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FORT WORTH–Jimmy Draper, president emeritus of LifeWay Christian Resources and a former Texas pastor, is the 2014 recipient of the Paul Pressler Award for Distinguished Denominational Service. During the annual Southern Baptists of Texas Convention meeting, Draper will be recognized for his years of ministry service among Southern Baptists.
The motion to honor Draper for his remarkable legacy of leadership—that has no end in sight—notes the SBTC itself would likely not exist if it were not for the Texas preacher’s faithfulness to the “inerrant of Word of God.”
Pastor
To all who know him, Draper is regarded as first and foremost a pastor, whether leading one of the world’s largest religious publishing houses or filling the pulpit in a small country church on a Sunday morning.
Draper told Baptist Press after he preached his last sermon as the pastor of First Baptist Church of Euless in 1991, “I’ve always said being a pastor is not what I do but what I am.”
The SBTC motion to honor Draper calls him a “Southern Baptist hero.” His great affection for the denomination and years of service to Southern Baptists may be without equal. To the point, he has been called a “pastor to pastors” and has never been accused of obsessing on his reputation but instead focusing his life on being in the center of God’s will.
“I think anybody who knows me knows how much I love Southern Baptists, our churches and our convention,” Draper told messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention’s 2005 annual meeting in Nashville.
Bridge Builder
When Draper was tapped to head the Baptist Sunday School Board (later renamed LifeWay Christian Resources) in 1991, Bailey Stone, then-pastor of First Baptist Church of Odessa, called Draper a “bridge builder.”
Stone, at the time a youth evangelist, was preaching the night in 1950 when 14-year-old Draper committed his life to the gospel ministry. Draper served at LifeWay until 2001.
He is a man of great conviction and courage but also a ceaseless encourager.
In the midst of inarguably the most divisive years of the convention and in churches where disagreements at times threatened to overwhelm the ministry of Good News, Draper remained centered on testifying to God’s grace and enduring love. He was intent on doing everything to and for God’s glory.
In a note to his oldest child, Randy, on his 10th birthday, the young pastor wrote, in part:
“Represent Christ in everything you do. When you are playing ball, sitting in church, listening in school, doing chores around the house or playing with Bailey and Terri [his siblings] you are showing to everyone what a Christian is like! Do it right, Randy. Always tell the truth. Always be polite. Always play fair. Always have a smile. Always consider the other person. Never return spite for spite. Never be ugly to someone just because they have been ugly to you!”
Servant
“God’s minister is a servant, and don’t you ever forget [it],” Draper told students at a 2000 conference at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Ministers “are not some superstar, some prima donna cast in some organization as the hotshot leader of that organization. You are the servant of God’s people.”
Not surprisingly Draper may be known more by what he does privately than his public service; his practice to pen cards and make calls to those who are hurting and need a pastoral touch is well-known.
Statesman
Additionally, Draper may have been the first to recognize that younger SBC pastors were being effectively shut out from convention business. In 2004, he challenged convention leaders and seasoned pastors to make the inclusion of younger leaders a priority, and he launched an initiative to connect with these young men, going so far as to travel around the country to hear from them.
In a commentary published in Baptist Press at the time, Draper lamented: “We have failed the younger generation by not creating a dynamic atmosphere and showing them the relevancy of being Southern Baptist. We’ve not taught people in our churches how the SBC and its entities work and relate to one another. We battle today over trivial issues like forms of worship, styles of leadership and approaches to ministry.”
In selecting Draper for the honor, the SBTC award committee noted Christian statesmanship has been the hallmark of his service.
He was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1982, serving two terms in the midst of the denomination’s “conservative resurgence.” Draper didn’t shrink back from the struggle to bring the convention back to the Bible, but he did it God’s way–with graciousness and respect toward all.
Draper’s Lone Star roots run deep. When he stepped down as president of LifeWay, he made it clear he and his wife, Carol Ann, were returning to Texas to continue serving God there.
The Arkansas native pastored six churches in Texas, including First Baptist Church of Euless for 16 years, as well as Red Bridge Baptist Church in Kansas City, Mo., and First Southern Baptist Church of Del City, Okla. Prior to being called to Euless, he served as associate pastor to W.A. Criswell at First Baptist Church of Dallas. He most recently was the interim president at Criswell College, also in Dallas.
Draper will be presented with the Paul Pressler Distinguished Service Award at the SBTC annual meeting during the Executive Board Report, which begins at 9:50 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 11.
The award is named for Paul Pressler, a former Texas Court of Appeals judge, who played a key role in the SBC’s conservative resurgence. O.S. Hawkins, president and chief executive officer of Guidestone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, received the award in 2013.
