JACKSONVILLE–Anyone attending a Florida Baptist Convention event during the past four decades most likely would have noticed a tall, lanky figure towering over most others at any meeting; a constant presence standing 6’6” with a slow and steady voice who could give meaning to the most complex financial statements and budget sheets; an unassuming person who most often sat on the back row. Yet, when he spoke, he was given the respect and trust of everyone in the room—pastors, laypersons, board members and business leaders.

Steve Baumgardner, who was first brought to the Florida Baptist Convention as a staff accountant in 1983 and now serves as director of support services, is retiring Aug. 31.

Without a doubt, no one has appreciated Baumgardner more than the four Florida Baptist Convention executive directors whom he walked alongside during the past 42 years.

“That in itself is a remarkable accomplishment,” said Stephen Rummage, who assumed the role of executive director-treasurer in 2024.

“In his tenure at the convention, Steve has navigated not only organizational changes but shifts in technology that have dramatically altered the way we conduct the day-to-day operations of the convention.”

Reflecting on Baumgardner’s service through the years, Tommy Green, Florida Baptists’ executive director from 2015 until 2024, said,

“Steve served the Lord and Florida Baptists with honor and integrity. He provided steady and consistent leadership in the area of finances for 42 years. The necessary trust required in stewarding the resources given by Florida Baptist churches for kingdom work was a priority in Steve’s ministry.

“He understood his role as a calling from the Lord, and he fulfilled this calling in a humble and professional manner.”

Baumgardner was first tapped for service at the Florida Baptist Convention by Dan Stringer, who led Florida Baptists from 1979 until1988. During this time, he became a trusted advisor to Stringer.

Then he served alongside retired executive director-treasurer John Sullivan for the longest tenure, from 1989 until 2015. It was a time of significant growth for Florida Baptists and mission support through the SBC Cooperative Program.

“One of the best personnel decisions I made in the 26 years of leading Florida Baptists was promoting Steve,” Sullivan recalled. “I never asked him a financial question that he couldn’t answer or didn’t know where to find an immediate answer.”

Sullivan laughingly admits, “All I did as ‘treasurer’ was to sign the check. He handled all convention finances,” a role that grew to include personnel, annuity, retirement, budget and a “hodge podge” of financial matters. “He is the most capable person I’ve ever met.”

In his heart, Sullivan said, Baumgardner is a servant leader, encouraging Florida Baptists and churches, as well as participating in mission trips during his tenure. “He always had a missionary spirit,” Sullivan said. “I never knew a time when he was not serving in a local church.”

Just out of college, Baumgardner and his wife, Paula, served for two years as Journeymen through the SBC Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) in Nicaragua, during the Sandinista-Contra conflict. And later, as a convention employee, he traveled to Tanzania to work in refugee camps filled with people escaping the Rwandan civil war.

That same mission commitment was lived out in his ministry with Florida Baptists, said Rummage.

“Because Steve is a trusted voice among Florida Baptists, countless pastors and churches have turned to him for wise advice on far-ranging aspects of ministry, including getting loans for church construction and renovation projects, adopting best practices in the way churches handle finances, and planning church budgets.”

Churches that reach out to Baumgardner, Rummage said “can count on patient and insightful counsel from a real friend who knows how to make complicated financial matters easy to understand. In so many ways, he embodies what ‘Right Beside You’ is all about.”

For Baumgardner, his work with Florida Baptists and their churches has been the most meaningful part of his 42 years with the convention, he said.

It has been a “blessing” to work with so “many faithful servants of God” throughout the years, including convention staff, pastors and church staff, he said.

“But I think the most fulfilling and satisfying aspect of my work has been working with churches through the church loan program to provide financial resources that help them reach their goal of advancing the kingdom.

“Sometimes, after the loans have been granted, a church will suffer financial hardships. Working with church leadership to find creative ways to meet the church’s financial obligations while maintaining a vibrant ministry has been very rewarding.” Together, Baumgardner and these local churches have found new avenues to survive and even thrive.

Rummage added, “Steve has met every aspect of his work with enthusiasm, energy and a great love for Jesus and our Florida Baptist churches.”

As he completes his professional ministry service with the Florida Baptist Convention, Baumgardner said, “My plans for retirement are in God’s hands.”

The 71-year-old said he intends to become more involved with the singles Sunday School class that he teaches at North Jacksonville Baptist Church. “That means spending more time with them doing life together.”

He looks forward to having more time to read, be with his family, and travel with his wife to places they have yet to visit, “just to see God’s beautiful creation.”

The couple plans to continue their own personal ministry of providing temporary respite care for preschool children whose mother and/or father cannot care for them during stressful times.

“I look forward with great anticipation to what God has in store in this next phase of my life.”

Photos by James Powell