There can be no one definitive memorial column to JIMMY RAYMOND ALLEN. His footprints in Baptist life and the wider Christian community are much too big for that.
So I simply want to share a few of my personal and special memories of my friend Jimmy Allen.
I commend the reader, as well, to excellent memorial columns by BILL LEONARD, HANNAH MCMAHAN, JOHN D. PIERCE, and CHARLES WADE.
Though I had known of Jimmy Allen for decades, I didn’t really get to knowing Jimmy as a personal friend and colleague until about the last 15 years of his life. It was probably around 2005, at CBF, that I sat next to Jimmy at one of the several meals sponsored by CBF partners. I introduced myself as the son of Jimmy’s longtime friend, JASE JONES. We went on to have a great time visiting during that meal.
In 2007, when Daddy passed away, I called Jimmy and asked him – on behalf of my sister, Patsy, and our families – to preach Daddy’s memorial service. He and Daddy enjoyed a deep affection and respect for each other, and Jimmy was delighted to pay tribute to his friend. Of course, he was wonderful – he put many personal touches into his message that day. That was typical; what I’ve always loved most about Jimmy’s preaching is that he preaches his heart, as he did that day in July 2007 at First Baptist, Austin.
In January 2008, at the inaugural New Baptist Covenant Celebration in Atlanta – of which Jimmy was a co-convenor, along with PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER and BILL UNDERWOOD, president of Mercer University – Joanna and I went up to the podium following one of the sessions to congratulate Jimmy on the wonderful success of the meeting. Jimmy shook my hand, smiled, and leaned in to say, “Wouldn’t your daddy love this?” I agreed, wishing that Daddy had lived to see the great unifying spirit of this Baptist meeting that broke down the barrier of race that has so often kept us apart from each other.
The New Baptist Covenant was – and is – a reflection of the spirit of Jimmy Allen, a spirit deeply influenced by the life and teachings of his mentor, DR. T. B. MASTON. In fact, any mention of Jimmy is incomplete without mention of T. B. Maston.
In eulogizing Dr. Maston at his funeral at Gambrell Street Baptist Church in Fort Worth in May 1988, Jimmy said,
I find myself thanking God for the touch of T. B. Maston in my life. Three men in my journey, as I look back, taught me specific things about God. My dad had an exuberant kind of faith that taught me the immediacy of God, the absolute presence of God. E. S. James had an attitude of searching for the truth and looking it full in the face, whatever that truth was, and taught me something about the search for the truth of God and to see it as it really is. And T. B. Maston taught me that the Kingdom of God was bigger than I thought and the Father was real in the lives of those who led us to love and to love folks because Jesus died for them – not because they deserved it, not because they had anything they could do for you or anything they could use against you, simply because Jesus loved them. And so he walked, in that way, as Jesus walked, and as he taught that, he taught it to all of us. To walk as Jesus walked means we seek to walk in the will of the Father.”
Dr. Maston’s influence was clearly seen in Jimmy’s passion for racial justice and reconciliation, a passion that is the foundation of the New Baptist Covenant:
I remember him telling us, it was all right to be silent, in those tense days of racial tension, if our silence was a strategy for accomplishing something. But the Christian should never be silent because he’s afraid. I found myself feeling the sense of that – a Christian should never ever be silent because he’s afraid. That’s not worthy of someone who walks in the way Jesus walked. And in that process, long before most of us were willing to face the conscience-driven truth about our injustices and our inadequacies of behavior toward people of other races in our fellowship, this man became an instrument of God to call us to the Word of God, to the truth of God, and called us to the activity of people who would demonstrate the spirit of God . . . and the last time I heard him in Chapel, I went over to hear him on Black Student Day, and he sat there and told us we hadn’t made it yet, that we weren’t doing the will of God yet, that – whatever we’ve done – the job is still unfinished. And I found myself thanking God for a man who, in his 80s, was still ahead of his day, saying, ‘Let’s go on and do the will of God.’”
Jimmy went on to tell how his own interest in ethics developed and how he came to study under T. B. Maston:
I didn’t take many classes under him; my undergraduate work I spent in Systematic Theology. I got out a year in a pastorate and found out the people were asking me questions I didn’t have the answers to – I had answers to questions but not the ones they were asking. And so I came back to school and came to Dr. Maston, and said, ‘I think I’d like to do something in Ethics, and I’m already approved for graduate work. What can I do about it?’ He said, ‘I wouldn’t lift my little finger to get you to major in Ethics,’ and I tell you that was the kind of challenge the man had for me, you know, he was not too eager about this young preacher trying to get into his Ethics classes. But he said, ‘If you do it, you’ll have to audit every course you didn’t take during the 3 years you’ve avoided me.’ And so, I did that, you know, I came back, I audited every course he taught, graded for him in all those courses, because I had found in a philosophical course in Ethics that the center of what he was saying was the center of my understanding of the Gospel and I had to figure out how to know more about that if I was going to live my life for my Lord.”
Then he told a story that has stuck with me ever since I first heard him tell it. I’ve shared it with people many times over the years, especially in Sunday School class discussions where it seemed pertinent. Last year, I listened to my recording of it again on May 4, the 30th anniversary of Dr. Maston’s funeral, then called Jimmy to tell him of the lasting impact that story has had on my understanding of Jesus, and it pleased Jimmy to know that. Here it is:
One of the things I remember most vividly was the day he came to say, ‘If you knew that Jesus Christ was going to be in the flesh in Fort Worth, Texas, this Saturday or this Sunday – for sure, that he was going to be here, and that’s all you knew, where would you go to find him?’ And my mind’s imagination raced everywhere, trying to figure out where, and I thought, I don’t think I’d go to a churchhouse to find Him, for some reason. I didn’t think I’d find him at the seminary, by the way – that was an interesting thing. I got to thinking about where would I go to find Him, and I kept reaching out for it. And finally, his bottom line was, ‘You’d find Him somewhere where someone whom nobody noticed needed Him. That’s where you’d find Him.’ And in the process, he taught me something about what it means to be a part of the family of God, walking as He walked.”
In February 2008, I was elected to serve on the T. B. Maston Foundation Board of Trustees, and I’ve been privileged to serve alongside several of Dr. Maston’s students, including Jimmy, on that Board. There are a lot of things I’ll remember about Jimmy Allen. I’ve been to all 16 of the biennial T. B. Maston Foundation Awards Dinners, beginning in 1987, which Dr. Maston attended, just 6 months before he left us for his eternal home. The 1993 dinner was particularly notable, for two reasons: 1) my Daddy, A. Jase Jones – who had chaired the Foundation from its inception in the early 1980s until 1992, received the T. B. Maston Christian Ethics Award; and 2) Jimmy Allen presented the keynote address, Echoes from the Valley of the Shadow: Beginning an AIDS Ministry, in which Jimmy shared his painful personal testimony of the impact of AIDS on his family’s life and challenged us to love and care for the victims of this terrible disease. Jimmy later shared this story, in greater detail, in his book, Burden of a Secret.
As had his mentor, T. B. Maston, Jimmy Allen was always challenging Christians to do more . . . love more . . . risk more.
I was there, too, at the 1997 Maston Foundation Awards Dinner when Jimmy was honored with the T. B. Maston Christian Ethics Award. His dear friend, President Jimmy Carter, also honored him with a video greeting of congratulations that was played during the dinner.
I remember several Maston Dinners where Jimmy teamed up with James Dunn to share stories about Dr. Maston with the gathering. They were great friends and really had a good time doing this together, especially when one funny story would roll right into another one, and so on, and have the crowd gasping for air between laughs.
I also remember an awkward moment (at least for yours truly) at the 2013 Maston Dinner. I was chairing the Foundation and emceeing the dinner. Jimmy’s role that night was to present JOE TRULL with the T. B. Maston Christian Ethics Award, but only after the messages of the keynote speakers, who were six Maston doctoral grads who had not been closely connected with the Foundation through the years and wished to share about the influence of Dr. Maston on their lives and ministries. When it came time for the keynote messages, I asked the six Maston doctoral grads to join me at the front, and I had enough chairs for each of them – and for me (I was going to be introducing each one briefly before he spoke). Well, Jimmy thought this was his cue, so he came up when they did. When I realized that we had
more people than chairs up there, I turned away from the microphone and tried to tell Jimmy that it wasn’t his time yet but it quickly dawned on me that I had no business doing anything but making room for JIMMY ALLEN. So I looked around and said, “Do we have enough chairs?” (realizing that I could stand if need be). Then Jimmy – gracious as always – said, “Do you want me to go back?” I grinned and said, “No, I will never tell Jimmy Allen to go back!” I said that out of total respect and realizing that, though I was chair of the Foundation, my accomplishments for the Lord wouldn’t amount to a thimbleful of what any of these Maston grads, especially Jimmy Allen, had contributed to the Kingdom.
 In July 2015, at James Dunn’s funeral in Winston-Salem, NC, four chairs in the life of the T. B. Maston Foundation are pictured together: (L-R) Weston Ware, Jimmy Allen, Bill Jones, and Dick Maples. Dick Maples’ son, Drake, is at far left. Drake’s memories of James Dunn were captured in the blog post that Dick wrote following James’s passing. |
In July 2010, I had traveled to Big Canoe, Georgia, where I was privileged to attend the dinner introducing Jimmy’s biography, Loving Beyond Your Theology, authored by Larry McSwain. What a great night that was! I remember an almost surreal moment when my group was in line to get our dinner. I spotted President Carter – whose group was already finishing its meal – walking to the dessert table, flashing the toothy smile that had adorned magazine covers throughout his 1976 presidential campaign, to get his dessert just like us “regular” folks. Reminded me of early in his presidency, when he would carry his own suit bag, slung over his shoulder, upon exiting Air Force One.
There were numerous speakers that evening, including President Carter, as well as PATSY & BOB AYRES, Jimmy’s good friends who had been members of First Baptist, San Antonio, during his pastorate there. Patsy was chair of the Maston Foundation in 2010, and I was vice-chair.
Then there was the book signing (see photos below).
 July 23, 2010, Big Canoe, GA: During a wonderful dinner program, Loving Beyond Your Theology: The Life and Ministry of Jimmy Raymond Allen, by Larry L. McSwain, is introduced. |
 I bought seven of the books that evening and asked Jimmy and Larry to autograph them to various of my family members. In the book I bought for Joanna & me, Jimmy wrote, “To Bill and Joanna Jones, With gratitude for your continuing the mission of Jase in Kingdom enterprise. Jimmy Allen John 15:16.” |
Jimmy strove passionately, with faith and determination, to do the will of God – not only in his public responsibilities but in his personal relationships as well. He was a good friend . . . he was a gracious friend. To know Jimmy Allen was to more deeply understand God’s love and grace, because Jimmy exemplified them. I was privileged to know him as a friend and colleague; I’m thankful for Jimmy Allen’s influence, which I’ll carry with me the rest of my life. Thanks be to God.