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KBC Executive Director Announces Retirement
10/12/2010
LOUISVILLE – Kentucky Baptist Convention Executive Director Bill Mackey announced today plans to retire at the end of May after more than 13 years of leading one of the state’s largest religious organizations.
Click here to read Dr. Mackey's letter to the Administrative Committee.
Mackey, 69, has served in the position since February 1998, replacing Bill Marshall who retired in 1997. He said he and his wife, Kay, plan to move to North Carolina to be nearer to children and grandchildren.
Speaking first to the KBC Mission Board’s Administrative Committee and then to Mission Board staff, Mackey said he made the announcement with a mixture of gratitude and sorrow.
"It has been one of the great privileges of my life and ministry to serve our Lord Jesus Christ by serving the Kentucky Baptist Mission Board and Kentucky Baptists…," he said in a letter to the Administrative Committee.
Mackey said that when he took the position he knew "the turn of the century would be a time of transition" and that it was "gratifying to experience God’s leadership with Kentucky Baptists."
In his letter, Mackey praised Mission Board staff, Convention leaders, KBC’s agencies and institutions and Kentucky Baptists in general.
"I have long admired the willingness of Kentucky Baptists to really stretch in order to cooperate in the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ," he said. In another part of the letter, he added, "I praise God for the cooperation, missions effort, encouragement and prayers of Kentucky Baptists. It is my prayer that Kentucky Baptists will continue to be the unique, missions-focused, cooperating people that God has blessed so richly."
KBC President Don Mathis praised Mackey for his leadership.
"At the time of his election, I was convinced that he was God's man to lead us. From then until now, I have year by year become more and more convinced of that fact," Mathis said. "What a great and godly man! At this time, I join with all Kentucky Baptists at being saddened by his retirement announcement. I pray that God will continue to bless his ministry in new areas of service and give to him and Kay years of good health and abundant blessings."
Mackey’s tenure has been one known for a strong emphasis on evangelism and missions. Under his leadership, Kentucky developed international partnerships with Baptists in Tanzania, Poland and Brazil as well as a domestic partnership with the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware. An existing partnership with the Baptist Convention of New England was also extended.
Church planting has been a major emphasis and development of "high impact churches" that were started with the mindset that they would quickly grow into churches that sponsored new churches themselves occurred under his leadership.
The KBC was a key partner with the Tony Evans Crusade in Louisville in 2000 and the Billy Graham Crusade in Louisville in 2001. In 2009, the convention was instrumental in the success of the Crossover ’09 evangelistic emphasis just ahead of the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Louisville.
More recently, the KBC was an active partner in the Find it Here evangelistic campaign that saw Kentucky Baptists deliver a Gospel message to more than 1.3 million Kentucky homes earlier this year.
The Find it Here campaign was a hallmark of another Mackey priority – building strong partnerships with associations and directors of missions. Implementation of Find it Here took a high level of cooperation between KBC staff, associations, local churches, the Kentucky WMU and North American Mission Board.
Kentucky Baptists also engaged in numerous major disaster relief responses during Mackey’s tenure including the World Trade Center attack in 2001, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Kentucky ice storm of 2009 and the Haiti earthquake in 2010.
His leadership brought the reorganization of the Mission Board staff into a team structure that focused on a servant approach to meeting the needs of churches across the state. In 2005, he also led the staff through the relocation of the Kentucky Baptist Building to new facilities more conducive to 21st century ministry.
Through his leadership, Shepherding the Shepherd and Joshua Project conferences for leaders were begun to help meet specific needs of pastors and their spouses.
Mackey’s greatest legacy may be his tireless effort to encourage Kentucky Baptists to keep working together even through times of change. To this end, he drove more than 300,000 miles and spoke more than 1,500 times at churches and events across the state. His tenure saw committees to study the Baptist Faith and Message, the relationship with Georgetown College, and, most recently ways Kentucky Baptists can better fulfill the Great Commission.
He also worked with a Mission Study Committee in 2003 to establish clear goals and direction for the Convention through Kentucky Baptists Connect, a five-year emphasis that was extended last year for three additional years.
A South Carolina native, Mackey came to the Kentucky Baptist Convention following a successful tenure as director of the Leadership Development and Evangelism Growth Team of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
That move to Kentucky was a homecoming of sorts after he had served as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Whitesburg from 1969-1979 prior to his call to denominational service in South Carolina.
He is a graduate of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (D. Min., 1979; B.D., 1967); Furman University (B.A., 1963) and North Greenville College (A.A., 1961).
The Kentucky Baptist Convention is a cooperative missions and ministry organization made up of nearly 2.400 autonomous Baptist churches in Kentucky. A variety of state and worldwide ministries are coordinated through its administrative offices in Louisville, including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more. For more, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
