Alabama Baptists will always have stories that need to be told but how that will look in the future remains to be seen.
The Alabama Baptist (TAB) is facing what all print news media are facing — “telling our story and at the same time having enough resources to tell our story,” said TAB Editor Bob Terry, speaking during the afternoon session of TAB’s 175th birthday celebration held Feb. 6 on the campus of Judson College in Marion.
Reflecting on his 23 years as editor, Terry gave special attention to a difficult time in his personal life — the death of his wife, Eleanor, after a car crash in South Africa.
“I will always be indebted to you and others in our churches for allowing me to live as a human being with hurts and pains and not just someone who writes editorials in the paper,” Terry said.
The outpouring of love shown to him during that tragedy is one example of how Alabama Baptists come together in difficult times, which Terry described as binding. Binding also is what TAB does for readers, he said.
‘Brothers and sisters’
“Remember, one of the roles the paper has played in years past is binding our groups together. Binding us with a common vision, binding us with common activities, binding us with a common theology, binding us with an outlook that we could call each other brothers and sisters and be from other parts of the state,” Terry said.
The question is whether that will be what readers desire in the future or if the trend toward less cooperation between churches will necessitate a change in the direction of the ministry.
With church membership and other significant measurements of healthy Baptist life down, what will the future of TAB be, Terry pondered.
That future will be closely aligned with the nature of the Baptist fellowship going forward, he told those gathered.
In a Q-and-A session following Terry’s talk, audience members expressed their gratitude for the paper’s commitment to “standing on the Bible,” as one audience member put it.
Leading a prayer of thanks for the paper’s 175 years of ministry, Tom Stacey, director of missions for Selma and Cahaba Baptist associations, noted that nostalgia for the past is often misdirected.
“There were good times, blessings from God,” he said. But there also were rough times, he said, times of war, sickness, economic hardship and disasters.
“We thank God for where He has brought us these 175 years with the leadership that has been present in The Alabama Baptist,” Stacey said.
John Nicholson, pastor of Siloam Baptist Church, Marion, in Cahaba Association, where the four founders of TAB were members, called the birthday celebration a “remarkable, marvelous opportunity” to look back at the history of the paper. But Alabama Baptists can look to the future with confidence, he said.
‘We know who holds the future’
“We don’t know what the future is going to hold, but praise God, we know who holds the future,” he said before leading a prayer for the future ministry of TAB.
The afternoon session was followed by a birthday party complete with lots of cake and a special rendition of “Happy Birthday” led by Judson’s George Washburn, director of library resources, and Leah Washburn, enrollment coordinator for distance learning. (Carrie Brown McWhorter)
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