Morris Chapman, longtime SBC leader, dead at 84

NASHVILLE (BP)—Morris H. Chapman, former pastor, former Southern Baptist Convention president, former SBC Executive Committee president and champion of the Cooperative Program, died Oct. 20, at age 84.

The last SBC president during the so-called conservative resurgence to be opposed by a moderate candidate, Chapman led the SBC to remain focused on the Great Commission as moderates broke away.

Under his leadership as Executive Committee president, Cooperative Program giving reached a record high yet to be matched.

Chapman was given the honorary title of president emeritus of the Executive Committee upon his retirement in 2010.

“In a world where so many have fallen, he was faithful to the end,” current SBC President Clint Pressley posted on social media in tribute to Chapman. “Southern Baptists like me owe men like him a debt of gratitude. Praying the Lord is close to his family and especially his widow Jodi in the days ahead.”

“Morris Chapman led with passion and integrity,” said current SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg. “He was a champion for cooperation and our global mission. He was also a friend who encouraged me for many years—including after my election as president of the EC. We honor him and pray for his family in their loss.”

Born in Kosciusko, Miss., on Thanksgiving Day, 1940, Chapman professed faith in Christ at age 7 at First Baptist Church in Laurel, Miss., was called to ministry at age 12 and recognized a call to preach at age 21.

After graduating from Mississippi College, Chapman earned master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was ordained to the ministry at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., when Ramsey Pollard was pastor.

Chapman served as pastor of four churches in Texas and New Mexico during a span of 25 years: First Baptist Church in Rogers from 1967 to 1969; First Baptist Church in Woodway from 1969 to 1974; First Baptist Church in Albuquerque, N.M., from 1974 to 1979; and First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls from 1979 to 1992.

Along the way, Chapman was active in denominational life, serving two terms as president of the Baptist Convention of New Mexico and as a member of the Executive Board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

In 1984, Chapman felt a growing burden for revival among Southern Baptists and led First Baptist in Wichita Falls to pray by name for each of the 36,000 Southern Baptist churches as well as SBC entities.

During that five-month period and beyond, the church received hundreds of responses from across the nation testifying to the impact of the effort.

During Chapman’s pastorate in Wichita Falls, First Baptist was consistently in the top 1 percent of Southern Baptist churches for giving through the Cooperative Program as well as for baptisms. Under his leadership there, Cooperative Program gifts reached 16 percent of total undesignated receipts and baptisms each year averaged more than 160.

SBC presidency

After serving as president of the SBC Pastors’ Conference in 1986 and preaching the convention sermon at the SBC annual meeting in 1989, Chapman’s peers looked to him as the conservative nominee for SBC president in 1990.

While Adrian Rogers in 1979 was the first in a string of conservatives elected over moderate candidates during the so-called conservative resurgence, Chapman was the last. His election marked the end of moderates’ attempts to win the presidency, and the following year he ran unopposed.

When he was elected in 1992, Morris said he saw his role as rallying Southern Baptists together.

“I see myself as carrying out the will of the majority and carrying out genuine healing among Southern Baptists,” Chapman said after his election was announced during a February 1992 meeting of the Executive Committee, according to Baptist Press archives.

As president of the SBC, he also emphasized the need for the SBC to focus on evangelism and prayer and called churches around the country to pray while he was SBC president.

“The desperate need for spiritual awakening in this nation has been ever present in my thoughts,” he said at the time.

Chapman appointed two task forces as president: one on spiritual awakening and the other on family ministry. He warned that the “moral fiber of our nation will soon be shredded beyond repair” if the erosion of the family was not reversed.

James Merritt, another former SBC president, said Chapman helped the denomination get back on track after the end of that battle by focusing on the Cooperative Program, the SBC’s long-running program for funding missions and national ministries.

He referred to Chapman as a “Christian gentleman” devoted to the SBC.

“Morris came out at a very strategic time,” said Merritt. “Healing needed to take place. He struck a good chord, trying to bring people together.”

When moderate Southern Baptists began to explore options for redirecting their Cooperative Program gifts to bypass the SBC Executive Committee, Chapman opposed “any deviation from this proven practice of cooperation.”

Moderates officially formed the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship while Chapman was SBC president in 1991. At that year’s meeting in Atlanta, Chapman pushed for extending Southern Baptist outreach in the host city for the annual meeting each year. It became a week-long effort and was renamed “Crossover” at Chapman’s suggestion.

Executive Committee leadership

With Chapman championing cooperative giving, the Cooperative Program allocation budget receipts distributed to SBC entities grew by 44 percent during Chapman’s 18 years as Executive Committee president.

Receipts exceeded the annual Cooperative Program allocation budget 15 years in a row from 1994 through 2008, falling off slightly during a global economic crisis.

Total giving through the Cooperative Program to state Baptist conventions reached a record high of $548,205,099 in 2007-08. Even without an adjustment for inflation, that is 23 percent higher than the most recent year.

In his role at the Executive Committee, Chapman led the implementation of the conservative resurgence vision, preaching throughout the convention and emphasizing the full authority, inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible.

To prepare Southern Baptists for the 21st century, Chapman initiated a study committee that led to the Covenant for a New Century in 1995, a plan that streamlined convention entities for improved effectiveness.

Ben Cole, a longtime friend of the Chapman family, referred to Chapman as a denominational statesman.

“Dr. Chapman never saw himself as the commanding officer nor the Executive Committee as the flagship of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Cole said in a text message. “Neither did he serve as captain of a denominational battleship forever stirring waters of strife among his brethren.

“He will be fondly remembered by honest churchmen as a trustworthy ballast during seasons of theological retrieval and institutional realignment.”

Unlike other leaders of the so-called conservative resurgence whose ministries ended in scandal, Chapman was known for his personal integrity.

He was not above controversy, though, especially when clashing with those he thought might undermine the SBC or the Cooperative Program.

In 2009, during his speech at the Southern Baptist Convention, he criticized then-popular megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll as someone whose behavior was unfit for pastors.

He also criticized a move to cut funding to the Executive Committee.

Chapman, while he denounced abusers, opposed starting a database to track abusive church leaders.

Chapman is survived by his wife Jodi, his son and daughter-in-law Chris and Renee Chapman, his daughter and son-in-law Stephanie and Scott Evans, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

With additional reporting by Bob Smietana of Religion News Service.