DENVER — Rick Ferguson, one of Southern Baptists’ leading pastors in the western United States, was killed July 25 in an auto accident near Hays, Kan., en route to a family reunion in Missouri. Ferguson, 47, as senior pastor of Denver’s Riverside Baptist Church, sparked an array of ministries. Among them: local and international missions and church planting; a crisis pregnancy center and soon-to-open home for unwed mothers; “Hope for Today” TV and radio broadcasts; and creative outreach to ethnic groups, cowboys, sports enthusiasts and motorcyclists.
The fatal one-car accident, according to news reports, occurred as Ferguson’s son, Justin, 17, was driving.
Shortly after noon on Interstate 70 three miles west of Hays, the front left tire of the family’s 1999 Ford blew out. The vehicle, which was pulling a boat, went out of control, slid broadside and rolled two and a half times.
Ferguson’s son and wife, Kathy, who was in the back seat, were treated for minor injuries at a local hospital and released. Ferguson’s 22-year-old son, Brett, and 18-year-old daughter, Katie, were following in a separate vehicle, also en route to the extended Ferguson family’s annual reunion at Windermere Baptist Conference Center in Missouri.
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