Remembering Floyd Craig, the Godfather of Baptist Communicators – Baptist News Global

Floyd A. Craig, a legendary Baptist communicator and mentor to a number of other Baptist communicators of my generation, passed into eternity last Friday night. He was 91.

I called him The Godfather. Not the mafia type, but the type Miriam-Webster defines as someone who edifies, supports, or inspires. Floyd was all three.

He was instrumental in the founding of Associated Baptist Press, the forerunner of Baptist News Global, in 1990.

That was the year the Southern Baptist Convention The Executive Committee unceremoniously fired Baptist Press editors Al Shackleford and Dan Martin—two other legendary Baptist communicators—for refusing to comply with Paul Pressler’s wishes.

Within hours of Baptist Press’s dissolution, Floyd and his wife Anne, along with veteran secular journalist Charles Overby, former SBC public relations director W. C. Fields, and several Baptist newspaper editors, founded the Associated Baptist Press.

At the time, I was the director of public relations at Oklahoma Baptist University, Floyd’s alma mater and a client of Craig Communications, the consulting firm he and Anne founded in 1985. I remember the day he called me to let me know he had just filed the paperwork with the state of Tennessee to form ABP. It was a proud day for him.

Until Greg Warner was hired as ABP’s The news service’s operations, initially executive director, were directed from the Craigs’ office on Hillsboro Pike in Nashville.

Floyd and Anne Craig

Before founding his consulting firm, Floyd served in a communications role at the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, as director of communications for the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission, and later moved to North Carolina to serve two four-year terms as deputy director of then-Governor Jim Hunt’s Office of Citizen Affairs. He also served as ombudsman for the state of North Carolina.

Before retiring in 2015, Floyd and Anne consulted with numerous Baptist organizations, nonprofits, and churches on communications strategy and practice. When Mercer University was exploring the possibility of starting a theological school in the early 1990s, I brought in Floyd to help us conduct market research and develop a communications plan for the school’s launch in 1995.

It was at OBU that I first became acquainted and worked with Floyd. I was in my late 20s and that was the beginning of almost four decades of friendship and mentorship. He was an inspiration and a source of support until his final days.

I learned important principles of communication and integrity from him, but also a lot about how to deal with people. When I once complained to him about a staff member who was always ahead of me, he gave me a piece of advice that has served me well for years: “I would rather restrain a fanatic than bring a corpse back to life.” And he was right.

I still have his book on my bookshelf Handbook for Christian Communicators: A Practical Guide to Public Relations in the Churchone of the 10 books on communication he published.

The pride of Okmulgee, Okla., Floyd was also an ordained Baptist minister, the son of a Baptist minister. He could stand in the pulpit and preach the holy, but he could also identify with the bawdy. And he was one of the funniest people I’ve ever known.

The network of Floyd Craig protégés is vast and spans the entire country. He lives on in all of us and I will be eternally grateful for what he has meant to my life.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to Baptist News Global.

Editor’s Note: Service agreements are pending. This article will be updated when that information becomes available.

Larry Brumley

Larry Brumley is senior vice president for marketing communications and chief of staff at Mercer University. He is also chairman of the board of BNG.