I have a great debt to pay,” Mike Shaw said solemnly.
“First of all, I owe God for loving me while I was a sinner,” he said. “I owe Alabama Baptists for sending a deacon and a pastor to tell my parents about Jesus. I owe Baptists for allowing me to go to Samford (University in Birmingham).”
And Shaw might have found a way to pay some of that debt back — by serving effectively as president of the Alabama Baptist State Convention (ABSC).
He was elected to the position Nov. 17 after running unopposed.
Tim Cox, pastor of Liberty Baptist Church, Chelsea, who nominated Shaw, said, “He is a seasoned leader among Alabama Baptists. Dr. Mike Shaw is a well-informed, well-equipped servant of the Lord in Alabama and would do well as our president next year.”
Leading up to the state convention annual meeting at Hunter Street Baptist Church, Hoover, Shaw said he was neither seeking nor refusing to become president. He would do whatever God’s will was for him — something he has tried to do in every area of his life.
When Shaw; his wife of 39 years, Mary; and two sons moved to Pelham in 1979 for him to become pastor of First Baptist Church, Pelham, he hoped to stay at the church for at least five years. But five years quickly turned into 10 years, 10 years turned into 20 years and 20 turned into 31.
“I’ve told the Lord I’m willing to go or to stay,” Shaw said. “I just want to be in [God’s] will. That’s the way it is about being the president of the convention. I don’t want to run for it, but I don’t want to run from it.”
Now that messengers have had their say, he said he will turn his attention to being Alabama Baptists’ greatest cheerleader.
“I want to have a positive influence all over the state,” Shaw said. “I want to encourage pastors to reach out to each other. I want to serve as an encourager. I don’t want to put a burden on anyone. I want to love everybody as Jesus loves them.”
In what way does he want to encourage state Baptists the most? To love one another, he said. That will be Shaw’s personal theme as president.
“I want to show the world that we love one another as Alabama Baptists,” he said. “Jesus said, ‘A new commandment I give to you.’ He says that you are to love one another ‘as I have loved you.’ That’s different. If I love my neighbor as I love myself, that is human love, but if I love my brothers and sisters as Jesus loves them, that’s agape love.”
One way state Baptists can love one another is by every church participating in the Cooperative Program (CP), Shaw said.
“We have churches every year that don’t give to the Cooperative Program,” he said.
Despite that fact, “we give the largest amount of dollars to the CP,” Shaw said, noting one out of every 10 CP dollars comes from the ABSC.
Recently, while reading a magazine put out by New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) — where he earned master of theology and doctor of ministry degrees — Shaw came across an article that noted the single, largest gift to the seminary following Hurricane Katrina was $6 million from the CP.
“There’s no church that I know of in the SBC (Southern Baptist Convention) that can give $6 million to NOBTS,” he said. “But all the churches did. Every one of them gave something. Think about the impact.”
That impact of everyone working together through the CP makes Shaw want to “pull some people in that haven’t been involved before (with giving)” to Southern Baptist causes. Why? For an even greater impact.
“I’m going to encourage directors of missions to go to churches that haven’t been giving to the Cooperative Program and say, ‘Our president has asked that we all work together on this,’” he said.
Shaw also plans to encourage those churches that are giving not to stop.
In addition, he will encourage churches to partner with other churches in their association that are struggling financially or numerically, plan evangelistic events such as revivals and crusades, go on missions trips across the street and around the world and pray for one another.
Shaw, who tries to go out weekly and knock on someone’s door to tell him or her about Jesus, wants to see other Alabama Baptists doing the same.
If it weren’t for a deacon and a pastor from the former Woodlawn Baptist Church, Birmingham, who knocked on his parents’ door to tell them about Jesus, then his life might have been very different.
“You don’t have to go to Haiti, South America or New Orleans; just going across the street is to do missions,” he said.
“We are called to be salt and light. We are the hands and feet of Jesus. If you’re not willing to go across the street, then don’t go across the world.
“I think that the best translation of the Great Commission is ‘As you are going,’” Shaw added. “That’s what I want for Alabama Baptists — that we are going to be going and while we are going, we are going to be ministering.”
A Birmingham native, Shaw served as first vice president of the ABSC from 2008 to 2010 and second vice president from 2006 to 2008.
He served on The Alabama Baptist’s board of directors from 1990 to 1995. From 1994 to 1995, Shaw served as chairman of the board, during which time the board chose Bob Terry as editor of the state Baptist paper.
Shaw currently serves on the board of ministerial mentors at Samford and the board of regents at the University of Mobile. He also has served as a volunteer chaplain for the city of Pelham for the past 31 years.
Also elected to serve were
• First Vice President John Killian, pastor of Maytown Baptist Church, and
• Second Vice President Travis Coleman, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Prattville.
Barry Holcomb, pastor of First Baptist Church, Russellville, originally indicated he would allow his name to be proposed for second vice president, but a few days before the convention, he decided not to run.
“Travis is well poised to step into this position and he has my support,” Holcomb told The Alabama Baptist.
“I’ll reconsider being nominated for second vice president in a couple of years.”
Also re-elected were Mary Sue Bennett, Bobby DuBois and Billy Austin — all of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions — as recording secretary, statistical secretary and registration secretary, respectively.
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