Our last time together at dinner to celebrate 50th wedding anniversary of Bill and Kay Mackey
I've never mentioned this to anyone, but I have a private list of people who have most helped shape and impact my life. Sadly (for those of us left behind), another one of those near the top of that list passed away this morning after a year and a half battle with cancer.
Bill Mackey called our house one evening in 1985 when I was out renting a video. At that time Kathy and I were five years into "Bill Cox Abundant Life Ministries" (not yet dba Concoxions) and Bill was the Director of the Evangelism Department of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. Kathy answered the phone and told him I would be back soon. Bill told Kathy that he was calling to talk to me about becoming a part of the SCBC staff as his associate director, and asked if she thought I would be interested. She suggested he would need to talk with me about that. They chatted for a while and Bill said he would call back in about an hour. That gave me plenty of time to rehearse my "thanks, but no thanks" response for when he called back.
I was certainly honored that Bill was considering me for the position, but I had a strong list of reasons for why that wasn't going to happen. One of my biggest reasons was that we had invested too much into building Abundant Life Ministries/Concoxions to walk away from it. He understood and explained that we would be able to keep our ministry going alongside everything else I would be doing for the convention. He thought the two would complement each other. For each of my good questions, Bill had a better answer. As I started running out of reasons for saying no thank you, I remember saying, "Bill I don't know how much you really know about our ministry, but I don't like to do things the way they've always been done. I think God has called me to do things outside the box." He replied, "I know. That's one of the reasons I want you to come work with us." I was out of excuses. I thought if this man that I held in high esteem was willing to take a chance on me, then maybe I should be willing to take a chance as well. I am usually slow at making decisions, but after that hour-long conversation with Bill, I hung up the phone, and told Kathy, "I know this sounds crazy, but I think we're getting ready to move to Columbia."
I didn't know Bill very well when we made that move, but it didn't take long to realize that to know Bill Mackey was to love Bill Mackey. And I did. Bill was a great boss, but he was also a great friend. Our families also became good friends. Bill's and Kay's daughters, Anonda and Beth became babysitters for Christopher, Taylor, and eventually Shari. Beth later served on our summer staff, where she met her future husband, Bartley. The Mackeys were and are a wonderful family.
Bill was very much the kind of boss that I could flourish under. My position was Associate Director of the Evangelism Department which included responsibility for youth evangelism. Bill knew that my passion was for youth ministry and he made it possible for me to focus at least 95% of my time and effort in that area. Being OK with us doing things outside of the box wasn't just talk. He was tremendously supportive and encouraging even when we caught flak for things like daring to bring contemporary Christian music into our conferences at a time when some pastors thought and told us that music with drums and guitars was "straight from hell."
During my fifth year on staff, Mom died and Dad was not doing well. I told Bill that I believed I needed to resign and move back to Spartanburg to help take care of my father. Before my resignation became official, Dad died also, but by that time I was convinced that it was time to go back to devoting full time to Concoxions. Bill understood my commitment to Concoxions, but began to talk about the possibility of a consulting relationship between Concoxions and the SCBC. At first I had no interest, but as you may have figured out, at least with me, Bill could be pretty persuasive. An unprecedented arrangement was worked out for me to continue doing about 90% of what I was doing on a yearly contract basis that kept us working together for another seven years. Quite honestly, not everybody at the convention liked that arrangement, but that didn't deter Bill.
Going into our ninth year of summer youth conferences, I approached Bill with the unheard of idea of not bringing in a camp preacher each week, but instead presenting the message each night with original drama productions. I wanted to try it “for just one summer” because it would work so well with that summer’s theme. We knew we might get criticism from some who believed that “people can’t get saved without preaching” (and we did hear that at least once or twice). Bill made quite a few trips to White Oak Conference Center that summer (as he did most summers) to see first-hand how our experiment was working, and he rejoiced with us throughout the summer in seeing record numbers of students begin a relationship with Christ. At some point in the summer after yet another exciting night, Bill pulled me aside, grinned, and said “You know you’re not going to be able to go back to the old way of doing things.” And for three more years with the SCBC and 21 more years of Seesalt summer student conferences we didn’t go back. In addition to all the incredible ministry that took place at our conferences through extensive drama productions, we also built on that to do a summer of theater productions (“A Peace of ‘72”) at Fantasy Harbour in Myrtle Beach followed by establishing Concoxions Cornerstone Theatre where we did Christian theater productions for eight years.
God could have brought all this about in some other way, but apart from the encouragement and support of Bill Mackey, who knows for sure if any of that (and more) would have ever happened. I'm grateful to God and to Bill that it did.
It would be easy to portray Bill as a perfect Superman, but I will admit that there must have been some Kryptonite in our Evangelism Department staff meetings. It was not unusual for Bill to begin talking about something which would remind him of something else that led to a story about somebody and that somebody also once did something in a town where something else happened ... and an hour or so later, Bill would stop and ask what we were supposed to be talking about. The best rabbit chaser I've ever known could turn a good 10-15 minutes of agenda into a two-hour staff meeting. It was a small price to pay for the privilege of having Bill as our director.
Bill was a gifted preacher, teacher, thinker, and more, but I think where he really excelled was in relationships. Bill genuinely cared about people. And it showed. Pastors and others across our state and beyond knew that they had a trusted and passionate friend in Bill Mackey. That respect and admiration was well deserved.
Bill's leadership and ability was recognized and respected throughout the Southern Baptist Convention. During our time together, he had some attractive offers to take other positions including on a national level. There was one in particular that we both thought he would take. He tried to convince me that I should take his place as department director, but I had no desire to quit doing youth ministry. I don't think it would have, but we never got a chance to find out if his persuasive power over me would win out again. Bill was on his way to Atlanta to accept the position, but by the time he got to the airport (I can't remember if it was the Columbia or Atlanta airport) he decided that God wasn't through with him in South Carolina. He turned around and came home. To say that I was relieved and thankful would be an understatement.
The year after my contract with the SCBC ended, Bill did leave South Carolina in 1998 to become the Executive Director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention where he served well for 12 years before retiring. The picture with this post is from the last time I was with Bill nine years ago at a dinner celebrating his and Kay's 50th wedding anniversary. I loved seeing him surrounded by his adoring grandchildren, and marveled that these were the children of the two little girls who used to babysit our children.
It's a mistake to put anyone on a pedestal, including Christian leaders. Too often they fall off those pedestals, or at the very least when we really get to know them, we find out they're not who or what we thought they were. I hate to say it, but over the years I have been disappointed in and disillusioned by a lot of Christian leaders big and small. Sometimes you wish you didn't know the things you know. That was never the case with Bill.
In all our years of working together, there's probably a very few things I wish Bill had done differently. The more I got to know him, the more I respected, admired, and loved him. He was as real and authentic and incredibly humble as they come. Ego was not part of his makeup.
In the coming days as news of his passing spreads, I'll read a lot of great things about Bill Mackey. I just read someone refer to him as "the ultimate Christian gentleman." And I will believe and agree with all the wonderful things people will say and write.
When people used to ask me what I did at the convention, I would sometimes jokingly answer "I get paid to associate with Bill Mackey." Being his associate was an honor and privilege for which I will always be thankful.