Following a battle with cancer and double pneumonia, Adrian Rogers, the longtime pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in suburban Memphis and one of the fathers of the movement that moved the Southern Baptist Convention to a more conservative stance, died Nov. 15. He was 74.
During Rogers' 32 years as pastor, the church grew from a membership of 9,000 to more than 29,000. His face and voice were known to millions of believers worldwide thanks to his Love Worth Finding television and radio ministry, which is carried in more than 150 countries.
But Rogers may be best remembered for his leadership in the conservative movement in which a series of very conservative pastors were elected to the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Rogers' election as president at the SBC annual meeting in 1979 marked the official beginning of the movement and was the first of many hotly contested elections between conservatives and moderates. Rogers, and the other conservative presidents who followed, used their nominating powers to name only those who expressed their belief in the Bible in terms of inerrancy and infallibility. Over the course of the next two decades, Southern Baptist seminaries and entities experienced dramatic changes, as avowed conservatives were appointed to their boards.
The author of 18 books, Rogers is survived by his wife, Joyce Rogers, as well as four children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
At the SBC annual meeting this year, Rogers was honored with a resolution passed by the SBC Executive Committee that noted many have called Rogers the “Prince of Preachers” and the “preeminent pulpiteer” among Southern Baptists.
“The Lord has blessed his evangelistic efforts, which have led thousands to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,” the Executive Committee resolution stated in a list of highlights of Rogers' ministry.
Born in West Palm Beach, Fla., in 1931, Rogers graduated from Stetson University and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He served as pastor of First Baptist Church in Fellsmere, Fla., Parkview Baptist Church in Fort Pierce, Fla., and Merritt Island (Fla.) Baptist Church before moving to Tennessee in 1972 to serve as pastor of Bellevue Baptist, which had already been home to two well-known preachers in R.G. Lee and Ramsey Pollard. Both had served as SBC presidents.
Baptist historian Bill Leonard said Rogers' high level of visibility, as a “preacher-populist,” meant he left an important legacy not only for Southern Baptists, but for American religion and politics in general.
“As a preacher with a particular rhetorical style that represents Southern evangelicalism inside a megachurch orientation, he helped shape popular religion in the U.S.,” Leonard, dean of Wake Forest Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C., said.
“I also think that he was a leader in what I would call the politicization of large segments of Southern evangelicalism and moving them into greater political activism on the right.”
Thousands of church members, family members and denominational well-wishers attended the two-hour memorial service on Nov. 17, at Bellevue.
In March, masses had packed Bellevue to celebrate his life as he retired after serving the church as pastor for 32 years. Last week, just eight months later and a week before Thanksgiving Day, they returned-this time to say goodbye.
Throughout the service, speakers cited Rogers' loving adoration of his family, his kindness and his sense of humor. They remembered Rogers as a man who preached the word unashamedly and who desired more than anything to see lost people “come to Jesus.”
Speakers on the program included a daughter and son of Rogers', as well as James Whitmire and Bob Sorrell, who served on staff with Rogers for years; longtime friends Joe Boatwright and Peter Lord; pastors Jerry Vines and Ken Whitten; and James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family. Other speakers not on the program included many current Southern Baptist leaders.
Associated Baptist Press & Baptist Press