ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)–Two key Baptist leaders in Louisiana — Dean Doster, executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, and Lynn Clayton, editor of the Baptist Message — have announced their plans to retire.
The announcements follow the recent resignation of Rory Lee, president of Louisiana College, who took a position as executive director of the Mississippi Baptist Children’s Village.
Doster, having served as executive director for nearly eight years, will retire Jan. 31, 2005. He announced his plans during the state’s executive board meeting in early May.
“It is after much prayer [that] I believe the Lord has shown me the timing is right for Louisiana Baptists to select a new director who can build on the work we have accomplished during these eight years,” Doster told the board, according to the Baptist Message. “It is time all of us refocus and climb to a new level of growth.”
Doster, 60, told Baptist Press he believes he has accomplished most of the things he set out to do in the convention in terms of administrative matters.
“The convention is financially in the best fiscal condition it’s ever been in. We don’t have any debt, the staff is in good shape,” he said. “We’ve relocated some existing institutions into better facilities, our baptisms have not gone down … and the Cooperative Program has grown.”
God has positioned the Louisiana convention to have its greatest days in recent history if people will simply capitalize on the opportunities set before them, Doster said.
Doster and his wife, Peggy, plan to move to New Jersey after retirement in order to be close to their grandchildren. Doors also have opened there for further ministry, Doster said. He will serve as a contract consultant and a regional director of missions for the Baptist Convention of Pennsylvania-South Jersey and the South Jersey Baptist Association.
“It will give me a chance to change directions while hopefully relatively young and able to give some years to some new work missions and to do some hands-on work to help some of the people who don’t have as many resources as we do in the old South,” he told BP.
“There’s a corridor from Camden, N.J., all the way up to New York City that’s very highly populated with people but not very highly populated with Southern Baptist churches,” he said. “I hope God will be able to use me to help be a catalyst and an organizer and a leader to change that.”
Doster said his time leading the LBC has been a rewarding experience and he is honored to have served. He also expressed admiration for the Southern Baptist Convention and called it “the greatest network of Christians of any evangelical denomination in the history of man.”
Before taking the position as executive director in 1997, Doster served as a regional coordinator for the Home Mission Board (now North American Mission Board). He also served as an associate executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home and pastored several churches in Tennessee and Kentucky after being ordained to the ministry in 1973. He earned degrees from Bethel College in McKenzie, Tenn., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and Trinity Theological Seminary in Newburg, Ind.
The executive director search committee requests resumes for the position of executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention be prayerfully submitted by Aug. 15, 2004 to: Jim Law, c/o Executive Office, Louisiana Baptist Convention, P.O. Box 311, Alexandria, LA 71309.
Clayton, editor of the weekly Baptist Message for 26 years, announced his retirement effective Dec. 31, 2005.
“In August 2005, I will be 65 years old, and the time has come for Louisiana Baptists to hear a different voice on the editorial page of their Baptist Message and read a newer dream for the ministry of the paper,” Clayton said in a May 11 letter to newspaper trustees.
The significant advance notice of his retirement plans, Clayton said, was to allow a search committee adequate time to find a replacement.
“No one could have enjoyed a job more than I have enjoyed being editor of the Baptist Message,” Clayton said. “My love for Louisiana Baptists has grown every day for the 26 years I have been a part of their ministries.”
Clayton’s writings have received more than 25 awards of excellence from the Baptist Communicators Association and other news organizations. He has written two books, “No Second Class Christians,” and “10 Gifts Your Children Will Grow to Appreciate.” He has also served as interim pastor for 16 Louisiana Baptist churches and has been a member and officer of two SBC boards.
At the Baptist Message, Clayton helped increase the subscriptions of the paper to about 35,000 and engineered a redesign of the paper to an improved format, Nathan Luce, chairman of the trustees, told Baptist Press.
“He’s been a good editor, a good manager. He is going to be a difficult man to replace,” Luce said, noting a search committee is already in place and has had its first meeting.
Though he is retiring, Clayton said he does not expect to stop ministering.
“Certainly, I do not want to stop serving God after Dec. 31, 2005,” he wrote. “I believe God will provide other challenging ministry opportunities, and I look forward to pursuing whatever He has in store.
“The Baptist Message will always have my heart and prayers, and I will live whatever years God gives me on this earth with gratitude for having served as editor,” he concluded.
Clayton is a graduate of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He and his wife, Leah, have four grown children.
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(BP) photos posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo titles: DEAN DOSTER and LYNN CLAYTON.
