Southern Baptist Convention leaders have voiced their appreciation for Jerry Falwell following his death May 15.
Jerry FalwellA founder of the modern Christian conservative movement, Falwell started one of America’s largest churches and launched one of its largest Christian universities. Falwell, 73, who had a history of heart problems, was found unconscious in his office and without a pulse, and subsequent efforts to revive him failed.
Falwell’s Thomas Road Baptist Church grew from 35 members in 1956 to more than 24,000, and the school he founded, Liberty University, saw its enrollment expand from virtually nothing in 1971 to more than 21,000. Both are located in Lynchburg, Va. Thomas Road was independent for its first 40 years before becoming Southern Baptist in 1996.
“His ministry must be seen from the perspective of being a pastor,” Southern Baptist Convention president Frank Page, who serves as pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, told Baptist Press. “Dr. Falwell never aspired to be anything other than a pastor who spoke prophetically the word of God. Not everyone agreed with his stances, but all should admire his passion and commitment to the cause of Christ to the end. He desperately wanted our culture to understand God and to understand where obedience and disobedience lead.”
Outside of Lynchburg, most Americans knew of Falwell because of his involvement in conservative politics. In June 1979, he helped organize the Moral Majority, an organization of pro-family Christians that helped propel Ronald Reagan into the White House. Falwell’s involvement in politics – which, just eight years earlier, he said pastors should avoid – was spurred by the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide.
Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said the evangelical world will miss Falwell.
“A true giant of the faith has gone on to his heavenly reward,” Land told BP. “Our grief at our loss of his witness, energy and giftedness for the kingdom is mitigated by the fact that he is now with his Savior for eternity. Dr. Falwell’s home-going leaves an enormous gap in the leadership ranks of evangelical Christianity in America and around the world. He will be greatly missed.”
Falwell had a lifetime passion for the gospel, and in 1956 began the “Old-Time Gospel Hour,” a local radio and TV ministry that over the years expanded to become worldwide. During the past 50 years, more than 3 million people have contacted Falwell’s ministry saying they came to know Christ by listening to or viewing his preaching, according to ministry statistics.
“Jerry Falwell leaves a spiritual legacy that is lasting,” said Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee. “During a tumultuous time in our culture, he took a stand on the word of God that emboldened evangelicals to come together to speak in a common voice for the protection of our country’s moral and spiritual values. He will be known not only for his leadership on issues debated in the public square, but also for his tireless work to establish ministries to the hurting and those in need.”
Page said Falwell “was delighted to witness the conservative direction of the Southern Baptist Convention in the last decades.” Falwell came to his first SBC annual meeting as a messenger in 1998 in Salt Lake City. One year later, Liberty University and Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia reached an agreement of various forms of partnership.
In 2005, Falwell spoke at the SBC Pastors’ Conference, reminding the ministers there that today’s pastors have an unprecedented opportunity to take the gospel around the world, thanks to the tools of modern communications and transportation.
“The greatest churches since Pentecost are yet to be built,” he said. “… We’ve got to teach the young preachers that the way to reach the masses today is to use every means to reach every available person at every available time.”
Said Page, “Those who knew him best, knew him to be a man of compassion for the poor, a gentleman who was kind to all, and a warrior who stood strong for the claims of Christ. Dr. Falwell loved the Lord Jesus Christ and was not ashamed to let that be known anywhere or anytime.”
Among other Southern Baptists issuing statements were:
– Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Seminary, Wake Forest, N.C.:
“Dr. Jerry Falwell was a man who loved Jesus Christ, the Bible, his family and America. Those who knew him personally saw a gracious and generous person who never forgot how God’s grace had transformed him. Dr. Falwell was a great visionary and innovator. Southeastern’s family sends its condolences to the Falwell and Liberty University family.”
– Geoff Hammond, president of the North American Mission Board:
“While Jerry will forever be known in many circles for the positive change he brought to the American political landscape, I will always remember him as a church planter whose church became one of the greatest in America. Not only that, but in his role as founder and chancellor of Liberty University, Jerry has trained up tremendous young champions for Christ who are planting churches and sharing the light of the gospel around the world. Our prayers will be with Jerry’s family and all those who will be grieving his loss in the days ahead.”
– Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Seminary, Fort Worth:
“I have lost a great friend. America has lost a great patriot. Dr. Falwell’s shadow falls across the face of the rebirth of conservative values in our nation, in the Southern Baptist Convention, and in the entire evangelical world. Only once in a generation will a man of his stature arise. We all owe him a debt of eternal gratitude.”