Please indulge me as a new editor for this platform. We report the death of bishops and politicians and laud their honorable achievements. But today I
Diane Baylor spent half her life discipling the children. When I first met her thirty plus years ago, she was the volunteer leader of the children’s music ministry at the church we had recently joined with our young family. The children flocked to Ms. Diane and little did they know they were learning much more than songs about Jesus with cute hand motions.
Diane was coaxed to join the children’s ministry as the Assistant Director of Children’s Ministry soon thereafter. Then in just a few years she became the Children’s Director of the largest church in our conference for 25 years.
As a fellow staff member, I watched our church grow at an exponential rate as hundreds of new families found their way through the doors of our children’s department. Under Diane’s leadership, the Children’s Ministry at our church became a leading ministry in our area. But it wasn’t because of colorful innovative play spaces or interactive learning labs to learn about Jesus. It was because Diane was showing these kids how to love like Jesus. She was making disciples by showing two generations of children and their families that Jesus loved them and teaching them how to love Jesus and their neighbors too.
The fruits of Diane’s disciple making are evident not only in our church but throughout the world. Some of these children have gone on to religious educations and ministries of their own. Others have started families of their own. And almost all of them are loving adults that love Jesus and are active in their churches wherever they live. Through the singular calling of this faithful servant, thousands of people experienced Jesus in a real and life changing way.
On Thursday, September 3, 2026, Diane was doing the work she loved at the place she had given her whole heart to when she had a sudden, fatal medical emergency. I am writing this three days later and the grief is still heavy on my heart and the shock waves are still permeating through our congregation. Diane Baylor’s legacy of loving the children will not be forgotten at Cokesbury Church in Knoxville, TN anytime soon. And for me personally, as I continue to write and teach church leaders about making more disciples, Diane will be the image and example that will be closest to my heart. Diane, thanks for helping raise my children to love Jesus!
Then children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them, but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” And he laid his hands on them and went on his way. Matthew 19: 13-15, NRSVUE