Adrian Rogers

Adrian Rogers

Adrian Pierce Rogers (September 12, 1931 – November 15, 2005) served three terms as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (1979–1980 and 1986–1988), a Southern Baptist pastor, and a conservative author.

Rogers was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, and decided to enter into the Christian ministry at the age of nineteen. He graduated from Stetson University and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Rogers was ordained by Northwood Baptist Church (now known as The Village Baptist Church) in West Palm Beach. His first job as a senior pastor was at Fellsmere Baptist Church, a small congregation in Fellsmere, Florida. He performed his first baptism in the C-54 Canal, near Fellsmere. In 1972, he became the senior pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, where he remained until March 2005. During this period, the church's membership grew from 9,000 to 29,000, and the church moved into a new, megachurch facility. Rogers was named pastor emeritus after his retirement in March 2005.

Rogers was instrumental in the Southern Baptist denomination's shift towards the right that began in the late 1970s, as he was elected president of the denomination during a theological controversy within the denomination known as the Southern Baptist Convention conservative resurgence.

He published eighteen books and his works are featured on the internationally available radio and television program, Love Worth Finding, which is broadcast in English and Spanish. Rogers was also the founder of the Adrian Rogers Pastor Training Institute for ministers, which is currently headed by his widow, two sons, and a granddaughter.

In November 2005, Rogers contracted pneumonia of both lungs as a complication of colon cancer treatments, and died following a period of mechanical ventilation at the age of seventy-four.