SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – When Nate Adams was interviewed by the search team that hired him as the executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association 20 years ago, he was asked: “Do you see yourself with gray hair in Illinois?”
Adams said yes, and he kept his promise.
As he looks toward retirement April 1, Adams sat down for an interview with the Illinois Baptist to reminisce about his tenure and talk about the future.
He said he’s always been proud to be a Southern Baptist outside the South, and he feels a lot like his son Noah, who now pastors in Colorado.
“I don’t want to pastor where most people and where the big churches are,” Adams said his son told him. “He said, ‘I want to be on the edge. I want to be out where I’m needed.’ I agree with him.
“Being a Baptist in Illinois ought to remind us that we’re missionaries, and that we’re here to join Jesus in His mission to seek and to save the lost.”
And though Illinois is outside the Bible belt, Adams said Baptists have made their mark.
“It’s a small world, but a big Baptist family,” he said. “That’s the phrase I use to describe when I go to a gas station in Mt. Vernon, and I’m in my shorts and T-shirt on vacation, and an elderly lady from one of the churches walks in and says, ‘Aren’t you the executive director of IBSA?’
“The idea that I would run into another Southern Baptist from one of our churches in a state of 13 million people in means it’s a small world.”
Adams himself is a product of Illinois Baptists. His father Tom pastored there, served as an associational missionary for the Fox Valley Baptist Association and was a longtime columnist for the Illinois Baptist.
“I joked that some people get to stay in the family business,” Adams said. “Some people inherit the family farm. For me, it was Illinois Baptists. …
“I felt like my work has been a continuation of our family’s commitment – Dad’s and Mom’s – for more than 50 years.”
Tom Adams died right around the time his son took the job at IBSA. But something his father told him when he took a job at the North American Mission Board eight years prior has proved helpful.
“When I was going to the North American Mission Board, he actually was a little bit cautionary,” Adams said of his father’s advice. “His warning was, ‘I hope the politics of the SBC don’t chew you up.’ And I remember thinking naively at the time, ‘That’s Baptist. How political can it be?’
“Certainly, Illinois has not had that acrimony that you sometimes see in the National SBC. I’ve often said, I can count on two hands the number of non-unanimous votes our messengers have had in the annual meeting. There’s a wonderful unity and diversity here that is unique to Illinois, and I’m glad we’ve been able to sustain that.”
One thing Adams has focused on is maintaining a nice facility that fosters that unity and has become a space for ministry training and leadership development.
“Many national SBC leaders that come to our building say, ‘Wow, this is Illinois!’ Adams said. “One of the things they say is ‘I didn’t realize that you had such a nice facility here.’ And they comment on the quality of the fellowship.”
That fellowship has kept the convention of churches strong despite heavy cultural headwinds.
Adams said he regrets that the number if Illinois Baptist Churches (about 900) is about the same as it was when he started.
“I certainly wish the mission had made more progress,” he said. “We’ve faced some hard things, from the recession of 2008 to the so-called Great Commission Resurgence shortly after that, then COVID and then five, six years of coming out of that.
“All the while, the culture has been atrophying and turning much less conservative, just generally, in Illinois. So there’s been a lot of uphill climb to what we do. Sometimes holding fast and not losing ground is victory. …
“As I’ve said to the board, it’s like we’re piloting a plane. For certain conditions, you have to fly at a lower altitude for a while until you can take corrective actions, or land and fix it and take off again. Flying at a slightly lower altitude than I would have wished probably describes the last 20 years.”
Adams said he feels he’s leaving the IBSA in a good place and in good hands. IBSA Church Health Team leader Scott Foshie will replace Adams next month.
“What I feel like I’m leaving behind is good organizational health, good practices, good finances, good foundation for what God (and Scott) have next,” he said. “I’m glad someone is coming in after me who knows Illinois and loves our churches.”
Read the full interview with Nate Adams here.
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