[1]Jeff Robinson named editor of Baptist Courier
By Baptist Courier Staff
GREENVILLE, S.C. (BP) – The board of trustees for The Courier voted unanimously to call Jeff Robinson as the next editor and president of The Courier. He begins his duties on March 1.
“God has blessed South Carolina Baptists through the ministry of The Baptist Courier for more than 150 years with a history of strong leaders for critical moments in the life of our paper. Rudy Gray provided such leadership during his tenure, and we are forever grateful for his selfless service,” Trustee Chairman Wes Church, pastor of First Baptist Church, Columbia, said. “As we look to the future, we are confident that Jeff Robinson is God’s man to lead our organization to continue the good work of what Jeff describes as ‘to inform and inspire, and to edify and glorify.’”
Robinson is a graduate of the University of Georgia with an undergraduate degree in journalism and mass communication from the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism, and a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity and a Doctor of Philosophy in historical theology with a specialty in Baptist history. He has been adjunct professor and director of news and information at Southern Seminary, and he served as senior editor for the Gospel Coalition for six years.
Before coming to Southern, he spent nearly 20 years as a sportswriter in Athens, Ga., and as managing editor of the newspaper in Andrews, N.C. While there, he met his wife, Lisa.
[2]In 1998, Robinson sensed a call to ministry and “fell in love with studying the Scriptures and teaching the Word of God. Both my parents were devout Southern Baptist churchmen, and I was raised in church,” he said.
In 2000, he moved to Louisville to study at Southern. The rest of his ministry was spent in Louisville, except for four years when he moved to Birmingham, Ala., to serve as a pastor. He has served as the pastor of New City Church in Louisville and Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Jeffersontown, Ky.
He and Lisa have been married over 27 years and have four children.
Robinson said, “I am going to spend the first few months getting to know people. I plan to spend a lot of time with pastors and church people, getting to know them and getting to know the state. I am thankful I have staff members here who already know the state and who can inform me.”
Family of Wade Morris starts scholarship in his name, seeks videos of him preaching
By Grace Thornton/The Alabama Baptist
When Wade Morris went to college at Samford University, he went with financial aid — his family couldn’t help him.
“He didn’t have a good family situation,” said his wife, Deborah, explaining that his mother left her children after he graduated high school.
Then after Samford, when he wanted to attend seminary, “the only way he was able to go was that he was a youth minister at Green Valley Baptist, and someone at the church anonymously gave money to pay for his seminary,” Deborah Morris said. “He didn’t know who it was until years later.”
But because of that gift, Wade Morris spent decades traveling and sharing the gospel as a full-time evangelist.
And in 2021, when he contracted COVID-19 while preaching at a camp and later died, it made sense to the family to honor him with an endowed scholarship in his name at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary – the Timothy Wade Morris Endowed Scholarship Fund for Evangelism.
‘Passion and need’
“We wanted it to go to someone who feels called to be in evangelism and has a passion for it, and also someone who has demonstrated a financial need,” Deborah Morris said. “Wade wouldn’t have been able to go without help.”
She said she — along with their daughters, Eden and Trinity, and the board of Wade Morris Ministries — are “really wanting to raise up more people who are passionate about evangelism.”
“We just feel like there’s a void, a big hole with Wade gone, and with the next generation as well,” Deborah Morris said. “We started the scholarship to hopefully raise up some younger students who want to carry that on.”
At the camp in Oklahoma where Wade Morris contracted COVID-19, more than 500 students reported giving their lives to Christ.
Legacy continues
His older daughter, Eden, feels led to carry on his legacy through evangelistic ministry. She’s studying now at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
She said the story of losing her father would be completely devastating and hopeless “but the fact that Jesus loved us and died on the cross for us and had an ultimate story for us where we can be in heaven with Him forever. That’s my hope, and I want to share that with other people.”
That’s the vision the family hopes to see spread in the next generation through the scholarship, which they’re working hard to endow. The board of Wade Morris Ministries is also trying to gather digital content of Morris speaking or preaching in years past.
To submit video or audio files of Wade Morris preaching, email [email protected] [4]. For more information about Wade Morris, visit wademorris.com [5]. To give to the scholarship, visit swbts.edu/giving [6] and designate the gift to the Timothy Wade Morris Endowed Scholarship Fund.