Baptists:
TBC’s legacy, my own journey, and a few of the key people in both (remarks to my retirement dinner)

(Click here for video of the entire program.)

First, a few thank yous to:
• George Mason and Wilshire Baptist Church, for hosting this dinner
• Heather Mustain, for facilitating all of the preparations
• Chef Elizabeth Ferguson and your staff, for the wonderful meal
• David Hammons for taking care of the sound and videography
• Lance Currie and the Texas Baptists Committed Board of Directors
• All of you who have had a part in the program tonight
• And all of you for coming, for your friendship, and for your support of the ministry of Texas Baptists Committed through the years – your presence means more to me than I can adequately express.

Last December in San Angelo, I spoke at David Currie’s roast and followed Bobby Broyles to the podium. Tonight I follow George Mason, Suzii Paynter, David Currie, and Charlie Johnson. Whatever else people may say about me, they have to admit, I keep good company!

Thank you, MARV KNOX! When the Texas Baptists Committed Board and I decided it was time to shut down TBC, we unanimously agreed to send our few remaining funds – and, more importantly, our database of supporters – to Fellowship Southwest, the rightful heirs of the TBC legacy.

The Baptist movement is at risk here in Texas these days. The commitment of the Baptist General Convention of Texas – BGCT – to Baptist principles is in question.

We hold fast to these historic Baptist principles – the autonomy of the local church; the priesthood of all believers; the God-given right and responsibility of each believer to interpret scripture under the leadership of the Holy Spirit; and religious liberty for all people – because we believe these principles are shaped by the spirit of Jesus Christ, just as we seek to be as individual believers and as church fellowships.

Political organizing is not the mission of Fellowship Southwest, as was TBC’s during the 1990s battle for the BGCT. But the missions and advocacy carried out by Fellowship Southwest are underpinned by those same Baptist principles, and we can trust Fellowship Southwest to carry the TBC legacy forward.

My path to this evening still amazes me. I’m a Baptist layperson whom God has blessed – and surprised – with opportunities for service and leadership in the Baptist world that I could never have imagined, and with the opportunity to get to know so many people like you – Baptist leaders, pastors, and laity just like me – who have blessed my life. I’m so thankful to God, and I’m so thankful for each one of you.

I joined the TBC Board in January 2006. So I worked with David Currie for almost 4 years before he left in late 2009. After David left TBC, our Board spent a year in the wilderness, so to speak; our newsletter stopped, and many of our supporters thought TBC was gone. We spent a year trying to figure out whether we should continue. In late 2010, the TBC Board asked me to succeed David Currie, effective January 2011.

There were things I wanted to achieve that never saw the light of day. We continued to be strapped for funds, so I had to be a one-person executive staff, and some of my dreams for TBC had to remain just that.

My main focus during those years was to support Texas Baptist churches and, especially, to help churches under attack by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC). At the 2011 BGCT annual meeting, church strategists asked me for TBC’s help in fighting the SBTC and saving BGCT churches, and we were only too glad to give it.

For churches that reached out to us, we provided: INFORMATION to counter the lies that the SBTC was telling about the BGCT; EDUCATION about Baptist principles and the importance of standing up for them; and RÉSUMÉS of pastoral candidates who would faithfully uphold those principles and adhere to them.

It was also important that we keep the BGCT free and faithful, so I played a key role in recruiting almost every candidate for BGCT office during my tenure at TBC – and the BGCT leadership welcomed my help.

A couple of my initiatives I instituted in 2011 – TBC Weekly Baptist Roundup e-newsletter and Baptist Briefs videos – worked out better than I expected.

In May 2011, I started publishing a weekly e-newsletter linking to Baptist news and opinion from a wide variety of sources. I stopped it last July but resumed publishing it in May without the TBC name and at my own expense, under a compulsion that God still wants me doing it. I’ve already received donations that will pay for the first year of the e-newsletter service. God is providing. Over 800 Baptists open Weekly Baptist Roundup in their email every week.

Thank you to the journalists at the Baptist Standard, Baptist News Global, Ethics Daily, Word&Way, and elsewhere, and the many bloggers & op-ed writers who provide the content each week – they do the heavy lifting; all I do is link to their good work.

In the first months of January 2011, I produced – in my study – 71 two- to three-minute videos on Baptist history and principles, which I called Baptist Briefs, and put them on the TBC Web site. These videos have been acclaimed by the Baptist History & Heritage Society, and in 2012 the SOUTHERN Baptist Historical Library & Archives in Nashville, Tennessee, requested a set of Baptist Briefs DVDs, for which they made a $75 donation to Texas Baptists Committed.

In March 2011, I did a series of six Baptist Briefs on the Youth Revival Movement that had begun at Baylor in 1944. In preparation for that series, I read – over two nights – the book, Riding the Wind of God: A Personal History of the Youth Revival Movement, by Bruce McIver, the late pastor of Wilshire, George’s predecessor.

To this day, no book has moved me like this one. The second night, I paced around our living room in tears, crying out to God. Why? Because I was reading the names of men involved in this Youth Revival Movement – some of whom I was now working with, over 60 years later, particularly on the T. B. Maston Foundation Board. I cried out to God, “Lord, these men have done more for you than I can ever imagine doing. Are you sure you know what you’re doing, letting me work side-by-side with them? I don’t belong in such company!” Then came the still, small voice of God – not audible, as mine had been, but just as real – saying, “That’s not your concern. Your only concern is to do what I’ve called you to do.” Four years earlier, my niece, Stephanie, had eloquently characterized her grandparents – my parents – at Daddy’s memorial service by saying their main characteristic was faithfulness. God brought Stephanie’s words back to my mind that night, along with the example set by my parents – telling me to just be faithful to what He had called me to do.

That night has shaped my work, my ministry at both TBC and the Maston Foundation, my life, and all of my relationships and responsibilities ever since.

My years at TBC were marked by close collaboration on many initiatives with our friends at the BGCT.

Then came 2016, when I felt compelled to speak out at our TBC Breakfast, with the support of our Board, against the action David Hardage and the BGCT were taking to expel churches that did not cooperate with its hardline stance regarding LGBTQ people, calling it a violation of local church autonomy, a Baptist principle under which churches are free to disagree on nonessential points of theology while still cooperating on the essential mission that unites us, taking the love of Jesus to a hurting world.

Ultimately my efforts did nothing to change the position of the BGCT leadership or the vote of BGCT messengers. However, I’ve since had many people come to me and thank me for the stand we took. We were able to give encouragement to people who felt they were all alone on this issue; that has meant an awful lot. Even some BGCT staffers have thanked me for the stand we took.

Now let’s shift gears.

I want to share with you a few of the people who have been key contributors to my life and work, and the ministry of Texas Baptists Committed. This is the condensed version . . . I’ll elaborate on some of these people and others in a blog post or two in the coming week, at billjoneswritings.com.

• MOTHER AND DADDY – My parents, Jase and Vivian Jones, and my relationship with them, can best be illustrated by how they treated me when I lost my faith in God early in my sophomore year at Oklahoma Baptist University.
  • Mother and Daddy’s patience with me, their love for me, was critical to my finding my way through that difficult time. When I told them I no longer believed in God, but was searching, Daddy – a longtime Baptist minister – said that he understood, that he had gone through something similar when he was young and that this was something I needed to do for myself. But I always knew that he was there, available if I had any questions or just wanted to talk.
  • My dear Mother loved with an unconditional love beyond anything I can fathom.

By the time Joanna and I married in 1976, I had found a new relationship with God, one that was truly my own, a journey in which I had more questions than answers, a journey that continues today.

Through the years, I followed the battle taking place in the Southern Baptist Convention; at the same time, I began reading more about Baptist history and principles, and began to speak up for those principles in Sunday School classes.

In March 2000, I perceived – in statements made by the pastor of our church in Plano – an attempt to move the church toward Fundamentalism, so I wrote him a letter that challenged what he was doing and clearly stated where I believed SBC leaders had turned their backs on Baptist principles. A few months later, I sent a copy of that letter to David Currie, because I felt he should know what was going on at this growing, influential Plano church.

Since that time, there have been a number of people who have been key to my growing involvement in Baptist life:

• JANET & JIM DENISON – my first encouragers on the road to greater involvement in Baptist life, helping to provide documentation I needed for that letter to my pastor.
• DAVID CURRIE – who has been responsible, either directly or indirectly, for every opportunity for service I’ve had in Baptist life over the past 18 years.
• CHARLES WADE, BILL BRUSTER, CLYDE GLAZENER, and BETTY LAW – early encouragers on this journey toward greater involvement in Baptist life and continuing to encourage me today.
• PHIL STRICKLAND and SUZII PAYNTER – who listened to me and encouraged me in the early 2000s, when I would stop by the Christian Life Commission booth at the BGCT annual meeting and share my frustrations regarding the direction of my church. More than anyone else, Phil was key in getting Joanna and me here to Wilshire in 2004 when we had decided it was time to leave our church in Plano.
• FOY VALENTINE – who, in 2003 over lunch at Chuck’s, a hamburger joint near his home in Dallas, listened to my frustrations regarding the direction of our church in Plano, and – never one to mince words – said, “you’ll never convert that preacher!” As usual, Foy was right! I’m so glad that Foy’s daughter, Jean, is with us tonight.
• JOE TRULL – who in the spring of 2004 published, in Christian Ethics Today, an article I had written on the subject of race, entitled “Walking as Jesus walked – in our neighbor’s shoes.” That was huge for this layperson, to be published in a journal that was then – and still is – the best thing I get in my mailbox. Joe has since become a dear friend and strong influence in my life.
• Members of the TEXAS BAPTISTS COMMITTED BOARD – Though I was the executive leader of the organization, I answered to the Board, and all of us considered this a collaborative partnership. But you also need to know how they responded when my son Travis suffered a massive stroke in April 2013. Travis was in hospitals for 2-1/2 months, and the only TBC work I did for those 2-1/2 months was TBC Weekly Baptist Roundup, usually on my laptop at the hospital. The Roundup was my therapy – briefly taking my mind away from what was going on around me.
  • One morning in June, during a conference call with the TBC Board, I thanked them for their patience and understanding, Wesley Shotwell, who was chairing the Board at that time, replied, “We’re just glad to be able to walk through this time with you,” and the rest of the Board members echoed Wesley’s sentiment. I don’t know when I’ve ever been so moved by the love of friends. They will always be close to my heart for the love and understanding they showed me during the greatest crisis of my family’s life.

• • SUZII PAYNTER & RICK MCCLATCHY – I mentioned Suzii earlier, but she deserves a second mention here. Suzii and Rick have been my two primary mentors in my efforts to lead two influential Baptist organizations. In March 2012, I was elected chair of the T. B. Maston Foundation. I’m not a preacher, didn’t go to seminary, really didn’t have any preparation to lead one Baptist organization, let alone two at the same time. I knew I needed people I could trust who had more experience at that sort of thing than I did. I could call Suzii or Rick whenever I needed. They consistently gave me much-needed guidance and encouragement.
    • Last month, Suzii announced her retirement as CBF executive coordinator. Suzii, would you please stand and let us thank you for your leadership?

• • BABS BAUGH, JACKIE BAUGH MOORE, and THE EULA MAE & JOHN BAUGH FOUNDATION – They have been generous with donations to TBC. But more than that, I love and appreciate Babs and Jackie as trusted friends. Every time I speak to Babs, I come away humbled. As stalwart a Baptist as I consider myself, I still have a long way to go to aspire to be the Baptist that Babs is. Her commitment to our Baptist principles and her fierce dedication in defending that Baptist heritage always inspires and challenges me.
  • BOB STEPHENSON – Bob’s the main reason TBC lasted as long as we did. Bob, who was a member of our Board throughout my tenure, joined the TBC movement back in the early ‘90s in the thick of the battle for the BGCT.
    • From 2011 through 2015, Bob, in effect, paid my salary, the part-time salary of our financial manager, Jill Faragher, expenses for our booth and breakfast at the BGCT, and so forth. When we needed money for, say, BGCT expenses or a mailout, all I had to do was call Bob and tell him the need.
    • As much as I appreciated Bob’s financial generosity, I have enjoyed his friendship even more. Sometimes I would call Bob simply to update him on the latest goings-on with TBC; I felt I owed him that. However, he never made any demands on me. He told me more than once, “Bill, don’t feel like you need to call me about all of this. I trust you to do what’s right.”
    • And sometimes I called him just to chat about the latest happenings in Baptist life.

• CHARLIE JOHNSON – Charlie was a member of our TBC Board throughout my tenure, and I have had the privilege of serving on the Board of Pastors for Texas Children, of which Charlie is executive director, since its inception 5 years ago. I know few joys greater than working with my friend Charlie Johnson on these matters of such great importance to both of us. Charlie is a Baptist prophet who speaks truth to power, and I’m proud to be his friend and colleague.
• EPIPHANY CLASS – For almost 14 years – beginning only a few weeks after we joined Wilshire – Joanna and I have enjoyed the fellowship of the wonderful people in the Epiphany Sunday School class. These folks ask hard questions, challenge each other, push each other’s buttons, learn from each other, and at the end of the day love each other, pray for each other, and encourage each other. And it means more than I can express that so many of these friends have shown up tonight to support me.
• GEORGE MASON – For 14 years, George Mason’s bold and prophetic preaching have helped to shape my theology, which is much broader and deeper than it was when we came to Wilshire.
  • George Mason and Wilshire Baptist Church gave generously to support TBC’s ministry. George was also a mentor to me in those last couple of years at TBC. It was a conversation with George that helped me to stop playing it safe when it came to the BGCT and its hardline stand on churches and their treatment of LGBTQ people. Even now, I know that some friends in this room disagree with me on this issue, and I understand that. But that conversation with George made me realize I needed to follow my convictions on this issue if I were to be true to myself and true to the charge I had to lead Texas Baptists Committed.
  • One personal note about George’s pastoring: When Travis suffered his stroke late on the night of April 1, 2013, and the doctors came around midnight to tell our family he had a 50-50 chance of surviving, I texted everyone I could, asking them to pray and immediately began receiving assurances of prayer. We slept – or tried to sleep, anyway – through the next few hours in the family room just off of the ICU where Travis lay clinging to life. At 6 a.m., George Mason walked into that family room, and sat down and prayed with us. Thank you, George.
• T. B. MASTON and the MASTON FOUNDATION – I’ve had the T. B. Maston influence in my life since the day I was born. Daddy was then studying under Dr. Maston and received his Th.D. in Christian Ethics when I was 5.
  • Dr. Maston was the greatest influence in Daddy’s life, and Daddy has been the greatest influence in mine. Daddy played a key role in establishing the T. B. Maston Foundation in the late 1970s and chaired it for the first dozen or so years of its existence. What a special honor it was to lead that ministry that has been so close to my heart for so long, and to continue to serve it as a trustee.
  • And to work alongside people like Maston students JIMMY ALLEN, JAMES DUNN, WESTON WARE, BILL PINSON, JOE TRULL, and many other special people – well, you can see why I might feel a tad unworthy and overwhelmed.
• Finally, my FAMILY, whose love and support mean more to me with each passing year – my sister, Patsy, and her husband, Palmer McCown, and their family, including their daughter Stephanie Markgraf, who is here tonight, and son Michael, who is in Germany where he sings with the Frankfurt Opera; Michael presented a wonderful concert of hymns here at Wilshire last summer.
  • ALISON & TRAVIS – both continue to make us proud. The best choice Alison ever made is sitting right next to her tonight; she and Adam celebrated their 13th anniversary earlier this week. Alison and Adam have three children, and Travis has one, and – despite what you may think about YOUR grandchildren – our four are truly the smartest, most beautiful grandkids on the planet.
  • And last but most important, JOANNA – On September 4, we will celebrate 42 years of married life. We’ve been through a lot together – that happens when you’re married that long – and thank God, every bit of it has brought us closer together. Joanna gives and gives and gives, especially when it comes to family – that same unconditional love that my mother always gave. She is not only the love of my life, but I’ve come to admire and respect her more than anyone I know.

Thank you, again, for being here tonight, and for all you mean to my family and me.