"The church should not have a missionary society; it should be a missionary society. * * * * * When I walk through the Eastern Gate, I want to be able to hold my head up...look Jesus Christ my Lord in the face and declare that I remained true, by saying, 'I yet believe the Book. I yet believe in Jesus. I yet believe in the church.' ""

Harold Bennett Sightler was born May 15, 1914 in the lower part of his beloved South Carolina-the state where he lived his whole 81 years and ministered faithfully 55 of those years. He often preached on the importance of Christian training in a child's life and praised God for his own Bible-believing heritage: "Among my earliest recollections is an old grandmother with God's Word in her lap reading the story of Jesus and His love." After brief pastorates in Mauldin and Pelham, South Carolina, he founded the Tabernacle Baptist Church on White Horse Road in Greenville in 1952 and was the pastor for 42 years and 2 months until his death in September of 1995. During his years at Tabernacle, Dr. Sightler founded a children's home, the Tabernacle Baptist Bible College, a Christian school, the Helen Grace Sightler Widow's Apartments, a day-care center, and two radio stations. The church gives $10,000 per week to foreign missions. In addition to preaching at Tabernacle, Dr. Sightler held revival meetings nationally and international. From 1948 to 1984 he preached an average of 40 revivals per year. In 1943 he founded his daily radio ministry, the Bright Spot Hour, which is still heard on 45 radio stations across America. He was an author from whose pen had come more than 70 books and booklets, including 11 Bible commentaries. A pioneer of independent Baptists in the Carolinas, he was highly respected with independent Baptists nationwide. Dr. Sightler was a prince of preachers, with a resonant voice in a deep southern accent pronouncing unflinching, uncompromising truths and at the same time presenting God's grace with eloquent pathos. He was a courageous, devoted servant of Christ, an unrelenting advocate for the King James Bible and independent Baptist fundamentalism.