Convention leader urges South Carolina Baptists to ‘launch out’ in prayer, evangelism
Tom Tucker is plainspoken when it comes to his heart’s desire for South Carolina Baptists. “I just don’t want to see us decline anymore,” he said.
Tucker sat down with reporters Nov. 11 in the parlor of Spartanburg First Baptist Church shortly after he was elected president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
His voice quavered as he spoke of his late father, a pastor who served churches for 40 years. “My sister texted me and said Daddy would have been proud,” he said.
The previous evening, SCBC messengers honored scores of pastors and staff members who had served churches for 50 years or more. During that service, Tucker met for the first time 80-year-old Bill Adams, who surrendered to preach the same time Tucker’s father did at Mon-Aetna Baptist Church in Union.
“I looked at those guys last night and the sacrifices they made,” Tucker said, his voice trailing off. “We’ve got to win people to Jesus in South Carolina.”
“We’ve got to be telling people personally about the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s about soul-winning. We haven’t heard that word too much in a while.”
Tucker said church revitalization is vital to getting believers back to the basics of sharing their faith. “Church planting is a great thing, and we need that,” Tucker said, “but we’ve got to revitalize our [existing] churches.”
In his benediction at the conclusion of the 2015 annual meeting, Tucker expressed his hope that South Carolina Baptists would “launch out” in prayer and evangelism, a reference to Luke’s account of Jesus urging Simon (Peter) to put out into deeper waters in order to find fish.
“I just want to continue to move the ship,” he said. “Peter responded to Jesus, ‘At thy word.’ When I read that — and I’m going to get a little secular here — I was reminded of the old song, ‘Sitting on the Dock of the Bay.’ I think that’s where our churches are now. We’re sitting on the dock of the bay watching the tide roll in, instead of launching out into the deep. We’ve got to launch out and help churches fulfill the Great Commission.”
To that end, Tucker hopes to see evangelism rallies around the state in the coming year, and he believes Sunday school can be utilized as a more effective tool in teaching Christians how to be soul-winners.
In April, Tucker was in Washington, D.C., where he was invited to lead the opening prayer at a session of the House of Representatives. “Everybody thinks the answer is there, in Washington,” he said. “It’s not. It’s in Jesus Christ, the only one who can bring revival.”
Tucker didn’t enter the ministry until he was 31. A self-described “preacher’s kid,” he saw firsthand the pain that often comes with serving “cantankerous Baptists” in a local church setting. (Tucker’s knowledge of the unique pressures pastors’ families face led him to organize a banquet for area pastors’ wives, something his church does every year.) He worked at a Roses store for 10 years, where he met his future wife. Later, under the preaching of Ron Lynch, Tucker surrendered to God’s persistent call for him to preach, to “launch out … at thy word.”
Today, at 57, he serves as pastor of Sisk Memorial Baptist Church in Fort Mill with his wife of 33 years, Brenda. They are the parents of two adult children and four grandchildren. He previously served Calvary Baptist Church in Rock Hill and New Hope Baptist Church in Pelzer, as well as churches in North Carolina. He attended Campbell University and earned a bachelor of theology degree from Covington Theological Seminary. He is pursuing both master’s and doctoral degrees at Covington.