‘Ten Takeaways’ from the Life and Ministry of Jim Shaddix

Jim Shaddix, my father in ministry and one of the most faithful followers of Jesus and preachers of God’s Word I’ve ever known or heard, went to be with the Lord on February 1, 2025, after a yearlong battle with brain cancer.

Nearly 25 years ago, when I was considering where to go to seminary, an older brother in Christ encouraged me to find someone to study under and to learn all I could from that person. I’d read Jim’s book on preaching, and I dreamed about studying under him. My wife says that when I met Jim and he invited me to work for him, I was drooling when I said yes. By the following fall, Jim hadn’t just invited me to work in his office; he’d invited me to be part of his life.

What’s remarkable is how many others have a similar story. The list of men and women whose lives and ministries have been shaped by Jim is long and spreads around the world. It feels impossible to offer a tribute to Jim in a few short words, but here’s my attempt in the form of “Ten Takeaways.” And yes, the alliteration is in his honor.

1. Kingdom leadership begins on your knees.

Anyone who had a class with Jim knows that on the first day, he’d invite every student who was physically able to fall on his or her knees to pray for God’s help to understand and proclaim his Word.

The list of men and women whose lives and ministries have been shaped by Jim Shaddix is long and spreads around the world.

This posture wasn’t just for the classroom. I remember walking into his private office at a moment he wasn’t expecting me, and I found him on his face pleading with tears for God’s grace over his children. When he was my pastor at Edgewater, every Wednesday night he’d invite our entire congregation to fall on our knees at the front of the room and pray. Face down in worship is where kingdom leadership begins, and in glory where Jim is now, that’s also where it ends.

2. We don’t learn God’s Word because we love to preach; we learn to preach because we love God’s Word.

Jim certainly loved to preach, but he did so because he loved Scripture. He was constantly memorizing it and meditating on it. I remember running laps around the seminary campus with him as he quoted entire books of the Bible to me. When I was with Jim beside his hospice bed two weeks before he died, he couldn’t think or speak clearly about much. But when I’d read Scripture over him, he’d finish verses before I could complete them. A mind and heart filled with God’s Word is the fountain from which preaching flows.

3. Preaching is laying open a text in such a way that the Holy Spirit’s intended meaning and accompanying power are brought to bear on the lives of contemporary listeners.

This is Jim’s definition of preaching. At a recent chapel service, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary established the Jim Shaddix chair of expository preaching. I shared then that I know no other person in the world who has preached more faithfully than Jim. To listen to Jim preach was to hear God speak through Spirit-empowered, Christ-centered, passion-driven, life-transforming exposition of Scripture.

4. As we open the Scriptures and point to Jesus, God will enflame hearts with love for Jesus.

Jim believed that because Jesus is at the center of all Scripture, Jesus must be at the center of every sermon. This belief was evident in his preaching. One of my sons came to faith after hearing Jim preach a sermon from, of all places in the Bible, Leviticus. Anyone who heard Jim preach can identify with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, who asked, “Did not our hearts burn within us . . . while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32).

5. Faithful preaching of God’s Word overflows from fervent intimacy with God’s Spirit.

Jim once asked me to copreach a sermon with him, which meant copreparing that sermon. Our study together began—well, you guessed it—on our knees. As we knelt before God and Jim read aloud the passage we’d be preaching, he began weeping in prayer over the text: praising God, confessing sin, and pleading for God’s mercy over the people who’d listen to us preach.

Jim believed that because Jesus is at the center of all Scripture, Jesus must be at the center of every sermon.

Jim’s power in preaching came not only from his love for God’s Word but also from his sensitivity to God’s Spirit. A year ago, when Jim was facing one of his first brain surgeries, I sat with him at the hospital, and he prayed in specific ways for circumstances in my life beyond what he could’ve known apart from the Spirit. I walked away from his hospital room worshiping God because I’d been with a brother whose brain was extremely weak but in whom the mind of God’s Spirit was stronger than ever.

6. We won’t be faithful stewards of the gospel if our only gospel proclamation comes when many people are watching.

I’ve heard Jim preach many sermons, but I’ve also heard him share the gospel with many individuals—those he knew and others he met on the street or in a taxi in the city or on the other side of the world. Jim did “the work of an evangelist” (2 Tim. 4:5) in both his public preaching and his personal life, and at this moment, he’s worshiping beside people who are the fruit of that work.

7. Ministry is fundamentally about making disciples.

I could spend a lot of time talking about the churches across the United States where Jim has served as pastor or interim pastor. I could describe the invaluable books he’s published on preaching and pastoral leadership. I could share stories from trips we’ve taken together as he preached in Scotland, we served in city dumps in Central America, and we trained with underground house church leaders in Asia. I could recount unforgettable sermons I’ve heard from texts like Nehemiah 8, Matthew 11, Revelation 5, and especially from Hebrews, his favorite biblical book.

But far and above the positions he held, books he wrote, trips he took, or sermons he preached, Jim was marked most by the disciples he made. Early in his ministry, Jim consciously decided to make disciples by mentoring future pastors and church leaders. It’s no overstatement to say that decision changed the lives and ministries of multitudes, just as Jesus said it would.

8. Disciple-making involves speaking God’s Word to others as you share your life with them.

Far and above the positions he held, books he wrote, trips he took, or sermons he preached, Jim was marked most by the disciples he made.

“Come in here real close.” Anyone who heard Jim preach is familiar with this phrase. He’d say it when he wanted to highlight a particularly poignant or personal truth in the text. But this phrase also captures how Jim spent his life. He intentionally invited people to “come in real close” to his life. To listen to Jim preach was to hear God’s Word declared, but to watch Jim’s life was to see God’s character displayed in a man who by example could humbly say with Paul, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1, NIV).

9. Marriage and family are for ministry.

This tribute would be woefully incomplete if I didn’t attribute double honor to his wife of 42 years, Debra. As Debra served by her husband’s hospice bed these last weeks, the Scripture on the wall above her said, “So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her” (Gen. 29:20). I praise God for Debra Shaddix’s selfless love for Jesus, “Jimmy,” her children and grandchildren, and countless individuals and couples including Heather and me. Thank you, Debra, Clint, Shane, and Dallys for carrying out your ministry by caring for us like family.

10. Faithfulness to God’s Word will yield fruitfulness far beyond your time in this world.

Two days before Jim went to be with the Lord, I stood by his bed for an hour as he slept. Right before I left, he woke up. He couldn’t speak but he could hear, and I looked straight into his straining eyes and read 2 Timothy 4 over him. I stopped along the way and thanked him for fulfilling his ministry so faithfully, for pouring out his life as an offering for countless people like me, and for finishing his race all the way to the end. I encouraged him with the award that was waiting for him from the Lord himself. I also encouraged him with how the work to which he’d given his life would continue in his wife, children, and grandchildren, and in his sons and daughters in ministry.

This somber moment by a hospice bed was strangely beautiful, for just as death could not stop Jim’s Lord and Savior, death will not stop the fruit of Jim’s life and ministry.

When my dad died unexpectedly from a heart attack, my wife immediately called Jim. He was the first person to walk through the doors of my house that night. He held me, hugged me, and cried with me. Then he drove Heather and me through the night from New Orleans to Atlanta so I could sleep before being with my family. I’m really looking forward to the day when I hug Jim again. On that day, I’ll join with many others praising God for eternity because we had the privilege of being one of Jim Shaddix’s children in ministry.