I grew up in Memphis while a member of Bellevue Baptist from 1975 to 1983 and I hear Manley Beasley speak many times. Actually I got to hear him speak one last time in 1990 at Bellevue at the Nationwide Bible Conference hosted by Adrian Rogers. Actually Dr. Rogers preached Manley Beasley’s funeral later that year.
What a great man was Manley Beasley and Ed Litton of North Mobile Baptist Church does a great job in this article below:
Death is a Process
Manley Beasley preached his last message to the Southern Baptist Convention in June of 1990 in New Orleans. In that powerful and prophetic message he made this statement: “Long before we have a funeral, death sets in. We seem to have the idea that death only occurs when we have a funeral.” Manley was right; we miss the fact that death is a long-term process in the life of an individual, a church or a denomination.How can we as Southern Baptists make needed corrections if we keep missing this point? Our denomination is in a state of death and decay. Must we, as some suggest, ignore the signs of dying in the Southern Baptist family? Must we wait until the funeral to admit we are in the throes of death? Please do not say that our problem need only be solved with money. Our deepest need cannot be fixed by money. Money is one of the leading symptoms of our dying. Other symptoms are disunity, character assassination of brothers who don’t toe the line, control and cynicism, to name a few. Dying is our process but revival is the sovereign work of God. Who among us will
