Joe Henry Hankins
1889 - 1967

"[In Heaven] I think David is going to be the choir director. I do! Because he is the greatest singer and the greatest choir director God ever had. I am going to sit down and watch him."


"He was a weeping prophet" is the way Dr. Hankins was characterized by those who knew him best--one of the 20th century's great soul-winning preachers.

BUT--Hankins preached sharply, strongly against sin. Would to God we had more men of his mettle in a ministry today that has largely been given over to namby-pamby, mealymouthed silence when it comes to strong preaching against sin.

Dr. John R. Rice wrote of him: "His method and manifest spiritual power would remind one of D. L. Moody. He has the keen, scholarly, analytical mind of an R. A. Torrey, and the love and compassion for souls of a Wilbur Chapman."

Hankins was born in Arkansas and saved as a youth. He graduated from high school in Pine Bluff, then from Quachita Baptist College.

He held pastorates in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and in Whitewright, Greenville and Childress, Texas. His last and most productive pastorate was the First Baptist Church, Little Rock, Arkansas. There, in less than five years, 1,799 additions by letter, 1,144 by baptism--an average of 229 baptisms a year--made a total of 2,943 members added to the church. Sunday school spiraled to nearly 1,400; membership mushroomed to 3,200 despite a deletion of 882 to revise the rolls.

In 1942, Hankins gave up the pastorate for full-time evangelism. In 1967, Dr. Hankins passed on to the Heaven he loved to preach about. Be sure that he was greeted by a thronging host of redeemed souls--saved under his Spirit-filled ministry.