Midwestern honors Jim Hefley with Christian writing emphasis

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--Writer James C. Hefley, whose works range from his zesty, homespun story of growing up in the Ozarks to his exhaustive account of 70 years of Southern Baptist history, has been honored by a master's-level emphasis in Christian writing at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

One of the nation's foremost religion writers, Hefley has told stories of modern-day missionary martyrs, Ozark Mountain Christians and denominational personalities and ministries. He also has written the histories of the Christian Life Commission (now Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission) and the Home Mission Board (now North American Mission Board).

"We want to encourage the development of anointed, effectual writers of Hefley's caliber and to awaken and foster such competencies in the range of ministers who pass through the seminary," Midwestern President Mark Coppenger told seminary trustees during their regular meeting last fall in Kansas City, Mo.

During that meeting, trustees voted to establish an emphasis in honor of Hefley to promote the "art and craft" of Christian writing. The seminary currently is seeking endowment funding for the program, which will enable students to complete a master of divinity with an emphasis in Christian writing. Christian writers' conferences, writing courses and a journal of pastoral writing are among the ways Midwestern Seminary plans to honor Hefley's ministry.

Coppenger lauded Hefley in his recommendation to trustees. "One can scarcely estimate the strategic impact his writing has had upon the evangelical community in general and Southern Baptists in particular," Coppenger commented. "Hefley writes with acumen, humility, integrity and clarify of expression. He is loved and trusted because of his firm commitment to Christ's Great Commission, and the inerrancy of the Bible saturates his work."

Hefley has authored or coauthored hundreds of magazine articles and more than 70 books, including "By Their Blood: Christian Martyrs of the 20th Century," published by Baker Press, and the "Truth in Crisis" series, which he self-published through Hannibal Books, culminating with the volume "The Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention." In addition, Hefley is a popular Staley Foundation Lecturer and writes a provocative column, titled "The Hefley Report," for the Indiana Baptist newspaper.

Hefley also serves as an adjunct professor at Hannibal-LaGrange College and has directed the Baptist college's Mark Twain Writers Conference for 13 years.

Most of all, Hefley is a man committed to effective and accurate communication. Plunking away on a dusty, smudged keyboard in a second-story Victorian home office, Hefley lives and works in historic Hannibal, Mo. He makes time for walks along the Mississippi River which borders the hometown of Mark Twain. Hefley finds Twain's style inspiring, noting the popular American writer "wrote as he spoke."

"To communicate you have to learn to tell stories," Hefley smiled, his bushy eyebrows raised humorously over twinkling dark eyes. "Any Baptist preacher can learn from Mark Twain," he said, noting great preachers tell stories, following the pattern of Jesus.

Hefley holds bachelor of arts and honorary doctor of letters degrees from Ouachita Baptist University, a master of divinity degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in mass communications from the University of Tennessee. He has been writing stories since the early 1960s when he completed the Christian Writer's Institute at Wheaton, Ill. His first story sold for an impressive $80.

Ironically, Hefley's early years did not foreshadow a life dedicated to ministry. At age 13, Hefley founded a prosperous, but illegal, gambling enterprise in his family's general store in the small Ozark mountain town of Mt. Judy.

"I didn't grow up in an ecclesiastical world," Hefley chuckled, recalling his early days as a Big Creek Valley boy in Newton County, Ark. In his book, "Way Back When" (a sequel to best-seller "Way Back in the Hills"), Hefley recalls sermons on the store porch, in the arbor and at the high school, preached by a hodgepodge of Baptists, Church of Christ, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Pentecostal folk.

A Southern Baptist preacher, Otis Denney, made an impact on the headstrong young man one Sunday evening during services held in young Hefley's living room. The tall, ungainly teenager finally made a profession of faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord.

"My life took a sharp U-turn. I smashed my gambling stuff and started praying about what I could do to honor God with the rest of my life," Hefley wrote of that experience. He also came to believe that Baptists were truer to Scripture than any of the others.

Hefley was different in more ways than one. Homeschooled through the eighth grade, he was far ahead of his peers academically. In 1950, at age 17, he received a bachelor of arts degree from Ouachita Baptist University and began studies as a "preacher boy" at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He met and married Marti, his "Yankee bride" from Michigan, who shared his passion for reaching people and sharing the love of Jesus. Together, they planted two churches in New Orleans.

Hefley has pastored an assortment of churches since that time, and currently pastors South Union Baptist Church in Maywood, Mo., about 40 miles outside of Hannibal. "As pastor of our church, he is so loving that everybody is the same to him," commented Loretta Bringer, a Midwestern Seminary trustee whose church membership is at South Union Baptist. "It doesn't matter if you're the president of something or the janitor. He makes our church that way."

Bringer said that for a person who has written about "all aspects of the good and bad of the SBC," Hefley has maintained a "loving and fair attitude." It's the example she believes must be set for Christian writing. Her church has honored Hefley by contributing to the Christian writing emphasis at Midwestern.

Included in the long list of Southern Baptist leaders who have applauded Hefley's journalistic endeavors in chronicling Southern Baptist issues and events are former SBC Home Mission Board President Larry Lewis, SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Richard Land and fellow journalist Louis Moore who now writes for the International Mission Board.

Lewis praised Hefley for his diligence in interviewing people on both sides of issues and in quoting them carefully and correctly. Having served at the helm of the Home Mission Board, Lewis acknowledged "heads of denominational institutions may not always appreciate the media, except when they are saying good things about us, but we need press scrutiny from all sides."

Land said Hefley "has not been a disinterested observer," but cares deeply about Southern Baptists. "Like many of us, he has friends of long standing on various sides of the disagreements among us," Land said, noting that Hefley "has worked very hard at trying to get the whole story and to tell it as clearly as possible." Land commended Hefley for trying earnestly "to be balanced and fair."

While serving as religion editor at the Houston Chronicle, Louis Moore praised Hefley's coverage of controversy within the Southern Baptist Convention. "He has doggedly pursued angles to the story when other reporters have given up and gone home for rest and recovery from the tumultuous annual conventions."

Encouraging aspiring writers to develop their God-given ability is a hallmark of Hefley's career. In directing and developing the Mark Twain Writers Conference, and through other seminar and workshop settings, Hefley has established a following of writers in many genres--among them ministers, media professionals and writers for Christian magazines and for Baptist Press.

Hefley cautions believers to be aware of "plain old egotism" as they learn how to communicate with the media. "Preachers, too often, come out swinging and yelling `media bias,'" he said. "That's a cultural supposition. I have never found a secular reporter I couldn't get along with.

"If preachers are going to learn how to promote their ideas and activities, they need to learn to love and accept media people, including editors," Hefley advised. "Commend them. Never fuss at them. Public relations is plain old accepting people whom God loves and getting to know and love them."

Individuals interested in honoring Hefley with contributions to the endowment should contact Harold Poage at the Office of Institutional Advancement, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 5001 N. Oak Trafficway, Kansas City, MO 64118 or by calling 1-888-MBTS123.