James L. Melton and Bible Baptist Church
Bible Baptist Church was organized as an independent Baptist church on December 31st, 1995, with James L. Melton called as the pastor. Bro. Melton had been saved since May 3, 1979, had been actively teaching and preaching since the late 1980's, and he began writing gospel tracts in the early 1990's. Before starting Bible Baptist Church in Weakley County, Tennessee, Bro. Melton was a member of two independent Baptist churches in Obion County: Union City Baptist Temple in Union City (1979-1990) and Faithway Baptist Church in Troy (1990-1995).
James married Angela Mae Smith on June 12, 1993, and she remains his wife today. God has given the Meltons five children: Rachel, Nathan, Rizpah, Noah, and Jacob.
Bro. Melton’s theological education began in the mid 1980’s when he discovered the written works of Clarence Larkin, C. I. Scofield, and Peter S. Ruckman. Soon he was spending several hours per day reading books by numerous authors and listening to recorded Bible studies and sermons from able teachers and preachers of the word of God. Most of this instruction came from independent, pre-millennial Baptist preachers who held to strong convictions regarding the authority of the King James Bible. By the mid 1990’s, Bro. Melton had invested well over 10,000 hours into his Bible studies. As with any Bible-believing preacher, his education is a continual journey.
Shortly after the church was organized in the small town of Sharon, Tennessee, a printing press was purchased and publication of about a dozen tracts and a booklet began. New titles were added in the early years at the rate of about one per month.
In the year 2000, audio recordings of sermons and studies began to be published. God blessed this effort, so new titles were gradually added.
Many of the ministry’s audio recordings were organized into the Whole Bible Institute in the year 2004, and by early 2007 recorded studies were available on every book of the Bible.
Other items have been added to the publishing list in recent years, such as MP3 recordings and printed sermons called Melton Messages.
Today, by the grace of God, the ministry publishes over one hundred and sixty printed titles, over two hundred printed sermons and studies, and over sixteen hundred hours of audio sermons and studies. The Sound Doctrine Bible Course is also widely used in prisons and jails across America.
Since the spring of 2007, Bible Baptist Church has maintained a web site that displays the text to most of the ministry’s publications.
Most of the publishing work is done by church members who volunteer their time and energy to work at the church's print shop on selected work nights to keep the publications available to those who need them.
