Standing in the pulpit of First Baptist Church in Mixon, Texas, on Sept. 3, 1950, 15-year-old Jimmy Draper preached his first sermon. “I had it down to 30 minutes,” Draper said, recalling his first step into the ministry. “When I got up to speak, I delivered it in 12 minutes flat.”
On Jan. 31, 2006-55 years and countless sermons later-James T. Draper Jr., president of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, walked into retirement with accolades and expressions of love.
Speaking at the SBC's 2005 annual meeting in Nashville, Draper's lifelong message still resonated.
“I think anybody who knows me knows how much I love Southern Baptists, our churches and our convention,” Draper told the convention. “I feel we have so much room to grow and be used of God in an age when relativism is consuming our culture and the exclusivity of Jesus is being discounted.
“Southern Baptists have got to strike a balance between holding fast to a biblical worldview while engaging the world in nonjudgmental ways. My deepest desire is that for generations to come we are being used by God to reach the people of the world with the gospel.”
The Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention came calling in 1991, looking for a strong servant-leader to take the organization into the next century. Draper firmly and repeatedly said, “No.” He was a pastor, not an executive.
The search committee was persistent. After much prayer, Draper began to understand that God had a new role for him.
At Draper's retirement banquet Jan. 13, the nearly 600 pastors, friends, LifeWay trustees and denominational representatives were asked how many had received a personalized card or letter from Draper over the years. Nearly every hand was lifted.
“Dr. Draper's lasting legacy is likely to be his call to action in the SBC in what has become known as the Younger Leader Initiative,” said Marty Duren, pastor of New Bethany Baptist Church in Buford, Ga., and author of SBC Outpost, a prominent online weblog.
Dr. Draper “chose to speak out instead of remaining silent,” Duren said. “The result has been many younger leaders giving the convention a real try rather than simply leaving due to frustration. With many of us blogging our thoughts and ideas, his weight behind the legitimacy and importance of the ‘blogosphere' is truly immeasurable.”
Baptist Press