Luther Rice
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Luther Rice (March 25, 1783 - September 25, 1836) helped form a missionary-sending body that became the modern Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention. As a young man at Williams College he became part of a group of young ministers and aspiring missionaries who called themselves "the Brethren" (Rice was a leader in this group famous for the "Haystack Prayer Meeting," although he was not present that day.). In 1812, he sailed to India with Adoniram Judson as Congregationalist missionaries and met with William Carey. However, after both Rice and Judson became Baptists, Rice returned to America to break ties with the Congregationalists and raise support for Judson's work from the Baptists. Rice worked to unite Baptists in America to support foreign missionaries and organized the "The General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in United States of America, for Foreign Missions," (also called "the Triennial Convention") in 1814. He spent the rest of his life garnering support for missionaries and Baptist work, traveling across America by horseback raising funds and awareness for Baptist missions. Rice also founded Columbian College (which became George Washington University in 1901).
Although his life was not without controversy, Rice's contribution to the support of missions work was invaluable to the early years of the Triennial Convention. During the Rice's lifetime the Triennial Convention's membership grew from 8,000 to 600,000, and the convention supported 25 missions and 112 missionaries. By the time of his death 15 Baptist universities and colleges had been formed.[1]
