Nelson Price, a long-serving Southern Baptist Convention pastor credited with helping a Georgia congregation grow into a megachurch, has died. He was 94.
Price, who had served as the pastor of Roswell Street Baptist Church for 35 years and authored around 20 books, died Saturday, leaving behind a wife of 70 years, two children, four grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.
Allen Jackson, pastor at the Georgia-based Dunwoody Baptist Church, was among those offering condolences on social media, writing that Price was a “modern day hero to me and an example of a shepherd.”
Jackson recounted how he and Price became friends while he was an adjunct professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and how Price helped his father come to faith.
“In 1998, my Dad came to faith, but because of his health, could not attend church. Dad told me he found a guy on television that he really liked and was watching every Sunday,” Jackson explained. “It was Dr. Price and when I told him about it, he called my Dad personally and welcomed him to his church.”
Richard Land, executive editor of The Christian Post and former president of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said that he heard Price preach in the chapel at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary back in the 1960s.
“He did a wonderful job, got a standing ovation,” recounted Land. “It became evident that he was going to be a significant pulpit presence in Southern Baptist life for the rest of the century.”
Land told CP that Price was “a great man of God” and he was “always gracious, supportive and helpful” when Land served at the Convention.
Born in 1931 in Osyka, Mississippi, Price earned a Bachelor of Science from Southeastern Louisiana University in 1953, a Master’s Degree at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and was awarded honorary doctoral degrees from Mercer University in 1984 and Hannibal-LaGrange College in 1990.
According to his official biography, in 1977, Price preached a sermon before President Jimmy Carter and his cabinet on the morning of the Democrat commander-in-chief’s inauguration.
Price also held various leadership positions, including chairman of the National Board of Trustees of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes from 1999 to 2005, president of the SBC Pastors’ Conference in 1987, president of the Georgia Baptist Convention from 1982 to ’83, trustee of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and trustee at Louisiana College.
Price served as lead pastor of Roswell Street Baptist for 35 years, and is credited with growing the church to around 10,000 members, making it one of the largest SBC member congregations and among the first megachurches in the southeastern United States.
Since his retirement in 2000, however, Roswell Street Baptist has experienced considerable decline in recent years, according to the Marietta Daily Journal, with the congregation recently voting to merge with First Baptist Church of Woodstock.
In addition to his in-person ministry work, Price also oversaw a television and radio program known as “Come Alive,” which reportedly reached as many as 20 million homes.
Price also helped launch the Christian radio station at WFTD l080 AM, a local ministry called Love Life, Inc., which oversees a pro-life pregnancy care center, as well as The Clay Home, which serves as a home for unwed mothers.
In 2002, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary opened the Nelson L. Price Center for Urban Ministries, a 32-room dormitory that provides housing for short-term missionaries working in New Orleans.
Seminary President Chuck Kelley stated at the opening ceremony for the building that, with the new building, “we stay true to that original calling” of evangelizing the city and that there was no “better person to name our building than” Price, “who has an outstanding record in evangelism and involvement in missions.”
“With a high level of graciousness, tremendous charm and a great love of people, at the core of everything that Dr. Price does is evangelism,” he added.
