Vines ends 23-year pastorate in Jacksonville

Photo by Bill Thompson, courtesy of First Baptist, Jacksonville

Jerry Vines waves goodbye to First Baptist Church of Jacksonville as he concluded his Feb. 7 sermon, “Glimpses of Glory,” while slowly exiting the sanctuary of the church he has pastored more than 23 years.

JACKSONVILLE (FBW) – “Thank you saints of God at First Baptist Church of Jacksonville for letting me be with you these 23 plus years and you and I sharing together some glimpses of glory,” an emotional Jerry Vines told his congregation and visitors Feb. 7 while slowly leaving the sanctuary, ending his final sermon as pastor.

Vines’ message, “Glimpses of Glory,” concluded the church’s 20th annual Pastors’ Conference before a standing-room-only throng in the cavernous First Baptist worship center, and officially ended his two-decade-long pastorate coinciding with the theological transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention in which Vines played such a central role as president and preaching exemplar.

Nearing the sermon’s completion and descending the pulpit platform, Vines imagined one day meeting in Heaven loved ones, such as his grandfather and father, and preaching colleagues, former co-pastor Homer Lindsay Jr. and the recently departed Adrian Rogers, and what he would say to his Savior when he met Him.

“Jesus, thank you so much for saving a little nine-year-old boy like me in North Georgia, and thank you for calling me to preach as a 16-year-old boy,” Vines declared as his voice broke. “I never dreamed – I never dreamed what You had in store for me. It’s been glorious; it’s been glorious!”

Photo by Bill Thompson, courtesy of First Baptist, Jacksonville

Jerry Vines preaches his final message during the annual pastors’ conference at First Baptist Church in Jacksonville Feb. 7.

Before his final words to the church while unhurriedly walking an aisle among the congregation, Vines sang the refrain of an old hymn: “O that will be glory for me, glory for me, glory for me. When by His grace I shall look on His face, that will be glory, be glory for me.”

After his farewell remarks while Vines exited the sanctuary, the congregation responded with a sustained standing ovation, with many wiping back tears while they watched their pastor leave for the last time.

Contacted via e-mail later in the evening, Vines told Florida Baptist Witness the experience of preaching the final sermon was “deeply emotional for me. All the memories and blessings of these 23 plus years overwhelmed me.”

The last message of his First Baptist pastorate brought a “sense of completion and the peace I am in the dead center of God’s will for my life.”

Still, Vines eagerly looks to the future, noting, “I’m thankful for this chapter. I have turned the page and am now ready for the next chapter. I’m excited about what God has for me. I would ask the people to check on JerryVines.com to keep track of my work and remember me in their prayers.”

Vines, 68, also spoke about his future plans and reflected on his First Baptist Jacksonville pastorate, five decades in the ministry, and his leadership in the Southern Baptist Convention in an hour-long interview with Florida Baptist Witness Jan. 23.

“I think it’s time for the church to have new leadership. It’s time for them to have younger leadership. And I would like to have a few years to pursue a wider ministry. I really want to train preachers,” Vines said.

“I have no intention of ever being a pastor again,” Vines said. “This is it. I’m retiring as being a pastor; I’m not retiring from preaching the Gospel.”

Jerry Vines Ministries plans to expand its offering of resources on its Web site, including Vines’ sermons, and Vines plans to write books and Sunday School literature. The ministry will also do pastoral and preaching training at seminaries and in conferences.

Vines’ ministry, led by his son, Jon, is now based in Canton, Ga., near First Baptist Church of Woodstock, where Johnny Hunt is pastor and the Vines families will be members. Hunt, Vines said, offered his staff’s assistance in handling Vines’ preaching schedule, which is now full for two years, Jon Vines said in a Feb. 6 interview with the Witness.

“Our main goal is to provide information for young pastors and teach them how to do expository messages and how to preach through the Bible,” the younger Vines said of the purpose of Jerry Vines Ministries.

Reflecting on his more than 50 years of Gospel ministry, Jerry Vines told the Witness that his greatest satisfaction “is to see the power of the Gospel to change people’s lives. … That’s one of the advantages of a lengthy pastorate is that you do get to see those changes in the lives of people, see people grow and mature. Really, it’s a wonderful thing.”

Vines joined Homer Lindsay Jr. in 1982 as co-pastor of First Baptist Jacksonville, following pastorates at West Rome Baptist Church in Rome, Ga. (1976-1982), and Dauphin Way Baptist Church in Mobile, Ala. (1971-1976).

Vines credited Lindsay for teaching him much about ministry, calling Lindsay “the most innovative, creative church growth person” of his era.

Asked why there never came a time when a co-pastor was called to serve with him after Lindsay’s death in 2000 – continuing the tradition begun by Homer Lindsay Sr. and continued by his son – Vines told the Witness he actually invited five different men over a five year period to join him as co-pastor at First Baptist Jacksonville.

“For whatever reasons, it just didn’t seem to be God’s will. And so, at that point in time it became clear to me that God had a different direction for the church. Rather than bringing in a co-pastor, it was time for me to move on and let the church get a pastor.”

During Vines’ tenure in Jacksonville, First Baptist Church became one of the largest churches in America and was among the annual leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention for baptisms. The church, with more than 28,000 members and an annual budget of almost $13 million, operates facilities occupying 11 city blocks in the heart of downtown Jacksonville, including a 10,000-seat sanctuary.

Whether pastoring a mega-church at the end of his pastoral ministry or his first church as an 18-year-old college student – the 40-member Centralhatchee Baptist Church in Heard County, Ga. – Vines said ministry is similar in the most important way.

“People in little churches need God’s Word preached as much as people in big churches. The human predicament has remained the same since the Garden of Eden and God’s provision has remained the same as well,” he said.

While regularly checking e-mail on his BlackBerry handheld device, Vines noted how technology has changed ministry during his lifetime. Although church members previously expected pastors to visit them in their homes, people today prefer more “anonymity,” Vines surmised, noting that many first time visitors at First Baptist Jacksonville report their initial contact with the church is through its Web site.

Asked what he wished he knew as a young pastor that he now knows as a retiring pastor, Vines said he would have liked to have had more patience, encouraged the people to pray more, and had begun earlier his commitment to expository preaching – sermons based on verse-by-verse proclamation through Bible books.

“Preaching the Word is my primary call; it’s what God told me to do. Second Timothy 4, ‘preach the Word.’ That’s a clear-cut, inescapable command in Scripture to the preacher. … I have made it primary because I believe it is primary. I think God blesses that and he has blessed it,” Vines said.

A leader of the “conservative resurgence” movement which sought to change the theological direction of the Southern Baptist Convention and its agencies during the 1980’s and 1990’s, Vines was elected SBC president in 1988 and 1989. He also was a member of the Baptist Faith and Message Study Committee which recommended the 2000 revision to the statement of faith.

Asked if the “controversy” was worth it, Vines asserted, “Yes, it really was. It was very much worth it.

“We’ve just got to take another step or two beyond that. We fought and won the battle for the inerrancy of Scripture. Now we’ve got to win the battle for the sufficiency of Scripture and for the result of believing in Scripture – and that’s evangelism.”