By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org
All of us have heard the term “Christian gentleman.” But if you look up the definition of what a Christian gentleman is, I doubt you will find one. You would have to look up the definitions of “Christian” and “gentleman” and come up with your own.
For me, the definition is easy. I can define “Christian gentleman” in two words — Bill Palmer. I first met Bro. Bill when I served on the staff of the former Education Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention in the early 1980s. Bro. Bill, then a pastor in Tennessee, served as a commissioner (trustee) of the SBC entity. He discovered that I had South Carolina ties (as did he) and he took an interest in me. We began forming a friendship that lasted until the day before Thanksgiving last week when he passed away at the age of 99. See story HERE. [Read more…]