Adrian Rogers, the longtime pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in suburban Memphis, Tenn., died Nov. 15. He was 74.
Rogers died following a battle with cancer and double pneumonia.
He came to Bellevue Baptist in 1972 and retired this year, and in his 32 years there, Rogers helped build the church from a membership of 9,000 to more than 29,000. His face and voice were known to millions of believers worldwide thanks to his Love Worth Finding television and radio ministry, which is carried in more than 150 countries.
He may be best remembered for his leadership in what is commonly called the conservative resurgence, the movement in which Southern Baptists elected a series of conservative leaders in response to evidence of theological liberalism within the denomination’s seminaries and entities.
Rogers’ election as president at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting in 1979 marked the official beginning of the resurgence and was the first of many hotly contested elections between conservatives and moderates. Rogers and the other conservative presidents who followed promised to use their nominating powers to name only those who believed in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible. Over the course of the next two decades, Southern Baptist seminaries and entities saw dramatic change, as conservative leaders and professors took the place of moderates who had held those positions for years.
Rogers, who also was elected president in 1986 and 1987, served as chairman of the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message Study Committee that reviewed and revised Southern Baptists’ confession of faith. At the SBC annual meeting this year, Rogers was honored with a resolution passed by the SBC Executive Committee that noted many have called him the “Prince of Preachers” and the “preeminent pulpiteer” among Southern Baptists.
The author of 18 books, he is survived by his wife, Joyce, as well as four children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Born in West Palm Beach, Fla., in 1931, Rogers graduated from Stetson University in Dehano, Fla., and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
He served as pastor of Parkview Baptist Church in Fort Pierce, Fla., and First Baptist Church, Merritt Island, Fla., before moving to Tennessee to serve as pastor of Bellevue, which had previously been home to two well-known preachers in R.G. Lee and Ramsey Pollard. Both served as SBC president.
(BP)
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