by Keith Bassham, Tribune Editor 2002-2015
In September, when BBFI President Eddie Lyons made a presentation to my wife and myself at the September BBFI meeting, he asked if I would like to say something. I did want to, but I knew my comments might become a rambling recollection of events and people who deserved more organized thought, and so I demurred at the time. This is the speech I would have wanted to make that evening.
I will begin by saying it has been an honor to serve our Fellowship in this office. The editor’s job is not always what one might think. I consider that the job is a high office only in the sense that it is highly visible, and that it gives one a good overall view of things. And I got a good parking space.
That wide and expansive view has given me opportunity to be a confidant and adviser to six BBFI presidents, five college presidents, two mission directors, and numerous other leaders throughout the Fellowship. Our exchanges have run from the routine and mundane to important policy matters. Some of my counsel was rejected, but at least someone bothered to ask. Better that than working with and around a lot of know-it-alls.
And so I leave this office with a profound sense of thanks. Being here has meant seeing and doing far more than I ever thought probable. I am humbled to know the product of my mind and heart receives the attention of people around the world, and that through this medium I have exercised influence vastly greater than I could have supposed as my ministry began nearly 50 years ago.
I want to thank the individuals who have made this experience possible. I begin that list with those nearby. My two closest work companions the past several years have been Karri Joy Perry and Rob Walker. Karri joined the Tribune not long after I became editor. She was, and continues to be, the lead office administrator, but her role has expanded considerably in every way, making her irreplaceable.
Rob came to us nine years ago when Tom Harper, whose friendship I continue to enjoy and value, departed the Tribune. Replacing Tom as an editor and writer was difficult enough, but Rob has also gone on to create an enhanced position, responsible for the look and feel of the Tribune. Especially since taking on the design role, his fingerprints are on every page, and I have depended on him far more than anyone knows. Hardly anything I have done at the Tribune can compare in importance with adding Rob and Karri to the mix, and I shall miss working alongside them as much as anything.
Working back from the present, I am so very thankful that Mike Randall saw promise in me and offered a position at the Tribune when he became editor. In many ways, he never left the Tribune as his influence remains, and that is apparent to a watchful eye. The same is true of former editor James Combs, whose agile mind and imagination stoked the Tribune in the 80s and 90s, and he was a valued friend and adviser until his death.
And around me are good friends and encouraging supporters — pastors, missionaries, church members — some of whom were instrumental in my coming to the Tribune and keeping me there. I can only list here those individuals whose contributions to my life have been so longstanding that any account of my life would be incomplete without their mention. There is Joe Carrell, the high school friend who led me to Christ. Dan Bray was my discipling pastor who shepherded me as I responded to the call to Gospel ministry as a teen, and the one who gave me my first real ministry job after college. There are pastors who poured significant resources into my life as I was being prepared for the Tribune — among them S. G. Hancock, Bill Carter, Dave Hardy, Joe Tuttle. And others who came along during my Tribune years — Billy Hamm, Gary Grey, Steve Van Winkle, Keith Gillming, and those BBFI officials I mentioned earlier.
And I should mention teachers I had at BBC — Jim Sewell, Bill Dowell (both father and son), Ken Gillming, and Marcia Wofford in particular. Certainly the people in the churches I served, both before and after I came to the Tribune, have left footprints for which I am also grateful.
Finally, I must publicly thank my wife Shari. Next to her, all other influences mentioned in this column grow dim. As my wife and the mother of our children, Shari has made countless sacrifices. She worked many years outside the home so I could serve churches “full time.” She understood — or at least remained supportive — when I spent money for a book or tuition, money that could have gone toward a pair of shoes or a dress or a dinner out. She played the piano, directed the children’s choir, ran the junior church, kept three boys (relatively) quiet during church, and made sure no criticism of our family was legitimate. She sympathetically listens to my gripes, and she appears interested when I read her my first drafts of sermons and articles. And she has done that sort of thing more than 40 years. There ought to be a medal for that somewhere.
Baptist Bible Fellowship International, it was an honor.