Posted: 9/5/03
Texas Heritage Awards honor
Bishop, Colton, Craft and Leavell
By Ken Camp
Texas Baptist Communications
Four longtime denominational leaders were honored at the third annual Texas Baptist Heritage Awards banquet, held Aug. 21 at Union Station in Dallas.
The Baptist Distinctives Committee and Texas Baptist Heritage Center of the Baptist General Convention of Texas presented awards to Amelia Bishop of Austin, C.E. Colton of Dallas, Lynn Craft of Athens and Landrum Leavell II of Wichita Falls.
Bishop, who served as president of Woman's Missionary Union of Texas from 1984 to 1988, received the Mary Hill Davis Texas Missions Award for exemplifying the Texas Baptist commitment to missions and ministry to all people in all places.
Bishop worked on the Texas WMU staff in the early 1950s as state young people's secretary and was vice president of Texas WMU from 1980 to 1984. She and her husband, Ivyloy, now deceased, both taught at Wayland Baptist University, and she also taught at the high school in Plainview.
She has served on the BGCT Executive Board and various Texas Baptist committees. She also has been a member of the Truett Seminary advisory board and the Texas Baptist Laity Institute board.
Bishop is a graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is the author of two devotional books and a biography of Texas WMU leader Eula Mae Henderson.
Colton, longtime pastor, author and former chairman of the religion department at Wayland Baptist University, received the J.B. Gambrell Denominational Service Award for contributing to the understanding and advancement of Baptist distinctives through Texas Baptist denominational service.
Colton was pastor of Royal Haven Baptist Church in Dallas for nearly 30 years before retiring in 1987. He is a former vice president of the BGCT and former chairman of the Baptist Standard board of directors. He also served as a trustee of the Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
He holds degrees from Baylor University, Southwestern Seminary and Central Baptist Seminary and is the author of 16 books on a variety of topics.
Craft, president of the Baptist Foundation of Texas, received the Sam Houston Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to Baptist causes and his community as a lay leader in civic and business life.
He has served the Baptist Foundation of Texas more than three decades. He was named executive vice president in 1972, and the foundation's board of directors elected him as president in 1976.
Craft is a certified public accountant who holds an undergraduate accounting degree from Baylor University and a master's degree in banking and finance from Southern Methodist University. He is a deacon and Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church in Athens.
Leavell, former pastor and seminary president, received the George W. Truett Religious Freedom Award for advocacy of religious liberty and separation of church and state.
Leavell served as pastor of First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls and was president of the BGCT from 1971 to 1973. He served from 1975 to 1994 as president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
He served as a trustee of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, and in 1996 he contributed to a book of sermons prepared by the BGCT Baptist Distinctives Committee.
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