PERSONAL PROFILE: HOWARD BALDWIN

by A. C. Smith                                                                                                                          Vol. VIII, No. 5, May 1995

He has been a pastor, and serves as a fulltime, vocational evangelist, and the interim director of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, which may soon be a new state convention. He is president of MultiMedia Evangelism, Inc., which has its headquarters located in Chesterfield County, south of Richmond, adjacent to Bethany Place Baptist Church.

Howard Baldwin is the man who wears these many hats, His headquarters resembles a brick, ranch home, idyllically set in a wooded area, which acts as a buffer from the traffic on South Providence Road. Baldwin, on this warm March day, is wearing khaki pants and a long sleeve sports shirt with an open collar. Even though in formal meetings he wears either suit or sports coat with a tie, he seems better suited in casual attire as he sits in his spacious office, which has a casual ambiance, with its stained wood walls. A picture behind his desk shows two hands reaching down and underneath is captioned Psalm 119:73: "Your hands have made me and fashioned me."

Baldwin seems satisfied with what the Lord has allowed him to accomplish. He quickly offered a tour of his ministry's headquarters. One room is used for production where Baldwin produces Sunday School videos for the deaf. Another room is a studio, equipped with a camera, teleprompter, computer with screen, and a new stage, which Baldwin himself built. There is also a small chapel with an enclosed chalk board and screen. The building contains a mail room equipped with copy equipment and an envelope stuffing machine, where letters from the ministry originate, as well as the newsletter for Southern Baptist Conservatives, so that a lot of personnel are not needed,

His staff is small. His wife, Chris, is now his only assistant, serving as a secretary, Baldwin's son Mark used to be with the ministry, but he now serves as an associate pastor at Grove Avenue Baptist Church in Richmond, where the senior Baldwin now has his church membership,

A native Richmonder, Baldwin will be leading a crusade to Russia in July. He will take about 40 people, 80 percent of the are laity. Baldwin feels laypeople are more effective than vocational ministers. "I'd rather have laypeople, cause most of the time ministers are equipped to preach. These kinds of crusades involved being out with people all day long. They're in the schools, hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, mayors' offices, businesses, and factories. They're witnessing in these things and they're distributing Bibles. In Russia we don't have evening services. It's a different culture, and people don't come out at night.

"The more layman the better off we are, cause they'll get out and witness everywhere." Also we distribute libraries of books in Russia – Bibles, New Testaments, children's books on the Bible, Billy Graham's Peace With God, and Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands A Verdict. We can buy a hundred and ten volumes for $200. We put those in libraries, nursing homes, hospitals, and schools. The literacy rate is 98 percent. But they can't afford to buy them. A Bible costs us two dollars, but that's a lot since people over there only make $15 a month."

Baldwin, a graduate of the University of Richmond and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, is firm in his positions and blunt. Three years ago, speaking before the Virginia Baptist Bible Conference, a pre-state convention meeting for conservative Southern Baptists, Baldwin referred to the Baptist Seminary at Richmond as a "theological waste dump," because of its commitment to liberal theology. He's just as quick to tell conservatives when he thinks they're out of line. "Some are not supporting the Cooperative Program, yet they want to start a new state convention."

Baldwin's bluntness hasn't hindered support for his ministry. His ministry's building was paid for with the help of ministry supporters. He has spoken in about 300 Southern Baptist Churches just in Virginia over the past 25 years. The Rev. James N, Birkitt, Sr., pastor of Matoaca Baptist Church in the Petersburg area, speaks highly of Baldwin.

"He is a mission-minded evangelist," said Birkitt. "His chalk artistry, coupled with his music, and his preaching, reaches people,"

Baldwin will draw pictures of biblical themes, usually related to Christ's death, while light contemporary Christian music plays in the background. He will do this one evening during a multi-night crusade. He draws quickly, usually finishing a picture in about four or five minutes. "I learned how to draw as a young child," said Baldwin. "I was a very sickly child with asthma. I used to entertain myself by drawing."

To see him today one would not know he was a sick child. Baldwin, who stands about six-foot-three with an above average build, can seem intimidating one moment, and he can smile with an overwhelming friendliness the next. If he asks you a question and he likes the answer, he smiles and says, 'You're right."

"Where did your professors go where they were on sabbatical," Baldwin asked me, knowing I was graduated from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in May of 1985, when Southern Baptist moderates were in control of the seminary.

"They went to Union in New York, or Princeton, or to Europe," I answered. Baldwin smiled and said, "You're right. They didn't go to Dallas or Trinity Evangelical."

When asked if the Southern Baptist Conservatives will create their own state convention, seceding from the liberal Baptist General Association of Virginia, Baldwin answered, "I don't know. The steering committee is studying the options now. I am just an interim director. With my crusade ministry I wouldn't have enough time to be a fulltime leader."