NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In
appreciation for his service, Morris H. Chapman was named to the honorary
position of president emeritus of the Executive Committee and was presented the
M.E. Dodd Award for Cooperative Program support during a retirement dinner
Sept. 20 in Nashville, Tenn.
“Dr. Chapman, no entity
leader has been a greater ambassador for the Cooperative Program and its
promotion convention-wide than you,” Roger Spradlin, chairman of the Executive
Committee, told Chapman.
Throughout his tenure as
pastor of four churches over a span of 25 years and as president of the
Executive Committee for 18 years, Chapman led the way in his support of
Southern Baptists’ method for funding missions, Spradlin said.
“During each of his 13 years
at First Baptist Church, Wichita Falls, Texas, the church’s Cooperative Program
gifts were in the top 1 percent in the Southern Baptist Convention,” Spradlin
said. “As president of the Executive Committee, he never let circumstances
dampen his enthusiasm for what God is doing with Southern Baptists through the
Cooperative Program.”
As an M.E. Dodd Award
recipient, Chapman received a bronze sculpture of a farmer sowing the Word as
he walks across the world, depicting international evangelism. While other
recognitions honor annual accomplishments in CP support, the Dodd award is for
sustained achievement.
Spradlin also reported that
the Executive Committee (EC), in addition to EC personnel policy retirement
provisions, will make additional contributions to health insurance costs for
Chapman and his wife Jodi; provide a life insurance policy; and pay travel
expenses for the Chapmans to the SBC’s annual meetings.
Spradlin also presented
Chapman with the title to the vehicle that has been furnished to him by the EC,
and made a tribute to Jodi Chapman.
“Jodi, it was the desire of
the Executive Committee that we also give you a special gift for all of your
years of service to the Executive Committee,” Spradlin said.
“Many of us kind of
subscribe to the axiom, though, that it may not be wise for any man to shop for
any woman. So we thought it not wise to presume what you might want. So we want
to present you a gift tonight for $5,000 for you to use how you see fit.”
Also at the dinner, Jerry
Vines, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention and former pastor
of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., acknowledged Chapman’s role in
the Conservative Resurgence.
“It was not difficult for
some of us to take a stand for the inerrancy of scripture and be willing to
fight the battle for the Bible during the Conservative Resurgence because our
churches were very, very conservative,” Vines said. “They were behind us all the
way, 100 percent.
“Morris Chapman took a stand
for the Bible at First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls when there was
tremendous pressure upon him. He took that stand, and he took it with great,
great courage,” Vines said, referring to a small but strong group of moderates
at the church.
When Chapman was elected
president of the convention in 1990 by a 60 percent to 40 percent margin, Vines
said, “his election basically resolved the issue.”
“From that point on, it was
very, very clear that conservatives had won the battle and the Southern Baptist
Convention was turning back to its conservative roots,” Vines said. “It is
because of men like Morris Chapman and others that we now have a denomination
where we are on record as believing the Bible is God’s inspired, infallible,
inerrant Word. You don’t have to worry about your students going to our schools
and being taught there are errors in the Bible.”
Other tributes to Chapman
were given by friends and family.
- Julian Motley, who was
chairman of the Executive Committee’s presidential search committee at the time
Chapman was elected president, said Chapman has represented Baptists well as an
able statesman and strategic leader.
“I think of Dr. Chapman
especially as a man with a passionate commitment to evangelism and missions,”
Motley said. “Any attempt to characterize his leadership must take into account
his passion to reach people for Christ. It is obvious that he is a man driven
by what 2 Peter 3:9 describes as God’s unwillingness that any should perish but
that all should come to repentance.”
- Roy Sparkman, a former
member of First Baptist Wichita Falls and former Executive Committee member,
thanked Chapman for providing a strong biblical foundation for Sparkman’s
family and for always leading by faith and by the Scriptures.
- Stephen Davis, executive
director of the Indiana State Baptist Association, expressed gratitude for
Chapman’s friendship and counsel, including advice for discerning God’s
leading.
- Jay Lowder, a vocational
evangelist who surrendered to the ministry through the influence of Chapman and
his wife Jodi at First Baptist Wichita Falls, recalled Chapman telling him many
times, “God always blesses faithfulness.”
- Chris and Renee Chapman,
Chapman’s son and daughter-in-law, provided a musical tribute followed by an
expression of love from Chapman’s young grandchildren in the form of an
acrostic for Grampy.
- The evening also included
a historical montage of photos from Chapman’s life, narrated by D. August Boto,
executive vice president of the Executive Committee.
“It’s been a great privilege
to serve the Lord Jesus through all these years among Southern Baptists,”
Chapman said. “My mother was a Methodist and my dad was a Baptist. When they
were married, my mother joined the Baptist church, so I was born into the
Baptist faith. I began to go to church before I can remember.
“But I do remember at the
age of 7 coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. … If I had
started at that point and tried to imagine the steps I would take through life,
I could have never imagined it,” Chapman said.
The Bible doesn’t mention
retirement, Chapman said, so the occasion simply marks “the finishing of a
page, and there’s another season coming.”
“The best of life is to know
wherever you are, whether the world knows your name or not, whether the
convention knows your name or not, whether only your family knows your name and
loves you, that God has you exactly where He wants you,” Chapman said. “As a
missionary said years ago, there’s no safer place than in the will of God.”
Among letters to Chapman
from friends upon his retirement, a letter from evangelist Billy Graham was
read at the dinner.
“I praise God for the 18
years of faithful service you have given in providing leadership,” Graham
wrote. “You have carried a heavy load, and God has certainly used you and
blessed your vision and efforts in amazing ways during that time. … Only when
we get to heaven will we fully realize the number of lives that God used you to
impact for the Kingdom.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Roach
is a staff writer for Baptist Press.)