbyterians would be fortunate to avail ourselves of the wise and healing leadership of this one who has come this way, for Paul Jones is a man who has demonstrated a special genius for contributing to the solution of problems rather than to the problems themselves.

I would say of him as it was said of the late Judge John J. Parker of North Carolina: “By his life he has helped us all to preserve the finest of our traditions and to realize the noblest of our dreams.” Paul Jones can help us to do this in the Presbyterian Church as by his own great example he leads us on that eternal journey toward the way, the truth and the life.

Mr. Moderator, I second the nomination for Moderator of this General Assembly the minister of the Idlewild Presbyterian Church of Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Paul Tudor Jones.

 

Throughout his ministry, Paul Tudor Jones has expressed a conception of theology that is desperately needed in today’s society. For those grappling with their faith and with Christianity’s application in their day-to-day experience, Dr. Jones provides a framework for thinking about God, about others, and about life.

This book of sermons is not only a sampling of Dr. Jones’s preaching, it is a consequence of it. Members of his former Idlewild congregation, moved by Dr. Jones’s message over the years, asked him to allow some of his sermons to be published.

Another purpose of this book of sermons is to show an alternative to the two primary shifts away from mainline Protestantism occurring in America: secularism and fundamentalism. Dr. Jones’s ministry stands as a beacon of clarity pointing a wise and faithful way.

In contrast to secularism, Dr. Jones’s sermons point beyond the single dimension of arid humanism, toward the spiritual wells of God’s forgiveness and grace. For life to have real meaning, that meaning must have an eternal dimension.

In contrast to fundamentalism, Dr. Jones’s sermons express a theology that embraces science and the use of reason and yet proclaims religion as the central purpose of life. His sermons are both pro- faith and pro-reason. They communicate that the discoveries of science are not a threat to faith but a revelation of God’s design for the material part of the universe. They send a message that the lessons of history are not to be dismissed, that utopian social schemes cannot perfect either the individual or society, and that the best and strongest elements in our democratic society are grounded in religious faith and values. For those struggling to develop a theology they can accept rationally, Dr. Jones’s sermons provide answers and hope.

Paul Tudor Jones is one of the century’s most knowledgeable students of the Bible and of the works of the leading Christian theologians. He is not only one of the most scholarly ministers of our time but he is unexcelled in the pastoral care he has given to members of his congregation. He has attended to the needs of thousands in distress, bringing love, hope, courage, and faith to them. He has lived a life of dedication and self-sacrifice, has constantly dealt with the tragedies of others, and through it all kept and increased his confidence in God’s purposes and his love for others.

Dr. Jones’s understanding of the gospel has always included its application to the urgent moral and ethical issues of the day. His stands on civil rights and moral integrity in politics made him a prophet as well as a pastor. He never flinched from taking what he understood to be the correct moral and ethical stance even when he knew it would anger those with opposing views, which it frequently did. In the 1950s and ’60s, for example, he was in the forefront of Southern ministers seeking to improve the condition of African-Americans and to foster better race relations.

This is a book for the thoughtful Christian and for those whose faith is troubled by elements of doctrine that do not square with their reason and experience. The sermons are the words of a minister who combines brilliant theology, deep compassion for human suffering and human frailty, and boundless optimism. Most important, they are the words of a man who lives by the principles he preaches, a man who has dedicated his life to Christ and to others.

James H. Daughdrill

President, Rhodes College

 

The Chain of Kindness

Introduction

Recent research on mainstream Protestantism in America demonstrates the new world Protestant denominations confronted in the twentieth century. During the nineteenth century, these denominations seemed to dominate both American religious life and American culture. Historians now argue that this religious and cultural establishment of Protestantism has been gradually and decisively eroded during this century. In short, Presbyterians and other mainstream Protestants can no longer claim religious supremacy or cultural dominance.

Many observers believe that this shift of power and influence has had profound theological implications for these churches. In recognizing the pluralism of American society and the diversity of Christian belief, they have become less confident of the distinctive message and traditions that they bring to an understanding of Christian faith and discipleship.

Others argue that Protestantism itself is wracked by an internecine war, pitting conservatives against moderates or liberals. Tragically, these divisions have obscured the deeper challenge of secularity in the Western world.

The central challenge now confronting mainstream Protestant churches is the reformulation of their theological identity. These denominations cannot recapture their former supremacy over American religious life, nor are they likely to be the arbiters of cultural mores and values. They must also recognize that the foremost threat to their vitality does not lie within but outside the churches. In short, they must begin to recognize that the primary religious and spiritual issue today is not heresy but idolatry – the substitution of other values and beliefs for authentic Christian faith.

Dr. Paul Tudor Jones’s sermons represent the work of a preacher who has not lost either his intellectual or theological bearings amidst the swirling crosscurrents of mid- to late twentieth-century America. As you read them, I think you will recognize three consistent features. First is his emphasis upon the Bible. For Dr. Jones the Bible serves as both a critic and an insightful guide to understanding Christian interpretations of the complexity and mystery of human life.

Second, Dr. Jones reads, and the breadth and depth of his reading in history, theology, literature, and contemporary affairs show a mind constantly inquiring into the wide range of human experience. Third, Dr. Jones is a preacher to people. Here you will find a gospel that lives and breathes, that finds connections with people’s lives, that inspires people to witness to the love they have found in Jesus Christ – even when that application may raise troubling questions about how we behave as individuals, as families, and as a nation.

Dr. Jones is a twentieth-century apologist – someone who defends the truth of Christianity. In his last sermon as pastor of the Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis, he declared that throughout his ministry his primary purpose was “raising the God question.” In these sermons, you see him raising that question again and again. What does it mean to believe in God? What does the Lord require of us? What difference will it make?

What indeed? Dr. Jones’s sermons serve as a model for raising the God question for our times and in the future and will summon the church to new and deeper understandings of its faith and the call to discipleship.

John M. Mulder

PRESIDENT AND PROFESSOR OF HISTORICAL THEOLOGY

LOUISVILLE PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

 

Dear Friends of Paul Tudor Jones:

We at Louisville Seminary are delighted to announce the creation of the Paul Tudor Jones Professorship in church history. This chair on the faculty of the Seminary was initiated by friends of Dr. Jones in Memphis who wanted to honor him and his distinguished ministry in the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Jones is a son of the South, but his vision of the mission of the church has known no regional boundaries. Born in Corinth, Mississippi, he was educated at Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College), Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and Union Theological Seminary in New York. His first pastorate was in Lexington and Tchula, Mississippi, followed by service to the following churches: First Presbyterian Church of Liberty, Missouri; the First Presbyterian Church of Greenville, Mississippi; the First Presbyterian Church of High Point, North Carolina; and Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia.

In 1954, he became pastor of the Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis, a congregation among whom he ministered for just over 20 years until his retirement in 1975. Since that time he has been pastor emeritus of Idlewild and has served as an interim pastor for many churches in Memphis Presbytery. Throughout his ministry he has been a leader at Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly levels of the church. Rhodes College and Louisville Seminary are particularly in his debt for his wise counsel and leadership as a trustee. Today he is a life member of the boards of both schools.

At the heart of his preaching and his ministry has been his persistence in confronting men and women with the claim of Jesus Christ on their lives and in proclaiming the hope and meaning offered to them in God’s love. In the midst of controversy and conflict, tragedy and suffering, joy and celebration, his congregations knew him as their pastor and their friend.

Dr. Jones’ understanding of the Gospel has always included its application to the urgent moral and ethical issues of the day. His stands on civil rights, peace, social justice, and moral integrity in politics made him a prophet as well as a pastor.

Part of the genius of his ministry has been his study of history, and his sermons bear evidence of his wide and extensive reading in both the history of the church and the world. Dr. Paul Tudor Jones is a man who read the past to identify more fully and faithfully the needs of the world and the priorities of the church today.

Thus, it is particularly appropriate that his name should be attached to a faculty position at his alma mater, Louisville Seminary, where this fund will be used to undergird the teaching of the history of the church to students who will be pastors in a world as perplexing and as challenging as our own. On behalf of those students and the church which they will serve, I ask you to give careful and prayerful consideration to a gift to the Paul Tudor Jones Professorship. It will be an enduring tribute to a man who, by the grace of God, has touched our lives and lighted our path. Thank you very much.

Faithfully,
John M. Mulder
President

Letters re: the dedication

The thought, basic as it is, never occurred to me until I began this letter, that there must be large measure of satisfaction felt by the faculty and administrators of Louisville Seminary who are responsible for sending graduate seminarians, class after class, year after year, out into the communities of our Presbyterian Church. As years turn into decades and time marches on, your institution through these graduates exerts an enormous influence in terms of faith, morality, and justice upon the lives of many thousands of people. In contemplating these matters, it seemed fitting and appropriate that, as I seek to honor my longtime friend and minister, Paul Tudor Jones, I make a contribution in his name to the institution which gave further impetus to his motivation, shaped his developing talents, and helped to make him the man he has become.

It has been nearly fifty years since Tudor graduated from Louisville Seminary. In that half-century career he has left an indelible mark on every community he has served.

We in Memphis have shared the last thirty of those years with him. At Idlewild Church there is an entire generation of persons who are quite certain that when they hear the authoritative but loving voice of God, it will sound very like that of Tudor Jones. What has been more remarkable to me is that Tudor, with his intellectual attainments, his academic credentials, and his scholar’s mind might appear better suited to be a theologian, content to write and study in cloistered solitude; and yet, to the contrary, he has always been the good shepherd, tending his flock with compassion and understanding. When Tudor arrived in Memphis in 1954 he found Idlewild to be a church with a proud history and tradition of leadership in affairs of both Presbytery and city. Tudor’s zeal and absolute, self-sacrificing commitment to his church not only preserved that tradition but fostered and enlarged it.

In serving his neighbor, Tudor’s concept of the pulpit was never limited by a parochial definition of parish boundaries or congregations’ rolls. His voice spoke to a larger community. Time has somewhat blunted the volatile, fiercely revolutionary racial feelings so rampant in the civil rights movement of the early sixties. In those troubled days, Tudor, armed with a vigorous moral courage and a commitment grounded in faith, dared to speak for, to lead, and to aid in whatever fashion, the cause of human rights. It mattered not that the cause was not popular, sad to say, with many of his contemporaries in the white community or, perhaps sadder still, with many of his own congregation. Nevertheless, his leadership, his calm voice in that raging storm, awakened reason on both sides and a measure of order was restored. Years have passed, and we are still seeking solutions to the same problems, but Memphians are grateful for his help in that time of great trouble.

There have been many moments of triumph, of success, of achievement and of joy and happiness during these years in which I have claimed the special privilege of knowing Tudor as my close friend. Equally as certain, in the vicissitudes of life, there have been times of sadness and disappointment. A real measure of a man is the manner in which he accepts misfortune, and Tudor has always done so with the full assurance that his Lord is always in control of his life.

Such is the man I am proud to call friend. In honor of him do I make this contribution with the hope that the funds will continue to bring about the advance of Christ’s kingdom.

— From a letter by Edward B. LeMaster of Memphis to Louisville
Seminary, written shortly before his death in 1984.

During the twenty year period that Paul Tudor Jones was minister at Idlewild, he was our teacher, our pastor, our friend, but most of all, he was our inspiration. Dr. Jones always had time to talk with us, to encourage us to think about new ideas and to experiment with new ways to worship and to serve the church. He was never too busy to listen to us, and through his insight into what we were saying he used those opportunities to teach us the meaning of the scriptures. He encouraged us to try things and gave us enough room to grow even when we made mistakes along the way. He gave us a word of encouragement, a pat on the back and quietly suggested new approaches.

His sermons were the intellectual as well as spiritual highlights of the week, and because of his tremendous integrity and moral standing, we were brought week after week to new paths of service.

Walk C. Jones III
Board of Directors
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

The establishment of a Paul Tudor Jones Chair is a most appropriate expression of appreciation for the life and preachments of Dr. Jones, a true gentleman and a faithful servant of God. By the warmth of his personality and the qualities of his character, Dr. Jones has earned the esteem and respect of all who are privileged to know him. A man of compassion and humility, his manner is gentle and his words soft-spoken.

Dr. Jones has combined his deep religious faith with a fine intellectual insight. He is both a believing and a reasoning man. As a preacher, he has challenged the mind and the spirit. His concerns transcend the Sabbath and the sanctuary, for he is intensely interested in what happens everyday and everywhere. He cares about people and the conditions under which they live. He looks with disfavor on any form of prejudice and strives constantly by word and by deed to establish real brotherhood among all people. For many years, Dr. Jones has demonstrated the courage of his ethical convictions. He is motivated by moral principles, not by a quest for popularity. He has enunciated great religious teachings in places provincial in their scope and narrow in their views.

Not only Presbyterians but all morally sensitive people are in his debt. He has enhanced the quality of life wherever he has lived and served. A community is blessed by his presence and his labors. The ministry of Paul Tudor Jones can be characterized as one of the noblest level of spirituality and highest level of intellect.

Rabbi James A. Wax
Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Israel
Memphis, Tennessee

Paul Tudor Jones&’ commitment to education is second only perhaps to his lifelong devotion and service to his Church. As minister, he is an inspired teacher to his congregations; as a teacher, his insights begin with the fundamental truth that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

As a Trustee of Rhodes College for ten years and now a Life Trustee, Dr. Jones’ educational service to his alma mater sets the highest standard. As the Trustee Chairman for many years of the important Board committee on Students and Campus Life, his keen understanding of the College’s mission as an institution of the Presbyterian Church was coupled with loving respect for the students of Rhodes and genuine concern for their well-being. With Paul Tudor Jones as their spokesman to the Board, students knew that their concerns and opinions would be represented not only with compassion, but with authority.

As Rhodes undergraduate, as Louisville seminarian, as pastor in Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia, as minister for twenty years of Memphis’ Idlewild Church, Paul Tudor Jones’ quest for truth and love of learning have never diminished. We are indebted to him for the educational service his ministry has provided to our Church and to our society.

The Paul Tudor Jones Chair in church history will be a tribute to Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, as well as to the singular man whose name it carries.

James H. Daughdrill, Jr.
President
Rhodes College

For many years Dr. Jones went to New York in the summer to study and would often preach in the West End Avenue Presbyterian Church. I heard him preach there in the summer of 1954 (just prior to his coming to Idlewild). Little did I know then what a blessing he would be to our church and to individual members. He was a blessing in so many ways as he ministered to his congregation. He is truly a man of God — a gentle man of great warmth and compassion and a deeply caring man, sharing with each their joys and sorrows. This is the Paul Tudor Jones, with his delicious sense of humor, whom I have had the rare privilege of coming to love and admire.

Julie Sprunt

Idlewild Presbyterian Church Service of Dedication PAUL TUDOR JONES CHRISTIAN
EDUCATION AND RECREATION CENTER September 18, 1994

Today we dedicate the Paul Tudor Jones Christian Education and Recreation, saluting Dr. Jones and all of those who worked, sacrificed, and gave generously of their time, talent, and resources. May it continue to be a beacon of Christian love and outreach.

*****

The banners on display for this morning’s worship service have been lent by Rhodes College and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in honor of Paul Tudor Jones. A 1932 graduate of Rhodes, Dr. Jones has served on its Board of Trustees and is presently a life member of the Board. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Rhodes in 1948.

Dr. Jones received his Bachelor of Divinity Degree from Louisville Seminary in 1935. A member of the Board of Trustees at Louisville, he holds life membership on that Board as well. In 1986, the Paul Tudor Jones Chair of Historical Theology was established at the seminary in his honor.

Rhodes College and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary take great pride in saluting one whose life and work bring honor to their institutions.

*****

FROM THE PREACHING OF PAUL TUDOR JONES

The first duty of God’s servant is, not obedience to a given command, but reconciliation to God’s point
of view.

*****

The Scriptures are given us, not to foretell events, but that we may know the truth about God and about ourselves, that we may recognize the right and the merciful and love it and do it.

*****

What is needful for everyone of us is that we make the conscious choice to live every moment of our lives under the dominant control of the perfect and permanent rather than under the spell of that which is partial and imperfect. That means that we must make room for the mind of Christ to take over, for the love of God in Christ Jesus to motivate all we say and do.

*****

And we, whoever we are, whatever we have or don’t have, we are in the position to pass on some of this commodity that never goes out of style — the kindness of God for Christ’s sake. The chain of kindness must be forged link by link, not only because our world needs to be filled with the goodness of God as the waters cover the sea, but more because we need to have our souls fashioned into the likeness of Christ, and that will not come without our showing kindness. It is more blessed to give than to receive. It is the giver’s soul rather than the recipient’s soul that is most filled with joy, beauty and strength when kindness is done. Only as the love of Christ constrains us to do acts of kindness is our soul changed into his likeness.

 

FROM THE EDUCATION AND RECREATION STAFF

Paul Tudor Jones is a man of commitment and courage. During his long ministry at Idlewild, he has challenged the members of this congregation with a vision of a church living out its faith in mission and ministry to the community and the world around it. How appropriate it is that this building where children, youth, and adults are taught the good news of Jesus Christ should be named for him. It is my prayer that those who study and learn in this building will continue to be challenged to live out their faith in ministry and mission to the Memphis community and to the world.

Tom Malone, Minister of Education

I believe people need models rather than critics. For decades Dr. Paul Tudor Jones has been a wonderful example of Christian character. His vision, based on hope and humility, always emphasizes service to others as a means of meeting physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. His integrity is above reproach. His never-ending faith is played out in a world of real-life challenges. I am grateful that, for generations to come, all who enter the Paul Tudor Jones Education-Recreation Center to worship, learn or play will be reminded of Dr. Jones and will understand the example he has given so many.

Roger Maness, Director of Recreation

 

The death of Paul Tudor Jones, long-time pastor of Idlewild church, Memphis, on Dec. 27, 1999, brought widespread expressions of sadness, but also profound gratitude for his fruitful ministry of more than 60 years.

Born in Corinth, Miss., in 1909, he attended Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College), graduating in 1932. His theological education was pursued at Louisville Seminary (B.D.), and at Union Seminary, N.Y., where he received the S.T.M. degree in New Testament studies in 1938. He was granted an honorary D.D. by his alma mater, Southwestern, in 1948, and 10 years later was honored with an LL.D. degree by the University of Alabama.

Paul’s entire ministry was spent in the parish, largely in the South. He began that ministry serving small churches in Lexington and Tchula, Miss., then, following in succession, pastorates in Liberty, Mo., Greenville, Miss, High Point, N.C., and Grace Covenant Church, Richmond, Va. before “coming home” as pastor of Idlewild church, Memphis, in 1954, where he remained until his formal retirement in 1975. His “retirement,” however, proved to be a busy and active one as he continued to serve numerous congregations as an interim and stated supply for another 20 years and more!

In 1934, he married Anna Elizabeth Hudson, affectionately known as “Teapot,” who remained his winsome and irrepressible companion until her death seven years ago. The Joneses had three children, Paul T., who died in 1970, “Huddy” (Mrs. Bayard Boyle, Jr.), and George.

His 21-year ministry at Idlewild extended far beyond the walls of the gothic “flagship” congregation in the heart of Memphis. An active presbyter, he soon became a part of the progressive vanguard of leaders that helped move the “Southern Presbyterian Church” away from its theological and ecclesiastical isolationism toward a greater sense of social responsibility and ecumenical involvement. He was a lifetime member of the boards of both Rhodes College and Louisville Seminary, a PCUS representative to the National Council of Churches and was mentioned on several occasions as a prospective moderator of the General Assembly.

Paul was a scholarly and gifted preacher of the Word whose sermons were both intellectually stimulating as well as personally and socially challenging. Never content to be the preaching minister only of a “tall steeple” church, he was a warm and compassionate pastor, visiting his members, celebrating their joys and triumphs while standing with them in their hours of crisis, sadness and need.

And this gracious, courtly “son of the South” combined in a remarkable way a pastor’s heart with a prophet’s voice. His passion for social justice and improved relations between the races led him not only to address the issue in preaching, but to assume a position of leadership in chairing the Memphis Committee on Community Relations during the racial tensions of the 1960s.

In a sermon preached in 1975, on the occasion of his retirement, Paul offered this observation of his own ministry in these words: “As I look back on my life, trying to be a pastor to God’s people in his church, I think I’ve come nearer to fulfilling my vocation when I’ve tried to raise the God question in the changing kaleidoscope of church ministries, community crises, and family and personal situations.”Throughout his ministry, in a courageous, but always kind and gracious, manner, he kept raising that “God question” — as a preacher, a pastor, a churchman, a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. And in so doing, he touched countless lives with the judgment and grace of God, “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Thanks be to God for the splendid life and the faithful service of this man of God, Paul Tudor Jones!

Denton McLellan is pastor, Germantown Presbyterian Church, Germantown, Tenn.

 

February 21, 2000
THE PRESBYTERIAN OUTLOOK

Minister, Trustee Paul Tudor Jones Dies

The Rev. Paul Tudor Jones ’32, pastor emeritus of Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis, died Dec. 27, 1999. He was 90.

Pastor of Idlewild Presbyterian Church from 1954 until his retirement in 1975, he was known as a staunch proponent of racial justice and moral integrity in politics and a voice of reason and moderation during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

A native of Corinth, MS, he earned degrees from Rhodes, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary in New York. Before his call to Idlewild, Jones held pastorates in Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia. After his retirement, he was in demand as an interim minister and served pastorates throughout the Mid-South. Throughout his ministry, Jones was a leader of Presbytery, Synod and General Assembly levels of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

He was a life trustee of Rhodes and Louisville Seminary. The Paul Tudor Jones Professorship of Historical Theology was established at Louisville Seminary in 1986. He received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Rhodes in 1948 and honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Alabama in 1958. He served as ex-officio member of the executive board of the Rhodes International Alumni Association, representing his class to the association. Jones was president of the Memphis Committee on Community Relations during 1960-61 and served on numerous church and civic boards.

An accomplished watercolor painter, Jones often visited Rhodes to paint campus scenes. He and his two brothers exhibited paintings together under the billing of “The Jones Boys.” The widower of Anna Hudson “T” Jones ’32, he leaves a daughter, Ann Hudson “Huddy” Jones Boyle of Memphis; a son, George Shelton Jones of Houston; two brothers, Thomas Shelton Jones ’35 of Starkville, MS, and Jameson M. Jones ’36 of Memphis; and four grandchildren.

RHODES COLLEGE MAGAZINE
WINTER 2000 ISSUE

Dr. Paul Tudor Jones, Spiritual Father, Dies

Dr. Paul Tudor Jones, who served as pastor at Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis for 21 years, died on December 27, 1999 at the age of 90.

A native of Corinth, MS, Dr. Jones served Presbyterian churches in Liberty, MO, Greenville, MS, High Point, NC, Richmond, VA, and Memphis, TN. He served as pastor of Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis from 1954 until his retirement in 1975.

He continued to serve the church throughout his retirement as interim pastor at several churches in the Memphis area, including Whitehaven, Buntyn, Macon Road, Rosemark, Collierville, Covington, Somerville, West Memphis, Ark., Earle, Ark., and Kennett, Mo.

A graduate of Southwestern (now Rhodes College), he also earned degrees from Louisville Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary. He was a life trustee at Rhodes College and Louisville Theological Seminary, and the Paul Tudor Jones Professorship of Historical Theology was established at Louisville Seminary in his honor in 1986.

An avid reader and brilliant theologian, Dr. Jones used history, theology, literature and life events as lessons in his ministry. He was very clear about the purpose of his ministry: “raising the God question” and helping people to know God and to understand what it means to have faith in Him.

Not only was Dr. Jones a leading pastor in the Memphis Presbytery, he was also a leader in bridging divisive problems in the Memphis community. During the 1960’s, he served as president of the Memphis Committee on Community Relations, whose goal was to peacefully resolve civil rights differences in Memphis. In 1993, he led other ministers to issue a statement encouraging the city’s religious, political, business and educational leadership “to build and bind our common humanity across the lines of race and faith tradition.”

Dr. Jones was married to the late Anna Hudson Jones.