LaVerne Butler
| Laverne L. Butler | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 28, 1926 Henderson County Kentucky, USA |
| Died | December 16, 2010 (aged 84) Lexington Fayette County Kentucky |
| Resting place | Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky |
| Residence | Selected listing: (1) Louisville Jefferson County Kentucky (2) Mayfield, Graves County Kentucky (3) Lexington, Kentucky |
| Alma mater |
Georgetown College Southern Baptist Theological Seminary |
| Occupation |
Southern Baptist pastor; President of Mid-Continent University |
| Years active | ca. 1950 – ca. 2008 |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Lillian Kiser Butler (deceased) (2) Shirley Patton Butler |
| Children | Sandra B. Hodge David Alan Butler Richard C. Butler |
LaVerne L. Butler (January 28, 1926 – December 16, 2010) was a prominent Southern Baptist pastor and college president in Kentucky who was a leader in the "Conservative Resurgence" in his denomination during the 1970s and 1980s.
Born in Henderson County in western Kentucky, Butler was a son of Willis Butler and the former Linda Cosby. He attended Georgetown College, a Baptist-affiliated institution in Georgetown, Kentucky, and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He was pastor for more than a half century at churches in Kentucky, Indiana, Florida, and Illinois. He served full-time at seven congregations and on an interim basis at three others.
His last major pastorate was from 1969 to 1988 at the large Ninth & O Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Under his ministry there, the church grew from 2,800 to 4,600 members and baptized 2,823 confessed believers. Ninth & O began a radio ministry that featured his preaching in 1970 and a daily television program beginning in 1972. Ninth & O began seven new churches under Butler's tenure. It also operated a school. Sunday morning services were televised on a Louisville station.
Under Butler, Ninth & O was one of only two or three conservative congregations within the Southern Baptist denomination in the Louisville metropolitan area. Physically close to the Southern Seminary, Butler challenged the modernist and liberal theology then being taught there. He encouraged conservative students during the height of the Conservative Resurgence movement that began in the late 1970s. He criticized seminary professor Dale Moody for Moody's claim that a Christian believer could fall from grace and lose his salvation. When Moody appeared at Ninth & O one Sunday to confront Butler, the latter remained calm and gracious. Butler was involved in wider Southern Baptist life too through a network of conservative pastors who supported the resurgence and known as the Baptist Faith and Message Fellowship.
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