ALEXANDRIA, La. (ABP) — Lynn Clayton, editor of Louisiana's Baptist Message, announced May 18 he plans to retire at the end of 2005.
By the time Clayton retires, he will be 65 and will have served more than 27 years as editor of the Baptist state newspaper.
Clayton is the third Louisiana Baptist leader to announce plans to leave an executive post this year. And his decision means that three of the top leadership positions in the state will have new faces by 2005 or soon thereafter.
Rory Lee already has departed as president of Louisiana College, closing out seven years of leadership, and Dean Doster recently announced plans to retire as executive director of the convention in January 2005.
Clayton, with almost 26 years of continuous service at the state newspaper, is the current longest-serving Louisiana Baptist agency executive, as well as the dean of all current state Baptist newspaper editors in the Southern Baptist Convention.
Prior to his coming to Louisiana in 1978, Clayton served as editor of the Baptist newspaper in Kansas. He has won numerous writing awards and served in various national positions, including chair of the then-Christian Life Commission of the SBC and head of the state newspaper editors association.
A five-person committee has been established to lead in the search for Clayton's successor. The committee will remain in place until a new editor is nominated and elected.
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