NEW ORLEANS -- During his college and seminary days in the 1970s, Dennis Phelps crisscrossed the state of Louisiana, preaching and leading evangelistic youth events as part of the Louisiana Moral and Civic Foundation’s student outreach efforts.
“His reputation as a young preacher was very strong around the state,” Ken Ward, executive director of the Louisiana Moral and Civic Foundation (LMCF), recalled of Phelps.
And now, Dr. Dennis Phelps continues that commitment to preaching as professor of preaching and director of church relations and alumni for New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS). Phelps also occupies the school’s J.D. Grey Chair of Preaching.
And it’s that commitment to preaching – especially on current, pressing moral issues – that recently earned Phelps the J.D. Grey Preaching Award, given annually by the Louisiana Moral and Civic Foundation.
Ward traveled to New Orleans Nov. 30 to present the award to Phelps during New Orleans Seminary’s chapel service. Past NOBTS leaders to receive the J.D. Grey Preaching Award include former president Dr. Landrum Leavell (1991) and current president Dr. Chuck Kelley (2003).
“Both [Leavell and Kelley] were and are in the tradition of the preaching of Dr. J.D. Grey, preaching with passion and in a manner that hearts would be convinced, that souls would be saved and that people would be brought into the kingdom,” Ward said in announcing the award. “And today, we come and present this award to Dr. Dennis Phelps.”
“For us, this was a God thing – the coming together of the J.D. Grey Preaching Award and Dr. Phelps also occupying the J.D. Grey Chair of Preaching,” Ward later said.
In receiving the award, Phelps said it was an honor to be counted among other great Louisiana preachers who have received the award.
“Ken, I hope you will communicate on my behalf to the board of the Louisiana Moral and Civic Foundation my deep sense of gratitude and profound sense of being least worthy. When you go through the list of recipients of this award, it is a lineage of those who have proven faithful in the task God has called them to. It provides a challenge to finish strong and finish well,” Phelps said.
Following the presentation, Phelps delivered a sermon from Micah 6:8 that examined how Christians are to “act justly, love mercy and walk humbly” in the world today.
Both the LMCF award and the academic chair Phelps occupies at NOBTS are named for legendary Louisiana pastor Dr. J.D. Grey. Grey helped found LMCF in 1942, pastored First Baptist New Orleans for 35 years and served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1951 to 1952. He was a graduate of Union University in Jackson, Tenn., and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Forth Worth. Grey died July 26, 1985. The preaching award that bears Grey’s name has been given annually since the mid-1980s.
Since its founding in 1942, LMCF has striven to “promote and protect a healthy moral climate” for the state of Louisiana both in churches and in the state Legislature through events, research and advocacy. The organization offers a number of both preaching and professional awards each year. For more information, go online to www.lmcf.org.