Posted: 9/17/04
Adrian Rogers announces retirement plans
CORDOVA, Tenn. (ABP)–Adrian Rogers, prominent pastor and standard-bearer for the Southern Baptist Convention's “conservative resurgence,” announced he will retire in six months from the church he has led 32 years.
Rogers, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn. a suburb of Memphis, announced his plans to the congregation Sept. 12, his 73rd birthday.
“He said tonight that he was announcing his retirement; that he would continue to pastor for six months,” said Mark Dougharty, Bellevue Baptist's associate pastor.
| Adrian Rogers |
Rogers told the congregation that during the six months a search committee will seek his successor. Bellevue, with more than 28,000 members, is one of the largest Southern Baptist congregations in the country.
Rogers was three times elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention–the first in 1979, launching a succession of fundamentalist presidents who took control of the largest non-Catholic denomination and reshaped it around biblical inerrancy and conservative social values.
Rogers reportedly plans to continue his worldwide radio and television ministry in retirement. He also plans to start a training institute for pastors and will teach at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, which he helped found.
Born in West Palm Beach, Fla., Rogers was pastor of First Baptist Church in Merritt Island, Fla., before moving to Memphis in 1972.
He is only the third pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church since 1927–a legacy that includes the famed R.G. Lee.
Under his leadership, the congregation moved from its downtown Memphis location to the current 377-acre campus in Cordova.
Rogers was elected SBC president in 1979 with the help of a movement spearheaded by Paige Patterson, then president of Criswell College, and Paul Pressler of Houston. He declined to serve a traditional second term at the time but later was elected in 1986 and 1987, helping solidify the fundamentalist hold on the convention and its trustee system.
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