WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (ABP) — Jack Causey, a fixture in North Carolina Baptist life for a half century, will retire from the Center for Congregational Health at the end of May.
To honor him, the Center’s board of directors has established the Jack Causey Fund for Young Leaders.
Causey became involved with the Center to mentor graduates of its Young Leaders’ Program in 1996 while still pastor of First Baptist Church in Statesville, N.C., from where he retired in 2000 after 14 years. He remained available to them even as his mentoring role with the Center expanded to include any ministers associated with the Center for Congregational Health.
By phone or in person, Causey, a Mississippi native, advised and encouraged in a distinctive bass voice rich with the wisdom nurtured in years of congregational leadership. Sometimes Causey counseled ministers considering job changes — a duty that expanded when he was hired part time by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina as its ministerial resources coordinator.
Causey, 76, will continue to work with CBF/NC.
Causey has been called the “Center’s ambassador of goodwill,” a role he will continue in spirit as he wrote in a letter announcing his retirement, “I will continue to support its ministry and encourage ministers and churches to use the staff of the Center as a positive resource as they seek to become what God intends for them to be.”
Since his ordination in 1959, Causey served as pastor or associate pastor for five churches and as interim pastor for four others. He and his wife, Mary Lib, have been married 52 years.
“For many people, including me, Jack Causey represents what a healthy minister looks and acts like,” said Center President Bill Wilson. “I have known Jack since he and my father pastored in the same city 50 years ago. He has personified excellence, compassion, creativity and genuine joy for an entire generation of ministers and laity.”
The Jack Causey Fund for Young Leaders will provide scholarships for participants in the Young Leaders’ Program. Address: Center for Congregational Health, Inc., Medical Center Boulevard, Winston Salem, N.C. 27157-1098. Designate “Causey Fund.”
During his career, Causey served two terms as president of the general board of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, and on the board of trustees for Baptist Retirement Homes of North Carolina.
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Norman Jameson is reporting and coordinating special projects for ABP on an interim basis. He is former editor of the North Carolina Biblical Recorder.
