News Release

Dr. Ralph Douglas West, pastor/founder of the Brookhollow Baptist Church of Houston, will be the keynote speaker at LeTourneau University’s Houston commencement service at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 9, at Houston’s First Baptist Church, at 7401 Katy Freeway. Nearly 150 graduates are expected to receive their bachelor and master’s degrees.

West has led Brookhollow from a membership of 32 to a congregation of more than 14,000 families meeting in three locations. Due to its broad reach of ministry, the church has become affectionately known as “the church without walls.”

West holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabame; a Master of Divinity degree with Biblical Languages from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas; and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Religion and Philosophy from Bishop College in Dallas, Texas. West has also completed advanced studies at Cambridge and Oxford Universities. 

West is the author of Finding Fullness Again: What the Book of Ruth Teaches Us About Starting Over (2006) and Left Alone (2008), a book about finding strength for life’s mysteries, impossibilities, and uncertainties.