Bill Billingsley: Pillar of anti-abortion movement drafted statement

HOLLYWOOD (FBC)–Starting new churches and offering biblically-based community outreach were hallmarks of Bill Billingsley’s legacy in Broward County.

Through the years, Billingsley saw South Florida’s transformation from a collection of dairy farms to a metropolis of ethnically diverse cultures. The population influx resulted in high property costs and the need for churches to creatively seek non-traditional settings to establish their presence.

By 1998, more than a third of Gulf Stream Baptist Association’s 154 congregations were started as an outgrowth of Sheridan Hills Baptist Church in Hollywood, where Billingsley served as pastor from 1963 until his death in 1998.

During his 35-year tenure, the church was either a parent or grandparent of 54 missions within the association.

Billingsley had come to Broward County in 1963 to become Sheridan Hills’ first pastor. The church began as the fifth mission of First Baptist Church, Hollywood, in 1959, meeting in an elementary school cafeteria. In 1963, Billingsley led the congregation’s first service in its newly completed building.

Six months later, Billingsley and church leaders faced a decision—buy the block on which the church stood for $40,000 or complete a Sunday school building for $90,000. The leadership voted to do both.

“It was the precursor of the faith of this church. It was sort of the bellwether decision that set the pace for us,” Billingsley said.

Churches have to be intentional about church starting, he said. “I think you have to say, ‘A church is needed in this area. Let’s begin a church.’”

His church starting efforts were recognized by the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) North American Mission Board in 1992 and 1997.

In addition to its leadership in church starting, Sheridan Hills has served as a model in its community outreach, establishing a Christian school, home for troubled young persons and a counseling ministry to aid recovering alcoholics. A social services program was started in 1981, including a counseling center and a crisis pregnancy center.

Encouraging churches to offer abortion alternatives such as crisis pregnancy care ministries became a cornerstone of Billingsley’s term as Florida Baptist State Convention president in 1988-1989.

At his election as FBSC president in November 1988, Billingsley was the first state convention president from South Florida in two decades. In a Florida Baptist Witness interview he said his goal was to “create a climate of togetherness that will enable Florida Baptists to reach more people for Christ.”

In the months before his term ended, his goal would be tested.

Florida’s state legislature scheduled a special session Oct. 10-13, 1989, to consider legislation proposed by then-Gov. Bob Martinez to prohibit the use of state funds to perform or promote abortions and to restrict abortions of babies old enough to survive outside the womb.

As president, Billingsley requested that the state convention hold a special session in September leading up to the legislature’s vote.

After the session was approved, Billingsley said, “Now we must pray and unite so that our representatives at the state capital will hear a ‘certain sound’ from Florida Baptists.”

Meeting with Richard Land of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Billingsley drafted an anti-abortion statement for the session, calling “upon Florida Baptists to support legislation that will achieve the dramatic saving and nurturing of human life.” It declared that life “begins at conception” and “the right of human life must be protected by the state.” After discussion, messengers overwhelmingly adopted the consensus statement.

Despite Florida Baptists’ efforts, the governor’s proposed anti-abortion legislation failed.

Billingsley’s initiative spurred Florida Baptists to continue with their pro-life plan. They formed a Sanctity of Human Life Committee to guide in establishing abortion alternatives, such as crisis pregnancy centers, homes for unwed mothers, adoption services, foster care, and educational materials on Christian sexuality.

The son of a Baptist minister, Billingsley was born in Easley, S.C., in 1934. A graduate of Furman University, Billingsley became the youngest person at the time to graduate from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., at age 21.

He served as associate pastor (youth) of Northwood Baptist Church in West Palm Beach from 1957-1958, then as pastor of Belvedere Baptist Church, a mission of Northwood, from 1958-1963.

Billingsley underwent cancer surgery in 1985 and, 12 years later, engaged in a year-long battle with the disease that resulted in his death on Aug. 21, 1998, in Hollywood at age 64. He was survived by his wife Betty Jean, and their three children, Anna Marie, Nathan and Laura.

At his funeral, hundreds of people gathered to celebrate the legacy of a pastor who loved to start churches and see them grow.