When the Rev. James T. Draper preached his first sermon and began organizing revivals, fewer than half of America's households owned televisions.
Today, the 70-year-old Baptist executive is comfortable "blogging" on his computer or encouraging his $440 million global organization to advance the kingdom of God using the latest technologies.
Draper, the eighth president of LifeWay Christian Resources, is retiring in February. He does not call himself a techy. But he owns a wireless hand-held device that supports different services, and sends e-mails regularly.
And he wants to see more churches use their Web sites as tools to reach people with the gospel, such as providing content linking visitors to study aids and online Bibles.
"In many ways, we are just hitting the tip of the iceberg in relation to what we can accomplish with the Internet and technology," Draper wrote in a column in the latest issue of Facts & Trends, a publication of LifeWay, a Southern Baptist Convention agency.
"Now, more than ever, Christians must become proficient at using technology, remembering all the while that it offers us another avenue for communicating the gospel message."
Draper retires after serving as top executive for 15 years at one of the world's largest providers of Christian products and services, including Bibles, church literature, music and Internet services through LifeWay.com.
Established in Nashville in 1891, LifeWay owns and operates 125 LifeWay Christian Stores nationwide and two Christian conference centers.
Draper "is open to new ideas and has a willingness to listen to new innovative ideas," said Chris Turner, LifeWay's media relations manager. "He's not afraid of them and pushes for them. He's awesome in that respect."
During Draper's tenure, LifeWay started live broadcasts by satellite of best-selling Houston-based author Beth Moore's Bible studies, which enabled 60,000 women nationwide in October to sit and listen to Moore teach from Texas.
Draper's tenure has seen growth in online Bible studies, including two of Moore's studies and Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby. Lifeway also created anall-DVD-based Bible study titled "FUEL: Igniting New Life With God's Story."
Recently, the organization started a cooperative effort with Christian Podder, a Christian podcast community, where individuals download Web feeds of either audio or video files to mobile devices. This offers opportunities for pastors and other leaders to submit content for other people to download. LifeWay's church resources division has started podcasting for youth ministers and plans to expand to other pastors. And a few weeks ago, LifeWay partnered with Pure Online to offer an anonymous Internet-based recovery program for sexual addiction and pornography.
As the sole blogger for LifeWay, Draper used the medium to stimulate conversation among young leaders within the denomination. Through his blogs, he reached young SBC pastors whom he'd met with over the last 18 months to assess a perceived disconnect between them and the SBC.
"No. 1, they don't understand the bureaucracy, the red tape," said Draper, whose SBC leadership roles have included presidencies of the SBC and the SBC Pastors Conference, as well as serving as trustee at Baylor University, the world's largest Baptist university.
"Really, the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting is a two-day business meeting, and many of them do not like that. There is a frustration with what they see is a flawed process. But the good thing is, they see that there is room for them."
Draper said this generation is visionary and passionate about evangelism.
"This is a good generation and they are basically conservative, generally more conservative than their parents," he said.
Before assuming leadership of LifeWay, Draper was pastor of First Baptist Church in Euless, Texas. He also served as associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas; pastor of six other churches in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Draper and his wife, Carol Ann, are returning to Texas.
On Feb. 6, LifeWay will inaugurate its ninth chief executive, Thom S. Rainer, former dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville.
Since mid-October, the president-elect has worked with the 15-year presidential veteran, who announced his retirement last February at LifeWay's biannual trustee meeting.
LifeWay is an independent, self-funded SBC entity.