Ron Chesser Announces His Retirement as Executive Director of Ministers Resource Services

As confident as I was in December, 1999 of becoming the Executive Director of Ministers Resource Services (MRS), the retirement agency of Baptist Missionary Association America (BMAA), I am equally confident that it is now the time for me to announce my retirement. My retirement will be effective May 31, 2018. I am allowing this time frame, from my announcement to the effective date, so our board of trustees can receive resumes and have a candidate to submit as nominee for Executive Director at the BMAA national meeting in Jackson, MS next April.

Let me express my sincere appreciation to the churches of the BMAA for allowing me to fulfill my call to the ministry of retirement. God has allowed me to help pastors, church staff, missionaries and department personnel plan financially for the future. For this opportunity to help others I am extremely thankful and can firmly say, “To God Be the Glory.”

This mission I have been on for the past eighteen and one-half years as Executive Director would have been impossible without our MRS office personnel. Upon my retirement in May, 2018, Alice Griffin will have finished thirty-eight years in her position as Administrative Assistant and serving in the same position Sharon Daniels will have completed over thirty-four years. Jane Hoy will have been with us for four years. These ladies have made my job not only easier but I simply could not have done it without them. A huge word of gratitude for a job well done goes out to each of them.

Words are inadequate in expressing appreciation not only to our current board of trustees but to those who have served faithfully down through the years during my time as Executive Director. Every board member fills a significant role as a trustee but Kenneth Lott has served longer as chairman of the board during my tenure than any other individual. His administrative and financial expertise has been a strength and encouragement to me.

The name Gloria Hudson Chesser may not mean a lot to you but to me it means everything. For over fifty-five years she has faithfully been by my side, first, as a pastor’s wife for forty years and then as a director’s wife. God knew what He was doing when He gave her to me. To me she is priceless!

Psalm 37:4, “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Indeed, God has proven Himself true to His Word many times over during my almost sixty years of ministry!