JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Greg Warner, who has shepherded Associated Baptist Press (ABP) since its infancy 18 years ago, informed the agency’s directors and staff Aug. 26 that he would be stepping down for medical reasons.
Warner, 53, has been the independent Baptist news service’s executive editor since 1991. On Aug. 28, he was scheduled to undergo his seventh spinal surgery since 2002. Afterward, he said in a letter, he would begin a 90-day sick leave that would, he expected, transition into permanent disability.
Charles Overby, president of the Freedom Forum and Newseum and Pulitzer Prize-winning former editor of the Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger, was chairman of the first ABP board, which hired Warner. “Greg has demonstrated what good journalism is all about,” he said. “He is aggressive, fair and — above all — honest. He defines Christian journalism. He showed a Baptist can report about Baptist affairs with credibility. His leadership gave ABP a large national following. He is the reason that ABP has survived and succeeded for all these years.”
He graduated from Florida Southern College in Lakeland and earned master’s degrees in divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth and in journalism from the University of North Texas.
He began his journalism career while still in college, in both secular and Christian journalism through photography for the Florida United Methodist Conference and as a sports reporter for the Lakeland Ledger, his hometown newspaper.
While in seminary at Southwestern, Warner was a news writer in the school’s public relations office. In 1980, he became news coordinator for the now-defunct Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commission, also in Fort Worth.
In 1985, he returned to his home state to become associate editor of the Florida Baptist Witness in Jacksonville.
Warner held that position until he was hired to head ABP, headquartered in Jacksonville.
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