Eric Reed
When I ran into Kay Arthur on the campus of New Orleans Seminary about 30 years ago, I was surprised. No one had announced she would be there. We students thought we knew all the campus news, but apparently not. For me, this was a big deal.
“Kay Arthur!” I exclaimed. “Why are you here?” For a meeting with women’s ministry leaders, she said.
I stumbled over an introduction for a moment, then asked, “May I give you a hug?” I’m not that guy usually, but this moment and this woman meant something to me. Kay Arthur taught me how to study the Bible.
When I read she had died May 20 at age 91, I remembered Kay Arthur with gratitude. I intended to write about her influence at that time, but as we approached the SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas with its likely debate over women, I wondered how a tribute would be received. I owe a lot to Kay Arthur.
It wasn’t my daily Bible classes in high school that taught me how to study Scripture. Nor was it the required theology classes in college. Nor was it my beloved Baptist seminary professors later on. It was Kay Arthur—with her video tapes and color pencils.
She taught me the skills of inductive Bible study that prepared me for biblical studies at that campus where I bumped into her. Kay taught how. She gave millions of us study tools, then she showed us how to use them. She didn’t teach what to believe about Scripture, but how to ferret it out for ourselves. We got to look over her shoulder while she drew her findings on a white board.
Some years before I bumped into Kay on the sidewalk, I happened upon a class led by the pastor’s wife at the church where I served as a staff member prior to heading off for seminary. She was a proponent of the Precept upon Precept study method, with its little diagrams and endless markings in the Bible margins and constant cross-referencing of Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance with Vine’s Expository Dictionary.
I was the only guy in the classroom. As the pastor’s wife was serving as facilitator who played the Precept tapes and guided our homework review—she never considered herself a teacher—no one seemed to mind that I was there. A Precept course wouldn’t be easy, our pastor’s wife said, but it was always worth the sweat. She spent an hour every evening parsing the text, her husband reported, and she was a better Bible student than he was because of Precept studies.
As our video teacher, Kay was not a pastor, nor did she purport to be. Her main concern was that students dig into the Bible, and let Scripture interpret Scripture.
Learning this method opened Scripture in ways I had not seen before. I became “a Proverbs 2:4 man,” a prospector willing to dig deep and find the “hidden treasure” that cursory reading did not reveal. Proverbs 2 was often Kay’s “lesson zero” introduction to a 12- or 16-week systematic verse-by-verse Bible book study with its daily homework assignments.
Kay was a delightful and convincing teacher on our TV screen. Her own story of redemption was a testament to the transforming power of time in the Word. I studied several of Kay’s many Bible book courses. Later I used and recommended her studies “Lord, Teach Me to Pray” and “Lord, I Need Grace to Make It.” God used them in guiding me to seminary and navigating the pastorate.
I quickly told that to Kay on the sidewalk that muggy New Orleans morning. She dabbed at her eyes with a well-manicured hand, smiled broadly, and hugged me.
What do you call someone you only met once for about two minutes, but whose influence over decades has been deep, transformative, and lasting. Mentor? Teacher? Friend? My version of Paul’s Priscilla? I owe a lot to Kay Arthur. A lot of us do. I hope someone will pick up the cause of inductive Bible study and start passing around the color pencils.
Eric Reed is editor for Illinois Baptist media.
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Kay Arthur, beloved Bible teacher, author and co-founder of Precept ministry, has died