LaVerne Butler
Encyclopedia
LaVerne L. Butler was a prominent Southern Baptist pastor and college president in Kentucky
who was a leader in the "Conservative Resurgence" in his denomination during the 1970s
and 1980s
.
in northern Kentucky, Butler was a son of Willis Butler and the former Linda Cosby. He attended Georgetown College, a Baptist-affiliated institution in Georgetown
, Kentucky, and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
in Louisville, Kentucky. He was pastor for more than a half century at churches in Kentucky, Indiana
, Florida
, and Illinois
. He served full-time at seven congregations and on an interim basis at three others.
, Kentucky. Under his ministry there, the church grew from 2,800 to 4,600 members and baptized
2,823 confessed believers. Ninth & O began a radio ministry that featured his preaching in 1970 and a daily television program beginning in 1972. Ninth & O began seven new churches under Butler's tenure. It also operated a school. Sunday morning services were televised on a Louisville station.
Under Butler, Ninth & O was one of only two or three conservative congregations within the Southern Baptist denomination in the Louisville metropolitan area. Physically close to the Southern Seminary, Butler challenged the modernist and liberal theology then being taught there. He encouraged conservative students during the height of the Conservative Resurgence movement that began in the latter 1970s. He criticized the seminary professor Dale Moody for Moody's claim that a Christian
believer could fall from grace and lose his salvation
. When Moody appeared at Ninth & O one Sunday to confront Butler, the latter remained calm and gracious. Butler was involved in wider Southern Baptist life too through a network of conservative pastors who supported the resurgence and known as the Baptist Faith and Message Fellowship.
Butler left Ninth and O to become president of Mid-Continent University
, a theologically conservative institution in Mayfield
in Graves County
in western Kentucky. Founded in 1949 and formerly known as Mid-Continent Baptist Bible College, Mid-Continent gained accreditation under Butler's stewardship in 1992. He worked to expand the university curriculum and served there until his retirement in 1997. While in Mayfield, he attended the Northside Baptist Church.
During the Conservative Resurgence movement, Butler acquired national attention through the Southern Baptist Convention
with his repeated sermon, "Will the Real Southern Baptist Please Stand Up," a call for biblical orthodoxy and the belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. Paul Pressler, a retired judge in Houston
, Texas
, and one of the key leaders in the Conservative Resurgence, in his book A Hill on Which to Die, calls Butler one of the "heroes of the resurgence." Pressler further describes Butler's "soul-winning evangelistic ministry" as having been "well-known and respected, not only in Kentucky, but . . . throughout the SBC."
David Alan Butler (born 1952), older son of LaVerne Butler and the lead pastor of CenterPoint Church in Concord
, New Hampshire
, recalls that his father worked many years to help the resurgence succeed. "The theme for his life, and I think this captures him more than anything else, is . . . Ephesians 4:15: Speaking the truth in love. That's the caption that goes across Dad's life. There was a not a mean spirit in him, but he never compromised his positions. He was synonymous with taking a stand but always speaking the truth in love. That is the big headline of his life."
, Kentucky, where he had retired and formerly twice served in an interim capacity. He is interred at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville. Butler was twice married. On the death of Lillian Kiser Butler, his wife of fifty-seven years and mother of his three children, he wed the former Shirley Patton (born 1929), who survives him. His other children are Sandra B. Hodge (born 1949) of Princeton
in Caldwell County
in western Kentucky and Richard C. Butler (born 1958), a minister in West Lafayette
, Indiana. He had ten grandchildren, thirteen great-grandchildren, and two stepchildren.
Mid-Continent University has plans to build a 500-seat chapel to be named the "LaVerne Butler Memorial Chapel." In 2008, Butler was honored for a "lifetime of sacrificial service" with the unveiling of his portrait at the Ashland Avenue Baptist Church.
Randy Sweazy of Bardstown
, Kentucky, wrote in Butler's guest book: "He was always so happy and full of life. Who can forget the orange sports coat at Halloween
, or the yellow one at Easter
? His legacy lives on in all that went to school at 9th & 0."
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
who was a leader in the "Conservative Resurgence" in his denomination during the 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
and 1980s
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
.
Background
Born in Henderson CountyHenderson County, Kentucky
Henderson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1799. As the latest census data update of 2010, the population was counted 46,250. The county seat is the City of Henderson. The county was named for Colonel Richard Henderson who originally purchased of land...
in northern Kentucky, Butler was a son of Willis Butler and the former Linda Cosby. He attended Georgetown College, a Baptist-affiliated institution in Georgetown
Georgetown, Kentucky
Georgetown is a city in Scott County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 29,098 at the 2010 census. The original settlement of Lebanon, founded by Rev. Elijah Craig, was renamed in 1790 in honor of President George Washington. It is the home of Georgetown College, a private liberal arts...
, Kentucky, and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary , located in Louisville, Kentucky, is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention . The seminary was founded in 1859, at Greenville, South Carolina. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to Louisville...
in Louisville, Kentucky. He was pastor for more than a half century at churches in Kentucky, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. He served full-time at seven congregations and on an interim basis at three others.
Ministry
His last major pastorate was from 1969-1988 at the large Ninth & O Baptist Church in LouisvilleLouisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
, Kentucky. Under his ministry there, the church grew from 2,800 to 4,600 members and baptized
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
2,823 confessed believers. Ninth & O began a radio ministry that featured his preaching in 1970 and a daily television program beginning in 1972. Ninth & O began seven new churches under Butler's tenure. It also operated a school. Sunday morning services were televised on a Louisville station.
Under Butler, Ninth & O was one of only two or three conservative congregations within the Southern Baptist denomination in the Louisville metropolitan area. Physically close to the Southern Seminary, Butler challenged the modernist and liberal theology then being taught there. He encouraged conservative students during the height of the Conservative Resurgence movement that began in the latter 1970s. He criticized the seminary professor Dale Moody for Moody's claim that a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
believer could fall from grace and lose his salvation
Salvation
Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...
. When Moody appeared at Ninth & O one Sunday to confront Butler, the latter remained calm and gracious. Butler was involved in wider Southern Baptist life too through a network of conservative pastors who supported the resurgence and known as the Baptist Faith and Message Fellowship.
Butler left Ninth and O to become president of Mid-Continent University
Mid-Continent University
Mid-Continent University is a four-year, liberal arts Christian institution located near Mayfield, Kentucky.- History :The university opened in January 1949 in Clinton, Kentucky. The University is now located four miles north of Mayfield....
, a theologically conservative institution in Mayfield
Mayfield, Kentucky
As of the census of 2000, there were 10,349 people, 4,358 households, and 2,667 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,549.8 people per square mile . There were 4,907 housing units at an average density of 734.8 per square mile...
in Graves County
Graves County, Kentucky
Graves County is a county located in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. It was formed in 1824. As of 2000, the population was 37,028. Its county seat is Mayfield. The county is named for Major Benjamin Franklin Graves, soldier in the War of 1812...
in western Kentucky. Founded in 1949 and formerly known as Mid-Continent Baptist Bible College, Mid-Continent gained accreditation under Butler's stewardship in 1992. He worked to expand the university curriculum and served there until his retirement in 1997. While in Mayfield, he attended the Northside Baptist Church.
During the Conservative Resurgence movement, Butler acquired national attention through the Southern Baptist Convention
Southern Baptist Convention
The Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...
with his repeated sermon, "Will the Real Southern Baptist Please Stand Up," a call for biblical orthodoxy and the belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. Paul Pressler, a retired judge in Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, and one of the key leaders in the Conservative Resurgence, in his book A Hill on Which to Die, calls Butler one of the "heroes of the resurgence." Pressler further describes Butler's "soul-winning evangelistic ministry" as having been "well-known and respected, not only in Kentucky, but . . . throughout the SBC."
David Alan Butler (born 1952), older son of LaVerne Butler and the lead pastor of CenterPoint Church in Concord
Concord, New Hampshire
The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, recalls that his father worked many years to help the resurgence succeed. "The theme for his life, and I think this captures him more than anything else, is . . . Ephesians 4:15: Speaking the truth in love. That's the caption that goes across Dad's life. There was a not a mean spirit in him, but he never compromised his positions. He was synonymous with taking a stand but always speaking the truth in love. That is the big headline of his life."
Death and legacy
Services for Butler were held on December 20 at the Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in LexingtonLexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
, Kentucky, where he had retired and formerly twice served in an interim capacity. He is interred at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville. Butler was twice married. On the death of Lillian Kiser Butler, his wife of fifty-seven years and mother of his three children, he wed the former Shirley Patton (born 1929), who survives him. His other children are Sandra B. Hodge (born 1949) of Princeton
Princeton, Kentucky
Princeton is a city in Caldwell County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 6,329 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Caldwell County.-History:...
in Caldwell County
Caldwell County, Kentucky
As of the census of 2010, there were 12,984 people, with 6,292 households in the county.-Communities:*Bakers*Baldwin Ford*Black Hawk*The Bluff*Cedar Bluff*Claxton*Cobb*Cresswell*Crider*Crowtown*Enon*Farmersville*Flat Rock*Friendship*Fryer...
in western Kentucky and Richard C. Butler (born 1958), a minister in West Lafayette
West Lafayette, Indiana
As of the census of 2010, there were 29,596 people, 12,591 households, and 3,588 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,381.1 people per square mile . The racial makeup of the city was 74.3% White, 17.3% Asian, 2.7% African American, 0.16% Native American, 0.03% Pacific...
, Indiana. He had ten grandchildren, thirteen great-grandchildren, and two stepchildren.
Mid-Continent University has plans to build a 500-seat chapel to be named the "LaVerne Butler Memorial Chapel." In 2008, Butler was honored for a "lifetime of sacrificial service" with the unveiling of his portrait at the Ashland Avenue Baptist Church.
Randy Sweazy of Bardstown
Bardstown, Kentucky
As of the census of 2010, there were 11,700 people, 4,712 households, and 2,949 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 5,113 housing units at an average density of...
, Kentucky, wrote in Butler's guest book: "He was always so happy and full of life. Who can forget the orange sports coat at Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
, or the yellow one at Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
? His legacy lives on in all that went to school at 9th & 0."