Randy Davis
I stopped by one afternoon in December to visit Bill Choate, the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board’s incomparable state director of Baptist Collegiate Ministries. It was a couple of weeks before his passing. Bill was quintessentially Bill, despite being on home hospice after doctors told him there was nothing more they could do for him.
He welcomed me in and we chatted for a while. He was gracious, thoughtful, introspective, whimsical and sharp with his wit. We talked about our families and compared notes on grandchildren. He talked about a longtime colleague who had visited earlier in the day. So many friends and colleagues visited Bill since his cancer diagnosis and surgery last summer.
I then asked Bill a question I’ve asked him before. “What advice would you give me?” That’s an open-ended question for Bill Choate.
He could impart wisdom on a variety of topics. He was a man of incredibly diverse interests. He built from sprocket up the bicycle he rode more than 2,000 miles a year. He loved jazz. He rebuilt houses. He consumed countless books on a variety of topics during his thousands of miles traveling the roads of Tennessee and beyond. He loved history and science.
Bill Choate, pictured here early in his ministry, chatting with Will Campbell, served with the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board for more than four decades. — Contributed photo
I considered Bill an intellectual and a theologian, and unique in his ability to communicate incredibly complex ideas using the simplest of language. He never talked down to his audience. He just always knew his audience and related to people on their terms.
So asking Bill that question could have gone several directions. He had a four-decades-long tenure with the ministry I serve and lead so he knew what I was looking for. This wasn’t the first time I sought his perspective.
For instance, I drew from his well of wisdom in March 2020 when the global COVID-19 pandemic hit. I brought Bill into our executive leadership team to lead some various specific COVID-related initiatives and to simply have my brother’s wisdom as close to me as possible as we attempted to serve Tennessee Baptists through something none of us had ever experienced.
Bill was invaluable in helping formulate ways for TBMB employees to anchor themselves to the mission God gave us, finding creative and innovative ways to support and serve the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s pastors, ministers and churches.
After the intensity of COVID slowed, Bill quietly migrated back to normal responsibilities, until I called on him again to serve as point for other initiatives that needed his steady demeanor, wisdom, and reasoned judgment.
And that is what I was seeking on this day. I was open to any word of advice from my longtime friend who was a mountain of a life well lived. He paused a moment and with thoughtfulness and humility, he cocked his head and said with a respectful countenance: “Just take what the Lord gives you.”
Simply profound and profoundly simple. Just like Bill Choate. Even in the midst of a battle for life, Bill deferred to the goodness and wisdom of the God he loved and served.
Unfortunately for those of us left behind, Bill slipped into eternity and into the arms of Jesus. I will miss him and I grieve at the loss, but I thank God for the gift he gave me in walking and working with this giant of a man for the last 16 years. However, I also rejoice that Bill is healed and that one day we will sit together again. I’m looking forward to that visit.
It has been my joy to be on a portion of this life’s journey with Bill Choate. B&R
