Ern Baxter

Ern Baxter had a major influence not just in the United States but also across the world, particularly in Australia and the United Kingdom. He came to the United Kingdom in 1975 and preached keynote addresses at the main charismatic conferences – the Lakes and Dales Bible Weeks. Professor Andrew Walker wrote of “the powerful influence of an American, Ern Baxter” because of his influence on the British New Church Movement. The Bible Weeks were run by UK charismatic leader Bryn Jones and his team of churches. Andrew Walker wrote, “Baxter’s influence was sensational; the audiences went wild every time he appeared … during the first Bible Week at the Great Yorkshire Showground in 1976, Baxter was the great attraction and as in the previous year excitement was at fever pitch”.

Baxter is possibly best known for being part of what was called the Shepherding Movement, an influential and controversial expression of the charismatic renewal in the 1970s and 1980s. Its emphasis on submission to a personal pastor, or “shepherd” as the movement termed it, brought accusations of authoritarianism.

In 1947, Baxter attended a service in Winnipeg where William Branham was speaking. Branham later spoke in Vancouver at meetings that were led by Baxter. Subsequent to the meetings, Branham approached Baxter and told him that he had been praying and the angel of the Lord had spoken to him and told him to invite Ern Baxter to become his companion in ministry. Baxter left Branham sometime in 1953 or 1954, primarily because Branham was starting to preach things that Baxter felt were “seriously wrong”.

On 24 May 1932, he entered full-time ministry as a musician travelling across Canada with a missionary. While travelling, Baxter and his companion came to a conference held in Trossachs in Canada. There Ern Baxter received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Trossachs was an unusual conference as the delegates were not Pentecostal in the classic sense – they were seeking the experience of the Holy Spirit. This was Ern’s first exposure to what was to become a central passion in his life and ministry – Word and Spirit or Reformed doctrine and charismatic life and power. The morning after he had been baptised in the Holy Spirit, he said God spoke to him and called him to the ministry saying, “I want you to preach My Word”.

William John Ernest (Ern) Baxter (1914–1993) was a Canadian Pentecostal evangelist.