This Treasure Within

This Treasure Within is a celebration of the loving and transformational presence of Christ in the life and ministry of Daniel Vestal. Part historical record, part reflection on contemporary issues, and part spiritual autobiography, this compelling memoir offers important insights into the contours of a social and cultural landscape in one segment of the Baptist faith tradition. By showing how he inherited and inhabited that tradition, only to have it deconstructed and reconstructed, Vestal points to how the presence of Christ can illumine not only one life, but all lives.


Daniel Vestal has been a voice for Christian discipleship for more than sixty years. He is distinguished professor of Baptist leadership and director of the Eula Mae and John Baugh Center for Baptist Leadership at Mercer University. He and his wife, Earlene, have three children and seven grandchildren. They live in Atlanta, Georgia.