Longtime evangelist David Miller died Wednesday “from the effects of COVID/pneumonia,” according to the pastor of the church where the Southern Baptist preacher was an active member.
“Our beloved brother David Miller…has passed away,” Mark W. Williams tweeted on August 7. “He went painlessly with his son and grandson by his side. Thank God that he is now pain-free and rejoicing in the presence of our Savior. Please pray for the family.”
Williams, the pastor of Tumbling Shoals Baptist Church, had revealed the day prior that Miller was “in ICU from the effects of Covid/pneumonia.”
Miller, who was a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic due to a degenerative muscular disease, was the founding president of Line upon Line Ministries, which he started in 1995.
He lived in Stringer, Mississippi, before moving to Arkansas in 1963. Miller, born in 1942, reportedly became a Christian as a teenager and answered the call to preaching at 18.
He reportedly had been preaching for more than 50 years and referred to himself as a “Country Preacher-at-Large.” The evangelist was a longtime member of the Southern Baptist Convention and held several positions within the denomination, including serving on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s trustee board. He was also director of missions for Little Red River Baptist Association for 25 years.
Despite his disability, Miller regularly traveled to preach the gospel, having spoken at more than 2,000 “revival meetings,” according to an online bio. Those who watched his expository sermons were most struck by his memorization of the Bible and clear presentation.
“Expository preaching is in direct contrast to ‘prodigal preaching,’ where you read one verse and depart from it, nevermore to return, and preach more on your own opinion than God’s Word,” Miller once said during a conference to train preachers. “It is also not ‘skyscraper preaching’… when you tell one story on top of another. I like the old-school. I believe that when folks come to church, they ought to open their Bible, and the preacher ought to preach seriously out of that text.”
Miller is survived by his son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. He lost his wife of 55 years in 2022.
Miller was also a regular speaker at the G3 Ministries conferences. He last spoke at the 2021 conference on “The Excellency of Christ.”