Kay Bennett remembers the day Alabama-native Joe McKeever visited a group of girls in the Up 2 Hope summer program at Baptist Friendship House in New Orleans, where she serves as director.
“Joe is a person who makes everyone feel comfortable around him — even a group of girls, [most of whom] came from an abusive background,” she said. “He came in, sat down with the girls, pulled out his pen and sketch pad and began to sketch the girls. One by one, he sat there and drew a caricature of each of the girls.”
But it wasn’t just the sketches that caught Bennett’s attention. It was the way he got to know each of the 30 girls individually, she said.
“He was present with them, never judging, only encouraging and lifting them up. He brought smiles to every one of their faces.
“He was Jesus at the well with the Samaritan women that day,” Bennett noted. “He is a man God has uniquely gifted to brighten peoples’ lives with his talent and to share Jesus’ love.”
This is a story one will hear over and over and over again about McKeever, who is retiring as director of missions (DOM) for the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans (BAGNO) on April 30.
Born near Nauvoo in 1940 and spending his young adult years in Birmingham, McKeever also experienced the coal fields of West Virginia as a child and has lived in Mississippi, North Carolina and Louisiana, specifically New Orleans, twice now.
The fourth of six children, Mc-Keever was called into the ministry at West End Baptist Church, Birmingham, in 1961. He earned master of theology and doctor of ministry degrees from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 1967 and 1973, respectively.
He and his wife, Margaret, have three children and eight grandchildren. His mother, Lois, currently lives in Haleyville.
Before coming to the DOM position in New Orleans five years ago, McKeever served 14 years as pastor of First Baptist Church, Kenner, La. Prior to that he served 12 years as pastor of First Baptist Church, Charlotte, N.C. He also served churches in Mississippi and near New Orleans.
In Alabama, he served as pastor of Unity Baptist Church, Kimberly, before he headed to seminary in the 1960s.
And while it is likely most people identify McKeever with his famous caricatures — countless Southern Baptists and hundreds of others most certainly have at least one displayed somewhere nearby — he also gained notoriety following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“I watched him provide a place for pastors, many of whom traveled long distances, to gather in the weeks and months that followed Hurricane Katrina’s devastation in New Orleans,” said Richard Leach, team leader of the servant/ministry evangelism team at the North American Mission Board.
“He is calming. Because of his character, walk with the Lord and ability to draw, he is the right man for stressful times,” Leach said. “I have observed how God uses his drawing to relieve stress and tension through seeing an element of humor in difficult situations.
“His response to the needs of pastors made it very clear why God had called him to be the director of missions for BAGNO,” he said.
McKeever acknowledged that it was Katrina that clarified his calling to BAGNO.
Though not sure why he agreed to a five-year stint as DOM at first, he said when the levees began to breach that fateful August day, his heart knew the answer. Esther 4:14 came to mind: “And who knoweth whether thou are come to the Kingdom for such a time as this?”
“After Katrina, they needed a pastor,” McKeever said of the 100 or so pastors he serves in the association. “(They needed) somebody who knew them and loved them, and I knew them and loved them.”
And since then, he has coordinated relief efforts and worked to build an emotional and spiritual foundation upon which the association’s scattered pastors could rebuild their churches.
In the storm’s immediate aftermath, the blog he’s maintained at www.joemckeever.com since 2003 became an invaluable one-stop news source for en route volunteers and displaced congregations. That blog has also helped untold followers along their own faith journeys.
James “Bo” Brown, pastor of Community Baptist Church, Maylene, said a friend sent him a devotional written by McKeever “many years ago … and here would begin a relationship, one-sided for a while, that would shape this young minister’s life.”
“I would read every word, gaining affirmation or conviction, finding in each piece biblical truths that I desperately desired,” Brown said. “I found no puffed theology but rather words that were real, speaking of life and experiences common to us all.”
“The words impacted me and still do,” he said. “I am honored to now be able to call Joe not only my mentor but my friend as well.”
Another friend of McKeever’s is Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
Deeming McKeever “a renaissance leader among Southern Baptists,” Lance said, “Since I first became acquainted with him, more than three decades ago, I have been impressed with his artistic abilities, his winsome spirit and his gifts in pastoral ministry and as a communicator of the gospel. Joe is the personification of Romans 12:1–2. He has devoted his total self to serving the Lord, with every talent and gift God has provided him.”
Lance described McKeever as “a contemporary Barnabas for those of us who serve alongside him as ministers and church leaders.”
“He is more than a fellow laborer; Joe is a friend who stands with you in a time of need,” he said.
In true McKeever fashion, he explains his “calling” to sketch:
“When I was 5 years old, Mom gave me and my little sister Carolyn pencil and paper and put us at the kitchen table and told us to draw. I discovered I loved to draw. The next year in the first grade, the rest of the class would gather around and watch me draw. To this day, I can outdraw any group of first-graders you’ve ever met!” (Jeremy Henderson, Brittany Howerton contributed)
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