Ben Mandrell is not the first president of Lifeway Christian Resources to leave the post for a pastorate, but the 48-year-old’s call to Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis is a rarity in the publisher’s 134-year-history.
Earlier today, Mandrell accepted the call to serve as pastor of the historic Southern Baptist convention church once led by R.G. Lee and Adrian Rogers, nationally acclaimed preachers.
In doing so, he becomes the first Lifeway president in modern history to step down from the post well before retirement age. All his predecessors — except two, and one of those with an asterisk — held the post until retirement age or early retirement age.
J.M. Frost (Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives)
This kind of denominational post is one Baptist leaders typically hang on to and do not leave because of its prestige and influence. The exception to this rule was J.M. Frost, the founding president of the Baptist Sunday School Board — Lifeway’s original name — who left the post after only 18 months on the job to become pastor of First Baptist Church of Nashville, Tenn.
He was succeeded at the Sunday School Board by T.P. Bell, who served from 1893 to 1896 and left to become owner and editor of the Christian Index in Georgia. But Frost, the founding president, then returned to lead the board and served until his death in 1916.
Since that time, every president has stepped down at or near retirement age, including Loyd Elder, who was forced out of the presidency by the “conservative resurgence” and Thom Rainer, who took early retirement and now runs a consulting business.
Lifeway remains one of the largest publishers of Christian books and curriculum in America. It also offers services ranging from church architecture to church music.
The context Mandrell faced in leading Lifeway for the past six years is unprecedented in the SBC entity’s history. Not only has he served during a period of numerical decline in the SBC and a reshuffling of denominational loyalties, he led during a global pandemic and inherited a plan to close all Lifeway’s brick-and-mortar stores.
Denominational insiders say Mandrell had been looking for an exit ramp from the high-profile job. He found that in the pastorate at Bellevue, a church that — like the SBC — still is large but not as large as it used to be. There, he will follow Steve Gaines, 67, who is retiring but will continue to preach as an evangelist. Gaines was called to Bellevue in 2005, succeeding Adrian Rogers, a pivotal figure in the “conservative resurgence.” Rogers followed Ramsey Pollard, who already had been an SBC president, who followed R.G. Lee, who was one of the best-known preachers in America and was made famous for a sermon titled “Payday Someday.”
Mandrell’s first Sunday in the pulpit will be Aug. 10. Lifeway trustees are scrambling to make interim leadership arrangements and name a presidential search committee.
Mandrell was only the 10th president in the organization’s history.
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Mandrell to leave Lifeway for Memphis pastorate