EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was written by Joe McKeever, special to The Alabama Baptist.
Rick Lance is retiring after 28+ years as executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. I heard about Rick Lance before we met. My wife told me about him.
From wherever we were living and pastoring, Margaret would travel back to Birmingham to visit her folks and would attend Sunday worship with them at the home church, West End Baptist Church.
When she returned, I got a report. That church had been God’s arm of ministry to me during my college years. I loved it dearly and wanted it to do well. (These days, in its present incarnation, Mount Calvary Baptist Church meets there. This will always be holy ground for me.)
As a pastor’s wife, Margaret saw more than most people, and her reports were always on target.
“They’ve got a good one,” she said. “A young pastor fresh from seminary. His name is Rick Lance.”
A few years later, Rick became pastor of First Baptist Church Cullman. We were vacationing at Smith Lake in north Alabama, and I told her, “I’m driving to Cullman to hear Rick Lance.”
It was June, traditionally a down time for churches. But First Baptist was packed out that day. After the service, I said to a deacon, “You folks have been fed spiritually today as well as anyone in the state.” The man said, “Pastor Rick is that way every Sunday. And frankly, it scares us to death. We just know some big church is going to come and take him away.”
They did.
Tuscaloosa’s First Baptist was that big church. After four years in Cullman, Rick spent 15 years in Tuscaloosa. This is where he and I became good friends. I was pastor of FBC Columbus, Mississippi, 60 miles west on the same highway.
From time to time, he and I visited. We preached for each other a couple of times, and when churches began sending cassette tapes of sermons, I signed up for his.
Early in 1986, Rick was dealing with the search committee of a big church in North Carolina. He told me later, “All the time I was walking around their facility, I kept seeing you here.” When he withdrew his name, he gave them mine. In short order, I began seeing these people from North Carolina in my congregation.
In the summer of 1986, the Lord moved me to that church. Instead of it being the church where I imagined I would put in 20 years before retiring, it turned out to be a nightmare. I resigned after a difficult three years.
We ended up in New Orleans where we lived and ministered for the next 26 years.
More than once, Rick has apologized for recommending me to that church. We laugh about it now. I assure him the Lord was responsible and all is well — God had His purposes.
Rick became the leader of Alabama Baptists in 1998. It was one of the best things to ever happen to Baptist ministry in my home state, and I have rejoiced to see God using my good brother. Several times Rick has had me over to minister, speaking at the annual legislative luncheon in Montgomery in 2002 and another time speaking twice at the state convention. There is no way I could ever repay Rick for such a high honor as this.
Life’s greatest blessing
Alabama Baptists will honor Rick and his wife Pam at the 2026 annual state convention at FBC Trussville in November. He’s invited me to add my bit to the occasion by sketching people in the exhibit area. On the walls in the same area, they will exhibit a number of cartoons I’ve made for this occasion, some honoring and some teasing my beloved friend.
When life is over and you and I look back at all that happened, we will quickly decide that one of God’s greatest blessings was the great friends He let us serve alongside. A Canadian pastor friend once said, “A friend is God’s apology for your relatives!” It certainly seems so, doesn’t it?
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