Todd DeatonMany longtime Gamecock fans may recall Eddie Leopard as a field goal kicker on the USC football team that headed to two consecutive bowls, playing in the Hall of Fame Bowl against Missouri and in the Gator Bowl against Pittsburgh, and saw their famed running back George Rogers win the Heisman Trophy. Others may recall Leopard as a pitcher for the baseball team that traveled to Omaha twice for the College World Series. But what was longer lasting than the thrill of athletic feats for Leopard was the calling that God placed upon his life during his college years.
SCBC president Eddie Leopard and his wife Dawn have four children: Stephen, Chrissy, John and Jessica.“It was in college when I attended a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting that God convicted me, ‘Hey, you are leading a dual life. You’ve got to make a decision one way or another,’?” recounts Leopard, the current president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
“I remember the day: It was on Dec. 20, 1981,” he continues. “In my dorm room, I just got on my knees and prayed, ‘God, I want to live totally and completely for you. I have been trying to live for two worlds, trying to serve two masters. I am miserable.'” Though he had been successful on the athletic field, he was “just miserable” inside. “On that day, I just turned everything over to God,” he says.
Ten days later, he met the young lady, Dawn, who would become his bride. On an August afternoon, while jogging around the field before practice, he saw her standing at the end of the tunnel that the football team runs out of on game days. She was showing the stadium to her grandmother, and he stopped to talk to her. “I always point out to my children whenever we go to games, ‘Hey, that’s where I met your mother,’?” he chuckles.
About 10 days after that, he felt God confirm again a calling into the ministry. He began working for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, where he sensed that God was leading him to attend seminary.
At Southeastern, Leopard served as a pastor in Zebulon, N.C., about 10 miles or so from the school. From there, he went to Bethel Baptist Church in Sumter for two years. “It was a good experience,” he remembers. “The only bad thing about it was we were there when Hurricane Hugo went right through Sumter,” he adds.
Prior to his present pastorate at Millbrook Baptist in Aiken, where he has been for 13 years now, Leopard served at Lee Road Baptist Church, Greenville.
When he is not in the pulpit or in his study, Leopard most likely is following one of his two boys – Stephen, a high school junior, and John, a freshman, both of whom are “big into baseball.” His oldest daughter, Chrissy, is a sophomore at Anderson University, and his other daughter, Jessica, a cheerleader and senior at South Aiken High School, hopes to attend North Greenville University.
In fact, one of the tasks as president of the state convention that he has most enjoyed is “visiting our institutions and agencies and seeing what God is doing through them,” particularly at the three Baptist schools: Anderson, North Greenville, and Charleston Southern. “To be able to speak in chapel services and to interact with the university leadership, and to see what God is doing among the students there academically, athletically, but most importantly, spiritually, that has been one of the biggest thrills for me, ” Leopard affirms.
Perhaps the most unexpected role during his time as convention president, however, was serving as a media spokesman for South Carolina Baptists during the two weeks leading up to the Republican presidential primary. “I didn’t expect all of that, and it was just one call after another,” he confides. “The reporters would always ask me, ‘Who are you endorsing?’ I would explain, ‘We don’t endorse anyone,’ and they would reply, ‘Well, what do you tell your people?’ I said, ‘We tell them to pray and vote your values,’?” Leopard recalls.
“Then they would spend the next 15 minutes trying to get in every possible side door and back door. They would get frustrated when you didn’t give them anything,” he chuckles. “But as soon as the primary was over, all that stopped, and it’s kind of been business as usual – just the normal meetings and issues of the convention,” he says.
And what about the upcoming convention meeting? “We have adopted as our theme ‘Experiencing Kingdom Life,’?” he begins. “We spent a lot of time this year in meetings formulating that emphasis, and Jim Austin, our new executive director, has done a great job leading us.”
Though there does not seem to be a lot of issues out there that may come to the convention floor, that’s okay with Leopard. “We want to make it a positive, worship experience,” he asserts. “Of course, Tuesday night will be a worship experience with the theme ‘Experience Kingdom Life,’ and we will be talking about how life is like a carousel: If you are not careful, you can get on the carousel of life and not really experience life. You are just kind of existing,” he explains.
Leopard urges all South Carolina Baptist churches to come to this year’s convention, especially on Tuesday evening. Geoff Hammond of the North American Mission Board will be preaching, and Tom Tucker, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Rock Hill, will be delivering the convention sermon, he notes.
As far as his hopes for South Carolina Baptists, Leopard shares an area of concern that he believes reaches across the Southern Baptist Convention in general. Like SBC president Johnny Hunt, Leopard intones a sense of urgency, “If some of our churches don’t change the way they are doing things – not the message, but how they are reaching and connecting with the community – in the next 20 years or so, as many as 50 percent may close their doors.
“We’ve got to do something in our churches to reach people, connect them with Christ, and get them involved in the local church,” he urges. “That’s kind of a concern that I have: that our churches might experience revival.”
Still, Leopard feels South Carolina Baptists have been really blessed. “Whenever there is a change in leadership, you think, ‘Man, we’ve lost a giant.’ And he was,” he allows, speaking of former executive director Carlisle Driggers. “But in my experience in working with Jim Austin, they have different gifts, different personalities, but I’ve been so impressed with him. He is a man of God; he has humility; and he just has tremendous leadership capabilities.
“I am just so appreciative of the state convention staff that God has blessed us with,” he affirms. “You see South Carolina on the cutting edge among the other state conventions, and we’ve been kind of a model with EKG,” he observes.
Encouraging folks to continue supporting the convention and increasing their giving through the Cooperative Program, Leopard affirms, “From what I’ve seen, we’ve got a good thing going in South Carolina. We are blessed. The hand of God has definitely been upon us” – along the Way.