I believe the brightest light in the SBC Conservative Resurgence was Adrian Rogers and it ought to be noted among us that it’s been a decade since he left us for a better place.
I’m highly prejudiced in this since I was a Bellevue member for the three years I lived in Memphis and attended Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. Bellevue’s old campus was adjacent to MABTS’ old campus in midtown Memphis.
The thirtysomething SBC site, B21 has a tribute including Bellevue’s video retrospective. Check it out. I suppose there are other articles marking this anniversary but I haven’t seen them.
Adrian (most of my age colleagues use the familiar first name, although he wouldn’t know me from Adam’s housecat) always hit the right notes, I thought, especially in interaction to some of the more militant moderates in those years of public disputes.
Admittedly, I tried my version of Adrianology, the extreme alliterative sermon outlines. Those worked for him. Not for me or many others, although many of the brethren continue to trot out the most tortured alliterative material.
I’d love to ask him a few questions about SBC events post-2005. I always thought he had more wisdom and savvy about such things than others.
Someone else could probably do a far better job on this site than I could in looking back on AR, but so far, no one has.
[The photo above is from the Love Worth Finding site. My household is found watching his old sermons quite often.]
