W. Randall Lolley Papers

MS505

W. (William) Randall Lolley was a Baptist preacher, scholar, and one of the pivotal figures in the late-20th-century schism within the Southern Baptist Convention. He served as president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., from 1974-1987, when he resigned in protest. This collection documents the work of Lolley, particularly roles as president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and as pastor at First Baptist Church (Greensboro, N.C.).

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Biographical and Historical Note

W. (William) Randall Lolley was a Baptist preacher, scholar, and one of the pivotal figures in the late-20th-century schism within the Southern Baptist Convention. Lolley was born June 2, 1931, in Troy, Alabama, to Roscoe Lee and Mary Nunnelee Lolley. He was a graduate of Samson High School and in 1952 from Howard College, now Samford University, in Birmingham. He then received Bachelor of Divinity and Master of Theology degrees from Southeastern Baptist Seminary (SEBTS) in Wake Forest, N.C, and a Doctor of Theology degree from Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. While in college, Lolley was pastor of his home church, Good Hope Baptist Church, in Troy, and Reece and Piney Grove Baptist churches in Samson, Alabama. While in seminary, he pastored at Pine Ridge and Poplar Springs Baptist churches in Zebulon, N.C. And he was associate pastor at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth while earning his doctorate. Following his doctoral degree, Lolley moved back to North Carolina where he served as pastor of First Baptist Church, Winston-Salem from 1962 to 1974.

Lolley was appointed as the third president of his alma mater SEBTS in 1974. He worked to grow the school in faculty and student size as well as academically. During his fourteen-year presidency, Lolley oversaw the development of the Associate of Divinity degree program, the establishment of the Adams and Page Lecture Series, and the accreditation of the school by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). By the early 1980s, Lolley, SEBTS, and the Southern Baptist Convention came under intense attack by leaders of a fundamentalist movement, called by its leaders a "conservative resurgence" and its opponents a "fundamentalist takeover." Per the Baptist Global News, SEBTS "was deemed as the most 'liberal' of all the Southern Baptist Convention seminaries and thus a target for immediate reform." This change in Baptist politics led Lolley to resign as president in 1987, joined in resignation by Dean Morris Ashcraft, who later went on to lead the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

According to biographer Steve Pressley, Lolley referred to "an alien vision" taking over SEBTS. In speaking about his differences with the school's Board of Trustees in 1987, he said they "range[d] from matters of governance, through theology and ecclesiology, to management and leadership styles." The school's Board of Trustees president, Robert Crowley, stated the Trustees would hire a proponent of the doctrine of biblical inerrancy. This persists at SEBTS; the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, which SEBTS faculty publicly sign and affirm when they are hired, states that "all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy," a stance that is not shared across all members of the Baptist faith.

Having left SEBTS over these differences, Lolley was granted the Alexander Meiklejohn Award for Academic Freedom by the American Association of University Professors in 1988, "in recognition for his attempt to defend academic freedom and the faculty at Southeastern." Lolley went on to serve as pastor of First Baptist Church in Raleigh (1989-1990) and First Baptist Church in Greensboro (1990-1996). He also served as a trustee of a number of Baptist institutions: Campbell University, Garner-Webb University, Meredith College, N.C. Baptist Retirement Homes, and the Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School. He preached, taught, and lectured in churches and schools across the United States and received honorary degrees from Samford University, Wake Forest University, University of Richmond, Mercer University, and Campbell University. Both the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of N.C. and the WFU Divinity School have scholarship funds in his name.

Lolley was married to Clara Lou Jacobs Lolley in 1952. Together they had two daughters, Charlotte and Pamela. He passed away March 21, 2022, in Raleigh, N.C.

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Collection Overview

This collection documents the work of W. Randall Lolley, particularly his presidency of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) in Wake Forest, N.C. A very small amount of materials pertain to his work at First Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C.; there are also files from his time as pastor at First Baptist Church in Greensboro, N.C. Some of the files pertaining to SEBTS contain materials created by the two previous presidents of the Seminary, Olin T. Binkley and Sydnor L. Stealey. Southern Baptist Convention and Seminary materials are also often present together. Files from SEBTS are labeled and identified for the most part; files from First Baptist Church (Greensboro) are less clearly identified but generally remain in original order. A limited number of photographs are present in the collection, but the bulk is textual documents.

The collection has no boxes with the following numbers: 5, 13, 19, 31, and 52. However, all materials in the collection are present and accounted for. This collection has been minimally processed.

Collection Arrangement

The collection is arranged into three series: Series 1. Pastor materials; Series 2. Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) and Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) materials; and Series 3. Subject files.

Administrative Information

Publication Information
Minimally processed by Stephanie Bennett, 2017 July
Revision Description
Revised by Stephanie Bennett and Nancy Sullivan, 2022
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for researchers, with the exception of a limited amount of materials. In Box 38 some subject file materials are restricted due to condition, and in Boxes 45 and 82 materials are restricted due to content. Please contact Special Collections and Archives (archives@wfu.edu) for more information. 
Copyright Notice
The nature of the WFU Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The Archives and Special Collections of ZSR Library claims only physical ownership of most materials. The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to the U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source. 

Collection Inventory

  • Pastor materials
  • SEBTS and SBC materials
  • Subject files
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