About George W. Truett

Truett Conference Center & Camp is named after and located on the farm that was the birthplace and boyhood home of Dr. George W. Truett, one of the Southern Baptists’ most outstanding pastors. George Truett, the son of Charles Levi and Mary Kimsey Truett, was born May 6, 1867.

Logs from the old Truett home were used in one of the buildings at the camp. George was the seventh child in a happy family of eight children. In 1886, at the age of nineteen, he accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and joined the church at Hayesville. He was already teaching school at this time. In 1887, he helped found Hiawassee Academy in nearby Hiawassee, Georgia where he was the school’s first principal.

In 1889, he moved with his family to Texas. In 1890, after his local church had already voted to ordain him, he yielded to the call of the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel. He later became the pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas in 1897. Under his leadership, First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, became the largest Baptist church in the world growing from 715 members to 7,804.

George W. Truett had many other ministry highlights. He was one of 20 preachers selected by Woodrow Wilson for a six month preaching tour to Allied Forced during World War I. His most famous sermon was “Baptists and Religious Liberty,” delivered on the steps of the Capitol Building in 1920. George W. Truett published ten volumes of sermons among other works.  

George W. Truett remained the beloved pastor of First Baptist Dallas until he passed away on July 7, 1944.

Truett Conference Center & Camp History

Through much prayer, local pastors felt encouraged to start a Christian summer camp on the property of the Truett farm. 1953 saw the first Truett Boys Camp hosted, with Truett Girls Camp following the next summer. Both camps have proven successful and continue to this day. 

Control of the property came under three local Baptist Associations, before eventually the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina became the owner and operator of the camp. The camp has seen much growth since its humble beginnings in 1953 where the campers stayed in tents. Now the property holds a capacity of 250 people, including 12 bunkhoues and 20 Conference Center Rooms. 

Truett Conference Center & Camp has been and will continue to serve its local community, a hub of activity for NC Baptists, and a place for anyone that needs to Revive, Refresh, and Renew.