January 9, 2025
By Aaron Weaver
DECATUR, Ga. — As the country observes Jan. 9 as a National Day of Mourning in honor of former President Jimmy Carter, Cooperative Baptist leaders reflect on the life and legacy of the “most famous Baptist in the world” who helped galvanize the establishment of CBF just over 30 years ago.
“President Carter was a man of deep faith, persistent integrity and courageous vision,” said CBF Executive Coordinator Paul Baxley. “He gave his presidency and many years after to the quest for lasting peace, the pursuit of genuine racial justice, faithful environmental stewardship and advocacy for human rights. He was an active Baptist layman, deeply invested in his beloved Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, but also in Northside Drive Baptist Church in Atlanta and in the First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, D.C.”
Baxley is representing CBF today at the memorial service for President Carter at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
“Across his life, President Carter made teaching Sunday school and participating in worship a high priority and in doing so modeled the most beautiful synergy between deep faith and compelling public leadership,” Baxley continued. “As Cooperative Baptists, we not only celebrate his defining commitments and his abiding love of congregational life, we are also stronger today because of the leadership he offered in our earliest years. President Carter was not only a remarkable leader in the world, he invested himself in our Baptist community and for him we thank God.”
Just two years after the founding of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Carter delivered the keynote address at the 1993 General Assembly in Birmingham, Ala., announcing that he and wife Rosalynn, the former First Lady, had “found a home” in the new Fellowship.
“In the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, my wife and I have found a home,” Carter told the 5,000 attendees.
Carter challenged Cooperative Baptists to support women in ministry, racial reconciliation and inclusion, ecumenical cooperation and work to address global poverty.
“I pray to God that, as Rosalynn and I cast our lot for the rest of our lives with this fellowship, we could be part of a transcendent movement—no matter how large in number—constantly analyzing what we do as measured by the standards of Jesus…dedicated to service of others as the best way to spread the gospel of Christ.”
Carter also praised CBF for its stands in support of Baptist principles such as the autonomy of the local church, church-state separation and the priesthood of all believers.
“When there is a definition of what is a proper person, a proper Baptist, a proper American, we are violating the basic principles of what we believe,” he said. “When we enforce uniformity on other people, it saps their freedom.”
Carter again addressed the General Assembly in June 2001 before a record crowd of 8,100 in celebration of CBF’s 10th anniversary, urging Cooperative Baptists to forget the past and form new partnerships.
“It’s time for us to get together in a spirit of love” to maximize worldwide mission efforts, he said. “I think the time has come for CBF maybe to take the leadership and for traditional Baptists to begin to reach out more aggressively to one another.”
In 2007, Carter convened leaders from 30 Baptist organizations representing more than 20 million Baptists to publicly announce plans for a “Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant”—a multi-racial network that would become centered around local ministry action.
The following year, more than 15,000 Baptists gathered in Atlanta for the first-ever New Baptist Covenant meeting to break down barriers of race, theology and geography among Baptists to fulfill Jesus’ vision of transformation in Luke 4 to proclaim the Good News and set the oppressed free.
In subsequent years, New Baptist Covenant continued its work creating inclusive Baptist communities across the country and forming shared “covenant of action” projects focused on addressing low literacy rates, childhood hunger, poverty, predatory lending and other social concerns.
Former CBF Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal praised Carter as a “faithful follower of Jesus Christ, an exemplar of moral integrity and a fierce advocate for social justice.”
“Jimmy Carter lived among us as an unapologetic churchman, an honest public servant and a devoted husband. He was a student and teacher of Scripture, a champion of human rights and a global peacemaker,” said Vestal, who led the Fellowship from 1996-2012.
“President Carter’s influence within the Baptist family has been immeasurable. He is the most famous Baptist in the world; and unknown to many, was tireless in efforts to foster reconciliation among Baptists and mobilize them for ministry. I am deeply grateful to God for his life and witness.”
Suzii Paynter March, who served as CBF Executive Coordinator from 2013-2019, shared a memory of visiting Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., to attend Carter’s Sunday school class and engage with the church leadership.
“One Sunday, at the close of his class teaching, President Carter asked me to pray and sent a microphone passed through pews of people and into my hand,” she recalled. “The audience sat silently with bowed heads. Before bowing, I looked at President Carter’s face and our eyes met for a long moment. I believe the Holy Spirit intervened to highlight our common faith and shared commitments. The spiritual connection was a moment of tender intimacy in Christ, not as President or as Baptist, but as believers sincerely seeking Christ’s way. “Like in so many other places where he shared his presence, President Carter warmed what could have been a moment of meaningless protocol to a shared petition in vibrant faith and practice. He was in this moment, like so many others, deeply faithful in his leadership not by design or ceremony but deeply faithful by daily practice, sincerity and clear conviction. People ask what gives small leaders in unknown settings the courage to do a good and faithful thing in the face of opposition or criticism. For me, it was the life and strength of living saints like President Jimmy Carter bringing Christlike goodness into the world and multiplying each faithful offering with the great calculation of divine abundance from God.”
Pat Anderson, who served as Interim Executive Coordinator of CBF from 2012-2013, shared memories of co-coordinating the 1993 General Assembly in Birmingham, Ala., and helping to organize the Carters’ travel and visit—transportation made possible by Baptist lay leader John Baugh.
Anderson, who had visited China multiple times on behalf of CBF Global Missions, later helped organize President Carter’s presence and participation at the opening ceremony of the China Bible Ministry Exhibition in 2006 at Second-Ponce de Leon Baptist Church in Atlanta and discussions with China Christian Council (CCC) leaders. Anderson also had the opportunity to take the CCC delegation to Plains to attend President Carter’s Sunday school class at Maranatha Baptist Church.
“We were grandly introduced to the congregation and President Carter promoted the China Bible exhibition,” Anderson said. “After church and the group photo with the Carters, we then went to the local restaurant for lunch. The drive back to Atlanta was joyful and filled with memories for all of us.”
Walter “Buddy” Shurden, retired church history professor at Mercer University, reflected on seeking the Carters’ approval to name a special CBF General Assembly offering in their honor.
“I was always impressed by the way President Carter included Mrs. Carter by asking her advice,” he said. “When CBF leadership agreed to name a special offering the ‘Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Offering for Religious Liberty and Human Rights,’ a group of us went to Plains to ask the President’s permission to use their name. I remember that Hardy Clemons, Daniel Vestal and I, among others, were in the group that met in the Carters’ modest living room. After telling the President why we were there and what we wanted, he said, ‘Well, I will first have to ask Rosalynn what she thinks, and I will get back to you after I talk with her. He got back to us with the permission to proceed!”
The 5-year special offering collected more than $45,000 in its inaugural year, with funds being allocated in support of the Baptist World Alliance and CBF Global Missions initiatives in Thailand and Morocco among refugee organizations.
Pam Durso, president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary, reflected on serving on the New Baptist Covenant task force from 2013-2015 and having opportunities to participate in meetings alongside Carter.
“In early January 2015, I sat in a room at the Carter Center with seven or eight other task force members,” Durso said. “We each gave him a report on the work being done. President Carter listened intently, asked probing questions and took no notes. Ten minutes after our meeting, he stood at the podium for a press conference, and in a crowded room with reporters and New Baptist Covenant participants, he summed up our reports, offering both the details we had shared and beautifully weaving our reports into a narrative that honestly made our efforts sound more extraordinary than they were.
“When the press conference concluded, I took my pastor, Rev. Charles Brown, to meet President Carter and was surprised by the kind words he said about me to Charles. At the age of 91, President Carter’s generosity of spirit, his beautiful mind and memory, and his physical stamina were inspiring.
Durso added that one of her treasured possessions is a copy of Carter’s book “A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power,” complete with a personalized message.
“In that book and in addresses he gave around the time of its publication in 2014, President Carter was bold and direct calling out religious institutions for their complicity in perpetuating violence against women,” Durso said. “His firm statements that the disempowerment of women and girls, the violence and oppression they had experienced was directly related to the misinterpretation of biblical texts by male religious authorities. I was and am grateful for his courage in taking on gender bias in faith communities and calling for Christians to affirm equal and universal human rights.”
Kasey Jones, CBF Coordinator of Outreach and Growth and leader of CBF’s Dr. Emmanuel McCall Racial Justice and Leadership Initiative, noted that Carter did more than speak out against discrimination.
“As I reflect on the life and legacy of President Jimmy Carter, I think about how he did more than just call for an end to discrimination, he worked to end it by making space for African Americans and Latinos in positions of power,” said Jones, also a former CBF Moderator. “His work with Habitat for Humanity created opportunity for those traditionally left out of home ownership. He fought for fair and free elections and to end health crises in places others would not consider worthy. It is my hope that as we celebrate President Carter’s contributions that the mantle to take action and create opportunities to end discrimination is ignited.”
Jeremy Shoulta, who previously served as pastor at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., raised “presence” as one of Carter’s greatest gifts.
“His presence amongst family and friends, church and community, and the sick and marginalized validated the existence of countless individuals who might otherwise be ignored or maligned,” said Shoulta, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Gainesville, Ga. “President Carter’s presence sowed seeds of love and peace from the smallest venues to international settings.”
Julie Pennington-Russell, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, D.C., said that FBC was “blessed to include Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter as active members during his presidency.”
“President Carter’s teaching inspired the hearts and minds of those in our congregation and beyond. His later work for peace and justice flowed from the person he was at his core: a follower of Christ,” Pennington-Russell emphasized. “Embodying the way of Jesus, Jimmy Carter’s life was characterized by honesty, peacemaking, justice, simplicity, integrity, compassion and love.”
Bill Leonard, founding dean of Wake Forest University Divinity School, remembered a phone conversation with Carter in 1997 as he was reviewing the president’s latest book, “Sources of Strength: Meditations on Scripture for a Living Faith.”
“I had voted for him twice and was delighted to talk to him about the book,” Leonard recalled. “The book review ends with these words that I think still apply to Carter’s life, work and Baptistness: ‘Carter’s faith journey reflects elements of Baptist piety at its best, nurtured in family and church and empowered by the prophetic activism of Clarence Jordan, Millard Fuller and Martin Luther King Jr. It has carried Carter into a principled activism that both his denomination and political party find increasingly difficult to sustain.”
Leonard would meet Carter in person the following year when the former President convened a group of Baptist leaders in an attempt to reconcile factions in the SBC.
“When that effort failed, Mr. Carter invited us again to discuss ways of forging greater relationships between Baptists, Black and white,” Leonard said. “The result was Carter’s formation of the New Baptist Covenant. Through it all, he was an agent of reconciliation, insight and Christian commitment.”
Cynthia Holmes, attorney and lay leader who served as CBF Moderator from 2003-2004, remembered President Carter for his commitment to the Great Commandment to love one’s neighbor.
“It is heartening to remember Jimmy Carter, a president we hope our children and grandchildren can emulate,” she said. “His kindness, empathy and love of all neighbors personified the presence of Christ that CBF has encouraged us to be.”
Ruben Ortiz, CBF’s Latino Field Ministries Coordinator, expressed his deep and personal appreciation for Carter, having been raised in Cuba.
“For my generation, he was the first reference we had on the island that a Christian could participate in politics and do it decently,” Ortiz explained. “I was even prouder to know that he was a Baptist. Amid a rhetoric of aggression at its height in the Cold War, Carter communicated peace and understanding. In his love of peace and reconciliation, he sought to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba from the beginning of his term in 1977. His efforts eased the climate of confrontation, and with Cuban families in mind, in 1979, he reopened the diplomatic sections in Havana and Washington, D.C. He also faced the Mariel crisis, provoked by the Cuban government, with high values of compassion and candor.
“But at the same time, his voice did not tremble when he delivered a strong speech at the University of Havana on the need for the island to take steps toward democratic opening. I must thank him for interceding for the release of people imprisoned for religious reasons on the island, my father among them. I will always be grateful for ‘el hermano Carter’ (our brother Carter), as we used to call him at home. He showed us how to bring your beliefs to the public square and be a good neighbor.”
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CBF is a Christian network that helps people put their faith to practice through ministry efforts, global missions and a broad community of support. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.