Earlier this year, Mike Shaw watched something horrible happen to Alabama — the worst thing he’d ever seen here.
He watched live on his living room TV as a tornado hit Tuscaloosa and followed continued coverage of the full day of tornadoes devastating the state.
“Except for my three years in seminary in New Orleans, I’ve lived in Alabama all my life, and April 27 was the low point of my time here,” said Shaw, pastor of First Baptist Church, Pelham. “It was devastating watching that happen — literally watching people dying, watching homes and churches destroyed.”
But from his viewpoint as Alabama Baptist State Convention president this year, he saw something else, too — something extraordinarily beautiful that happened in the disaster’s aftermath.
“The response of Alabama Baptist churches and Southern Baptist disaster relief to the need was a high point for me,” he said. “There were yellow shirts on the ground helping people before anyone else was there, and that was wonderful to see.”
As far as Shaw is concerned, the spirit among state Baptists is better than it ever has been.
“Our people have almost always gotten along, but now it’s even better than that — there’s a feeling of brotherhood, of closeness among Alabama Baptists,” he said.
During his year as president, he’s been able to visit with every Alabama Baptist entity’s board.
And with every visit, he’s been more amazed.
“There is a great spirit in our convention and I’m thankful for that. I give God the glory, and I thank Dr. Rick Lance (executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions), our state and associational missionaries, churches, staff and members.”
Shaw said he also gives God the glory for how state Baptists are fighting the downturn in Cooperative Program (CP) giving happening nationwide.
“Even though CP giving is down overall, Alabama is leading all the states in CP giving,” he said.
Shaw said he’s been grieved at the way Southern Baptists, especially those in younger generations, seem to be losing their allegiance to their primary channel of giving.
But Alabama Baptists still value the CP, he said. “We’re certainly not the largest state and certainly not the richest state, but our people have given well over $1 billion to the Cooperative Program and, since 2009, led all other states. That is a huge encouragement to me.”
Getting to know Alabama Baptist ministries better this year has been an experience Shaw said he is grateful for. He’s learned a lot, he said, about the generosity of state Baptists and how they work together.
He had the honor of preaching at Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham during its spring 2011 community worship service. “I will always cherish the experience,” Shaw said, noting he lived in Divinity Hall (then known as Crawford Johnson Hall) in the spring of 1967.
Shaw also got the privilege of representing Alabama at the National Prayer Breakfast in February, along with his wife, Mary — an experience he said was “phenomenal.”
And Shaw has been able to experience the ups and downs of being in the public eye on issues every now and then.
“With the way Baptists are structured, I don’t speak (to the media) for Alabama Baptists — only for myself, but sometimes that is tricky for those unfamiliar with Baptist life to understand,” he said.
The year as president has been a good one, and Shaw said he is “humbly grateful” for the opportunity to serve Alabama Baptists. He said he hopes the state convention annual meeting, set for Nov. 15–16 at Dauphin Way Baptist Church, Mobile, will “encourage every person sitting in the pews.”
“I’m so thankful our churches are sharing the gospel, ministering in Jesus’ name, giving to missions and doing missions,” he said. “We have the gospel and a responsibility to share that. So many people have never heard the story of salvation.”
Lance said Shaw is “a pastor with a big heart” who “loves people in an unconditional, Christlike fashion.”
“I have known him for more than four decades, and I have never seen him in a situation where this loving spirit was not evident,” Lance said.
“Alabama Baptists are the better for his leadership among us this past year. I have appreciated his wisdom and his wit like never before. I am grateful Alabama Baptists chose him to be our president.”
Lance asked state Baptists to pray for Shaw as he leads the convention meeting.
“He will do an excellent job, but all of us need to pray for each other,” Lance said. “Mike is a man of prayer like few I know. For Alabama Baptists to be praying for him will strengthen him that much more. He will be praying for you — that is for certain.”
For more information about the state convention annual meeting, visit alsbom.org.
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