If a Missouri Baptist Convention committee has its way, messengers to the convention's annual meeting Oct. 31 were expected to effectively eject 18 congregations.
If messengers agree to the move, it would likely be the largest such exclusion of congregations from a U.S. Baptist body in recent history.
The convention has been roiled for years by bitter dissent between moderates and fundamentalists, who solidified their control of the body's leadership in 2001. Since then, many moderate churches have either officially left or severely limited their support for the convention.
At last year's annual meeting, messengers voted to broaden a part of the Missouri convention's rules that were unique among state conventions that relate to the national Southern Baptist Convention.
The provision, the original version of which dated to 1919, requires Missouri Baptist churches to be uniquely aligned with the SBC in their denominational affiliation. Messengers expanded the provision to also ban alignment by churches with para-denominational groups, such as the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship or the Baptist General Convention of Missouri. Moderate leaders in the state formed the BGCM in response to conservatives' takeover of the older convention.
Part of the change involved establishing a permanent Missouri Baptist Convention Credentials Committee that would be able to investigate challenges to a church's standing year-round. Previously, the committee only existed during the annual meeting.
The committee notified the 18 churches by certified mail that it would recommend unseating of any messengers they might send to the convention. If the recommendation is approved, the messengers will be disqualified from participating in the meeting and any future meetings.
Associated Baptist Press