LAKE FOREST, Calif. (BP)–Thanks to Bucky Rosenbaum’s innovative view of publishing, books by Broadman & Holman started showing up on The New York Times best-seller list and Oprah. So it should come as no surprise that he’s joined with innovative Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren to develop the Internet site, Pastors.com (www.pastors.com).
Launched by Warren earlier this year, Pastors.com is the largest website for pastors on the Internet, serving a base of more than 150,000 pastors in 117 countries.
Rosenbaum will be the chief executive officer of the ministry and website, which is designed to encourage and equip pastors and other in ministry. “Looking back on the last 24 years of my career,” Rosenbaum said, “I realize everything I’ve done was preparation for this call to Pastors.com. Rick Warren’s vision is to train pastors and start churches, and that’s in harmony with my call to be an encourager to those in ministry.”
Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church, Lake Forest, Calif., “It took a 14-month executive search to find just the right CEO for a ministry that serves so many pastors, missionaries and ministers. Bucky has the integrity, creativity and servant’s heart to lead Pastors.com to greater levels of resourcing, training and supporting those in ministry around the world.”
While attending a Promise Keepers rally in 1993, Rosenbaum recounted a life-changing experience when Bill McCartney asked all the pastors to come forward for prayer. “It was like a Billy Graham altar call in reverse,” Rosenbaum said. “It took at least 15 minutes for thousands of pastors to come down through the stadium in Boulder, Colo., and to get onto the field. Those of us left in the stands were applauding for these pastors, and then we were standing on our chairs cheering for them. I had a real sense that these were the champions; these were the warriors on the front line. I left there with a personal challenge to be an encourager not only to my pastor, but to other pastors as well. When Rick Warren contacted me about Pastors.com, that’s the first thing I thought about.”
Rosenbaum said he hopes Pastors.com will become a premier site for anyone in ministry searching for resources. “Let’s face it — if you walk into the typical Christian bookstore and identify yourself as a pastor, they’re just not going to have a lot of resources for you because they know most of their customers will not be pastors,” Rosenbaum said. “Whether you’re a pastor, a youth minister, a church secretary — whatever your staff leadership role — we hope you will find many effective tools to enhance your ministry calling at Pastors.com.”
A lifelong Southern Baptist, Rosenbaum and his wife, Joann, were approved in 1990 to serve as missionaries to Liberia, but when civil war broke out, they were unable to go. “I’ve always sensed a call to a global mission,” Rosenbaum said, “and now, through Pastors.com, God is showing me why that call has stayed so heavy on my heart.”
An 18-year employee of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, Rosenbaum opted to leave when Broadman & Holman, a LifeWay subsidiary, restructured earlier this year. He was the vice president for trade and academic books, working with such noted best-selling authors as Beth Moore, Henry Blackaby, Keith Miller, Chuck Swindoll and Josh McDowell. One of his last projects was publishing the story of golfer Payne Stewart, which went on to become LifeWay’s first New York Times best seller.
He served in a variety of other positions at LifeWay and was also vice president for business and finance for the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Rosenbaum and his wife have five children, and reside in Franklin, Tenn. They attend First Baptist Church in Nashville, where he is an 11th-grade Sunday school teacher, active deacon and adult choir member.
–30–
