Joyce Rogers prepares talk for MBC women
JEFFERSON CITY – Joyce Rogers, widow of Adrian Rogers and ambassador for Love Worth Finding Ministries as the legacy of the noted Southern Baptist pastor keeps on building through the power of broadcast media, is coming to the Oct. 31 Ministry Wives Luncheon at the 172nd annual meeting of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC).
In an interview with The Pathway, Joyce Rogers said she is excited to come to the Southeast Missouri State University Ballroom because she has “a real heart” for ministry wives. Since her husband died last Nov. 15, she has agreed to do some public speaking on a case-by-case basis. In that context, she is glad to come to Cape Girardeau to address the MBC luncheon theme of “Leaving a Legacy,” honoring her more than 50 years as a pastor’s wife, 32 of those being invested at Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova, Tenn.
“I don’t really see myself taking just multitudes of engagements and being overwhelmed with it right now,” she said. “I have four children. Three live out of town and one is a missionary in Spain. I have nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild, so I do want to spend some time visiting them, but as the Lord lays it on my heart I will go and speak.”
Rogers said she is working on a message for Missouri Baptist women about coming under the shadow of God’s wings. She wants to communicate how a ministry wife would get to that place, and what a ministry wife would find once she gets there. God has been teaching her many things this past year, she said, but perhaps the greatest wisdom that He keeps on imparting to her is the importance of dependence on Him.
In an odd yet beautiful way, God keeps ministering to her daily needs through a very familiar voice on a certain popular radio program.
“I am a regular listener to Love Worth Finding,” she said. “He comes on at 7 o’clock every morning. I wondered how that would be.
“I somehow don’t seem to have a problem in listening to him in his preacher role. The personal memories get a little bit harder. I think as long as it is a listener-supported ministry—there’s been a lot of support for it—and as long as people will support it, then it will go on, but we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Love Worth Finding goes out on more than 2,000 radio stations and translators and more than 14,000 TV outlets into more than 150 nations around the world.
Registration for the Ministry Wives Luncheon remains open until Oct. 25. Contact Becki Kelley at (800) 736-6227, ext. 202, or register online at www.mobaptist.org/ministerswives. Cost is $10.75.
A beautiful, quilted, log cabin wall hanging handcrafted by Betty Cord, mother of MBC Executive Director David Clippard, will be given away during the luncheon.