Carlisle DriggersB. Carlisle Driggers, saying “the time has come for me to announce my retirement,” will step down from his position as executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention on Feb. 28, 2007, after 15 years at the helm of the nation’s oldest state Baptist convention.
His will be the second longest tenure for an executive director in South Carolina. Charles Jones held the position for 17 years, from 1925-42.
Driggers, 68, who said at the time of his election that he wanted to be remembered as one who “tried to help the churches grow,” made the announcement on April 17 during the regular spring meeting of the convention’s Executive Board at White Oak Conference Center.
Calling it “the best of times for me to step aside,” Driggers said in a prepared statement that the South Carolina Baptist Convention is in a “positive and healthy condition.” He called attention to “a kingdom growth focus” across most of the state, with “strong finances, state staff members who love to serve, a committed Executive Board, worthy institutions, lots of growing churches, missions-driven associations, and strong relationships in place with the various entities of the Southern Baptist Convention.”
Saying that “these are uncertain, complicated, even perilous times we are experiencing and facing,” Driggers said South Carolina Baptists must pray and “search the mind of Christ” in naming a successor. “We have no alternative,” he declared, “but to stay together, focused on the Lord’s kingdom work to be accomplished rather than being distracted by our own small kingdoms to pursue.”
The search for a new executive director-treasurer will begin immediately with the appointment of a committee selected from the Executive Board and named by the board’s chairman, Mike Hamlet, pastor of First Baptist Church, North Spartanburg. In a likely timetable, the search committee would bring its nomination for the position to the Executive Board at its Oct. 9-10 meeting and, if approved, move it forward for a vote by messengers to the annual meeting of the South Carolina Baptist Convention Nov. 14-15 at First Baptist Church, Taylors. The new executive director-treasurer would then assume duties on March 1, 2007.
In October of 1991, Driggers was the unanimous choice of the former General Board to succeed Ray Rust, who retired on Feb. 29, 1992, as executive director-treasurer. Don Davis, then pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Cayce, chaired the search committee which, he said, was impressed with the Hartsville native’s “great vision for South Carolina Baptists.”
That vision led to Empowering Kingdom Growth, a strategy for enhancing church growth that Driggers said would be “my focus.” The convention’s 10-year EKG emphasis became the centerpiece of the Driggers administration, which was renewed for an extended five-year run in 2002 and gained national prominence when adopted as a strategy by the Southern Baptist Convention. Driggers chaired the SBC’s Empowering Kingdom Growth Task Force from 2002-05.
In the Nov. 7, 1991 edition of The Baptist Courier, Driggers explained, “Kingdom growth goes far beyond numbers. Kingdom growth also is measured by such indicators as spiritual enrichment through Bible study, prayer and worship, missions involvement, and stewardship development.”
The accent, he made it clear, would be placed on the work of the local church. “If the church is weak,” he said, “how can we carry out the Great Commission of Christ? If we are going to be effective, we must put the focus on the local church.”
The convention’s top official wrote about the impact of Empowering Kingdom Growth on the churches of the South Carolina Baptist Convention – and the story of the convention itself – in a book published in 2000 entitled “A Journey of Faith and Hope.”
Driggers served as executive assistant to Rust from 1990-92 after returning to South Carolina from Conyers, Ga., where he was minister of outreach and pastoral care at Northminster Baptist Church for two years. Previously, he had worked at the former Home Mission Board (now North American Mission Board) for 13 years, first as associate director of the black church relations department from 1975-78 and as regional coordinator for planning and budgeting for the eastern seaboard states from 1978-88.
The executive director-treasurer is a graduate of Mars Hill and Carson-Newman colleges as well as Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville and Pittsburgh Seminary, where he earned his doctorate. He holds honorary doctorates from North Greenville and Charleston Southern universities.
Driggers and his wife Jeanette, who are members of Lexington Baptist Church, have two married children, Jana and Dave; two granddaughters, Jarris and Clara-Ellen; and three grandsons, Kenneth, Jacob Carlisle and Joseph.