These are the final few paragraphs I will write to my Illinois Baptist family as IBSA’s Executive Director, and I want to express gratitude for so many things.
Thank you for welcoming my family and me back to Illinois after almost nine years at the North American Mission Board in Georgia. As I’ve written and said many times, I felt trust and partnership from the beginning, thanks in part to my dad’s reputation and relationships, and his 34 years writing practical, biblical counsel here in the Illinois Baptist.
Thank you for your support and friendship, Illinois Baptists, and thank you again, Dad.
I also want to express appreciation for the ten men who preceded me in this role, including Noel Taylor and IBSA’s first Executive Director B.F. Rodman, both of whom served more than 19 years. While I didn’t know either man personally, I now have a much deeper respect and understanding of what it takes to stay.
I want to thank the devoted IBSA staff, especially those with whom I have served personally, but also the many retired and former staff who have been so supportive and encouraging. We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.
Pastors and associational leaders, thank you for inviting me to your part of the state for so many wonderful church or associational anniversaries. These have ranged from five years to more than 200 years. Each one gave me an appreciation of your unique ministry setting and history, and an up-close view of your current challenges.
Illinois Baptist church members, thank you for sharing with me not only your churches’ victories and advances with the gospel, but also your tragedies and disasters, your sometimes difficult leadership transitions, and even your grief. It’s during those times that we draw close and remember that our Baptist family is much larger than we realize.
Thank you also for your continuing faithfulness to both God’s Word and to our cooperative mission of taking the gospel to our Acts 1:8 mission fields together. My season with you has not been easy, as we’ve walked through a great recession, a worldwide pandemic, a culture that runs counter to many of our biblical beliefs, and many distractions even within our Baptist family.
In fact, Gallup recently reported that Americans in general have been getting “grumpier” for the past two decades. Their regular monthly survey series has shown that public satisfaction with “the way things are going” was over 70% at the turn of the Millennium, then dropped below 50% in 2004 and is now down another 20 points to only 23%. And I thought it was just me!
Yet, we haven’t grown weary, or grumpy, in well doing. Through it all, the Lord has provided for our shared mission through the generosity and missional engagement of his faithful churches. Thousands have been baptized and discipled. Hundreds of new churches have been started. Countless pastors and leaders have been equipped. Thank you for helping make that possible.
Our hundreds of churches are spread over a vast and diverse state. Yet, over the past 20 years, we’ve celebrated the 100th Anniversary of IBSA, the 300th anniversary of the Baptist Association in America (both in 2007), the 50th Anniversary of the IBSA Building in Springfield (in 2021), and the 100th anniversaries of both the Baptist Faith & Message and Cooperative Program (in 2025).
So, thank you. These are signposts of lasting and resilient faith, shared by a wonderful Illinois Baptist family that this state desperately needs. You will continue to be my family, and I love you. Dad told me I would.
Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association. Respond at IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org.