Naylor Delivers Message During OBU Commissioning Chapel

April 26, 2017

Oklahoma Baptist University hosted a special Global Outreach Commissioning service Wednesday, April 26, in Raley Chapel's Potter Auditorium. The University recognized and prayed for students, faculty and staff who will share the Gospel of Jesus Christ this summer in Oklahoma, across the United States and around the world.

Dr. Rebekah Naylor, missionary, church planter and doctor, delivered the message. She taught from 1 Peter 2:9-10. She discussed four things that are true of us as followers of Jesus Christ.

“Peter says that we are a chosen people, a chosen generation,” she said. “The second thing Peter says is that we are a royal people. Then, Peter says we are a holy nation. Finally, he says we are a peculiar people – a people who belong to God.”

Naylor shared a charge with those in attendance who will be serving locally, domestically and internationally this summer.

“We are to go to the people around us, whether it’s on our campus, or in Shawnee, or in our country, or across the world. We are to go and to bring to them this good news. We’re here this morning to commission those who are going out from OBU, across our country and around the world. They will be showing forth, by actions and by words, the praises of Him who has called them from darkness into light.”

A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Naylor earned a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from Baylor University in 1964 and a Doctor of Medicine from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1968. She also attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. She became the first female resident in general surgery at Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas, completing her surgical training in 1973.

The International Mission Board (then the Foreign Mission Board) appointed her as a missionary to India in April 1973. Arriving at the new Bangalore Baptist Hospital in early 1974, she launched a career that included busy clinical practice, administrative responsibility and teaching. She led major expansion of the facilities and services for the hospital. During the 1990s, she organized training programs in allied health disciplines, set up accredited residency training programs for doctors, initiated a training program for chaplains, and established the Rebekah Ann Naylor School of Nursing in 1996.

During her years in India, she was involved in church planting and development in the state of Karnataka, working alongside Indian pastors and church planters. She served as strategy coordinator for the state from 1999 until 2009, when she retired from active IMB service. Through this medical ministry, approximately 900 churches have been started.