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FLINT—The voices of neither Jim nor June Richards were heard from the podium during a recognition dinner held in their honor to kick off the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention annual meeting at Flint Baptist Church Monday evening.
Instead, one by one, a stream of testimonies given both in person and via video spoke of the Richards’ kingdom faithfulness over the course of a half-century of ministry – nearly half of which was spent serving the SBTC.
Richards, SBTC founding executive director, announced at last year’s Executive Board meeting following the annual meeting in Austin that he would begin the process of transitioning out of convention leadership. With Nathan Lorick having been named his successor earlier this year, Richards has now shifted to the role of executive director emeritus.
Harold Harper, a longtime family friend who emceed the dinner, said Richards had one request – “make it about God.”
And so it was.
It was about God when Carlo Sciara, who has known Richards since high school, recalled hearing the news that his 17-year-old friend had given his life to Jesus in 1970. Just a few months later, a teary-eyed Richards drove up Carlo’s driveway in his gold Chevy Nova to tell him he had surrendered to preach.
It was about God when John Yeats, executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention, talked about how Richards spent many years in his native Louisiana battling “theological liberalism and institutional cronyism.” As a result, Yeats said, Louisiana became an “anchor of biblical inerrancy” – a fact that would many years later make Richards the candidate to become the SBTC’s first executive director in November 1998.
And it was about God when Brenda Senn and Katera McMillan, via video, told of the quiet but strong faithfulness of their friend, June Richards – whom they described as a “prayer partner” and “prayer warrior.”
“When you call her and ask her to pray and tell her you have a prayer need,” a tearful Senn said, “she’s doing it.”
For his part, Lorick described Richards as a mentor and friend who exhibited diligence, wisdom, integrity, excellence, and respect. Isaac Newton, Lorick noted, is quoted as having once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
“Whatever the Southern Baptists of Texas will ever be,” Lorick said to Richards, “it’s because me and countless others that you’ve poured into are standing on the shoulders of you, our spiritual giant.”
The Richards were honored once more from the main stage during the evening business session. Southern Baptists of Texas Foundation Executive Director Bart McDonald presented a check in the amount of $250,000 to fund the Jim and June Richards Ministry Endowment, which will directly fund gospel ministry. Afterward, SBTC Executive Board Vice Chairman Caleb Turner read a resolution expressing gratitude to the couple for their many years of service.
