At the end of the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors Conference on June 13, Al Jackson preached about the significance of a group of not-well-known people at the end of Colossians.
Until recently, Jackson, pastor emeritus of Lakeview Baptist Church in Auburn, was similarly unknown to Matt Henslee, the man who invited him to preach at the conference. Henslee, associational mission strategist for Collin Baptist Association in Texas, served as president of the 2022 SBC Pastors Conference.
Online campaign
“Al’s boys” got online and “spammed our nominating form so that I would be introduced to this man that I did not know, a man who loves Jesus Christ, loves his church and has finished the race well as a pastor,” said Henslee.
Al’s boys — those are the “300-plus preacher boys who call Al Jackson their pastor,” said Barry Holcomb, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Belmont, Mississippi.
“I am one of many whose life is forever touched by the ministry of Lakeview and our pastor, Al Jackson,” Holcomb wrote in a column in The Alabama Baptist in September 2021.
Jackson retired from Lakeview in October 2021 after more than 40 years.
During his time in that role he gathered weekly with what he called his “preaching class” — men he mentored and trained for the ministry.
To honor Jackson and his investment in young ministers, Holcomb and two other men who were part of those classes — Ryan Johnson, pastor of Agape Baptist Church in Scottsboro, and Scott Ferguson, pastor of First Baptist Church LaFayette — began raising money in his name for Mission:Dignity, a ministry of GuideStone Financial Resources, which assists retirement-age ministers and their widows in need.
The SBC PC collected money in Jackson’s honor for Mission:Dignity.
For more information about Mission:Dignity, visit guidestone.org/Mission-Dignity.
EDITOR’S NOTE — For more stories about the events and meetings surrounding the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting, visit thebaptistpaper.org/sbc2022.
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