My Uncle Jimmy was a graduate of Tylertown (MS) High School. He went
on to receive his bachelor of arts degree from Mississippi College in Clinton; a master of theology degree from Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary; and a doctor of divinity degrees from Mississippi College and Campbell College in Buies Creek, N.C.
Jimmy preached his first sermon in 1926. He served as pastor of Southern
Baptist churches in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas; as president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention; and as trustee
of numerous Southern Baptist universities, seminaries and hospitals. He also served as vice president of the Baptist World
Alliance. He served as president of the Sunday School Board, the denomination's ministry enrichment, education and publication
entity, from 1953 until his retirement in 1975. He was widely known as an authority on Southern Baptist polity and had been
actively involved in denominational service since his first pastorate in 1932.He served on the Executive Committee of the
Southern Baptist Convention, as a commissioner for the Christian Life Commission (when it was the Social Service Commission),
trustee of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (an institution), and as a board member of the Baptist Sunday School
Board (trustee) during his pastoral years. For one year he served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (1976).
He has served at state Baptist conventions, college boards, hospital boards, and state mission boards, even as president of
one state Baptist convention.
My uncle also wrote many articles and books, including "Your Life
and Your Church," with a distribution of more than a million copies, and "Baptist Polity: As I See It," published by Broadman
& Holman in 1998.
The following are quotes made by friends and colleges upon the news of
Uncle Jimmy's death: Morris H. Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, called Sullivan a "consummate minister"
and "denominational statesman."
"As pastor, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and president of the Sunday
School Board, his contributions to the Southern Baptist Convention have been remarkable and invaluable," Chapman said. "His
years as president of the Sunday School Board were pivotal in the Board’s spiritual and business development.
"He
was a wise and decisive leader, a captivating storyteller with a genuine zest for life. His delightful humor was artfully
woven into his preaching and soon found its way into his conversations. His books about the history and polity of the Southern
Baptist Convention will guide generations to come. His life was shaped by his love for and devotion to Christ. He is one of
the few individuals you meet along the journey of life about whom can be said, 'He was a great man.'"
Grady C. Cothen,
who succeeded Sullivan as president of the Sunday School Board from 1975 to 1984, said Sullivan's death marks "the end of
a long and significant era in Baptist life."
"He pioneered new methods and made endless contributions to the religious
life of Baptist people," Cothen said. "He built and maintained a great institution. His generous spirit made possible the
sharing of the enormous resources of the Sunday School Board with Baptists of the world. Southern Baptists will never know
the debt they owe to Sullivan for his courage under fire, for his humorous defusing of many critical situations. His passing
leaves us all poorer."
My uncle always remembered the first time he saw Velma Scott.
He was four years old. She was about two and one-half years younger. When he first saw her he went home and told his mother,
"I saw the cutest little girl at the Scott house today I ever saw in my life." He never changed his mind. She was the girl
he married after graduation from college and the seminary. She was the only girl he ever dated. He only had five dates with
her. The last date was on their wedding day (10/22/1935). He knew from the first day that he saw her that she was the one
God had intended for him and trusted Him to keep her for him.
