June 23, 2025
CAIRO, Ga. — Keith Stewart has been called to serve as Grady County Baptist Association’s associational missionary strategist. His first day was April 1, 2025.
A native of Hinesville, Stewart, 61, brings GCBA a wealth of experience, humility, and genuineness to the job.
“During the interview process, and throughout the several interviews with him, that was attractive for us,” said Chris Allen, pastor of First Baptist Church Cairo and a search committee member for the association.
“Keith is strategically gifted to lead Grady Baptist Association into the future,” said Ricky Thrasher, Statewide Consultant of Associational Missions and Convention Planning for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.
Allen said they were looking for a person who could pastor young pastors and be a resource to the 22 associational churches. “Somebody who could resource those pastors with helps like Vacation Bible School, discipleship, and Sunday school. And, even outreach. We just felt that the Lord was leading us to the fact that Keith checked all those boxes.”
Stewart's experience includes serving as minister of education at Valley Grove Baptist Church in Tuscumbia, Alabama; First Baptist Church in Waycross; First Baptist Church Thomasville; and First Baptist Church Moultrie. He also served with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board in church facilities, and Sunday School and VBS training for three years. He also served seven years as pastor of First Baptist Church in Nashville, Ga., and interim pastor of Oakdale Baptist Church in Moultrie for two years.
Saved at 25 years old, it was at Calvary Baptist Temple in Savannah where he confirmed his calling, and it was there his passion for education, particularly in Sunday School, began.
“That Sunday school class had an impact on me coming to faith in Christ. I think that is one thing I’ve never forgotten, and that is one of those things that keeps it passionate for me. I see the evangelistic opportunity that a Sunday school class has.”
Stewart believes that Sunday school is one of the best ways to grow a church and hopes to instill this throughout the association.
“The principles are fairly easy, but the reality is that it is hard work. When I was a kid, on The Ed Sullivan Show, one of the things I loved was they’d get the guy on there who spun the plates on a stick. He’d get one going, and he’d go get two going, and he’d get three going, and then he’d have to go back and get one going and spin it up, and he kept jumping back and forth. And, before long, he has six or seven or 10 plates spinning. You have to keep going back and spinning. You can’t just say, OK, we are going to do this, and you get it started and then just leave it on its own. You have to constantly work your Sunday school. Make sure that those simple principles are being carried out and they are being followed.”
He said the pastor has to be on board in helping push Sunday school. A church needs organization, have good space for it, and have a class for every age. “You have to build it if you want them to come. You have to be prepared for that.”
He said if you are going to get a family in the church that has small children, you are going to have to have a clean, safe, and equipped space “that’s acceptable to momma, or they are not going to come back.”
He feels Sunday school is more than just teaching the Bible, it’s where people fellowship, get to know people better, and where you can have somebody you can pray with, that will pray for you, and that will minister to you. “That’s where we are going to do the hands-on ministry. It’s through the Sunday school.” He concluded that if the Sunday school class does its job by loving nonbelievers, praying for them, witnessing to them, and ministering to them, the statistics show that overwhelmingly, within about a year, they are going to come to faith in Christ.
“I think having the experience of serving both in the Sunday school office of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board and being minister of education all those years helps. I’ve already talked to several pastors, and they say ‘Hey, at some point, I want you to come and let us sit down and talk about Sunday school.”
He hopes to help educate churches and provide training. “I really believe that Vacation Bible School is the best tool, not the only tool, but the best tool that the local church has to reach its community for the gospel. Not just the children, but also the families that are attached to those children.”
He hopes to help pastors and keep them up-to-date on all ministry opportunities around the area and state. “Pastors are very busy. There is always somebody wanting a piece of their time. They can’t always know what is going on, whether it be in the state, the Southern Baptist Convention, or even locally.”
He hopes to build on the GCBA foundation already established by his predecessor, John Paul Hasick. “I’m not having to get a bunch of stuff started because he has left me in a such a good position.”
At his first executive meeting, he asked three questions: What are we doing that we need to keep doing?; What are we doing that we need to stop doing and use the resources better?; What are we not doing that we need to be doing? Stewart hopes that, in the next year, they will answer those questions and get an idea of what the association will look like.
Stewart has been married 38 years to college sweetheart Elizabeth, and they have three children: Hannah, 30; Braden, 26; and Bethany, 22. Born in Savannah, he attended and graduated from high school at Bradwell Institute in Hinesville. His father was the principal of the elementary school on Fort Stewart.
“It’s been said that my great great great great grandfather was the one they named it after, but there is no proof of that, so it was always kind of neat to say,” said Stewart.
He has a Bachelor of Science in Business and Administration from Valdosta State University, a Master of Arts degree in Religion and Education from Mid-American Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tenn., and a Doctorate of Educational Ministry from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
