“To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.” George MacDonald
I met Tom Elliff in the summer of 1991 when my family moved from Shawnee to Oklahoma City and joined First Southern Baptist Church, Del City. I discovered Tom was familiar with my name, since he was aware of the work I did for his brother Bill (#8) at Trinity Baptist in Norman, Oklahoma, during the 1980s.
It wasn’t long before Tom had me design a book he had written titled America on the Edge. Until Tom left First Southern in 2005, the church was one of my primary clients. From 1993-2005, I designed promotional materials for Starlite Crusade, an annual, week-long evangelistic event started in 1965. For five years, I designed a full-color monthly magazine called The Family. During these years, I helped rebrand the church and created hundreds of logos, brochures, bulletins, billboards, ads, posters and more.
Following Tom’s pastorate at First Southern, he founded his own speaking and publishing ministry called Living in the Word Publishing (2005-present) and served with the SBC International Mission Board as Senior Vice President for Spiritual Nurture/Church Relations (2005-2009) and President (2011-2015). For Living in the Word, I designed a logo and several books written by Tom and his wife Jeannie. Due to his position and influence at IMB, I worked on dozens of projects for David Clippard in the Development Department from 2011-2016.
My first project for Tom was illustrating and designing the cover and interior chapter titles for America on the Edge, published in 1992.
The 1995 Starlite Crusade program cover features the logo I designed in 1993. Also pictured is the redesigned 2000 logo on the program cover and poster.
In 2001, the Starlite logo was redesigned to reflect that the outdoor crusade was moving to the Bricktown Ballpark. The program cover emphasizes the move to the new venue and the inside of the brochure shares the schedule.
In 2005, the last year of Starlite, the event moved indoors at First Southern and was extended over four Sundays.
Inspired by the art of Mary Engelbreit, I illustrated and designed a poster and brochure to promote a women's conference in 1993.
First Southern took several mission trips to Cambodia. In 1997, I designed an 18-month prayer calendar that was given to church members and distributed by Southern Baptist missionaries serving in Cambodia to supporters across North America. A similar calendar was created for 1999.
In October 1998, First Southern began producing a monthly magazine called The Family that was mailed to church members and guests. Along with promoting upcoming events, each issue was themed, with a letter from Tom and articles written by church staff and members.
Under Tom’s leadership, First Southern developed a strong men’s ministry, for which I designed logos, posters, brochures and a newsletter. In 2005, the men’s ministry was rebranded TEAM: FSBC Men of Action [Together Effectively Achieving More].
In 2000, I designed a logo and brochure for First Southern Foundation when it was established as a non-profit trust agency to promote estate planning and to receive, invest and manage endowment gifts.
A new church logo and branding was created in 2000.
For more than a decade, a continuous stream of bulletin shells were designed based on ministry themes or sermon series preached by Tom.
In 2002, fundraising materials were designed for a building campaign with the theme My Utmost for His Highest.
In 2003, Tom and Ralph Speas (#9) established Meridian University of Biblical Training on the church campus. It provided college-level Bible courses for laypeople and pastors. It would grow into a worldwide biblical training and church planting ministry that is still operates.
Following his pastorate at First Southern, Tom founded Living in the Word Publishing to publish his books. Here's the logo and the covers from some books I designed. What Should I Say to My Friend? was published by the International Mission Board in 2009 while Tom served as Senior Vice President for Spiritual Nurture and Church Relations.
To this day, Tom and I see each other several times a year at various events and occasionally for breakfast. The last time we met, he mentioned a book he was writing and wondered if I might be interested in designing it. After all these years, his trust remains. As does my admiration and gratitude.
Clients and projects acquired through Tom's influence
The Southern Baptist Council on Family Life
In 2005, I produced the Kingdom Families promotional materials for a conference and a Bible study written by Tom.
In 2005, I produced the Kingdom Families promotional materials for their national conference and a workbook written by Tom.
SBC International Mission Board
In 2011, shortly after Tom became President of the International Mission Board, David Clippard, Associate VP of Development, told Tom how unhappy he was with the design of a brochure created by IMB’s communications department. Tom replied that he should contact Rick Boyd and gave him my phone number. David followed through, and thus began a relationship that lasted until 2016 when David left IMB amid a major restructuring of the organization. Among other things, David handled special projects – often initiated by missionaries on the field – that required funding not included in IMB’s budget. So, he was tasked with promoting and raising funds for the projects. I also designed materials related to wills, trusts and endowments. Each January, David sent me a list of six projects for the year, and it usually doubled by December. I learned later that David was under constant pressure to use IMB's designers, but his confidence and delight in my work caused him to stand firm to maintain our working together. For that, I'll be forever grateful.
Hands On is the project that prompted David to contact me at Tom’s suggestion.
A brochure for the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund, a ministry that implements 300 to 400 hunger-related projects worldwide in 60 to 70 different countries each year.
Over a five-year period, I designed brochures, newsletters and screening invitations for the Gutenberg II Project (GII), a series of character-driven dramas ‒ promoted in the Arab world as God’s Stories ‒ featuring Old Testament patriarchs and prophets found in both the Bible and the Koran. When viewed as a whole, they weave together biblical themes that communicate God’s greater purpose of redemption in Jesus Christ. The feature movie, The Savior, premiered in 2013 in Amman, Jordan, to a packed house. Since then, The Savior and God’s Stories have been dubbed into dozens of languages and distributed around the world.
A logo and brochure designed for the Global Bible Fund, which not only distributes God's Word, but funds the translation and printing of Scripture. Through the fund, millions of Bibles have been distributed by IMB missionaries, indigenous believers and Southern Baptist volunteers.
Using the theme The Last Full Measure of Devotion, borrowed from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, IMB hosted a luncheon/workshop to encourage and assist pastors in guiding their church families to think about using wills or trusts to prepare for the future and fund cherished ministries. The materials included direct mail and email postcards, along with banners, ads, booklet and response card.
A series of 24 “donated in your name” cards was designed for a variety of occasions. After a donation was made, a printed card was mailed or a digitally card was be emailed.
For several years, I designed fundraising materials for StoryTogether, an innovative method of enlisting local people to put 40 to 50 Bible stories into their own language and storytelling style. Besides being shared in person, the completed stories are distributed on MP3 players, memory cards and the internet.