JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP) — Missouri's Supreme Court has declined to review an appeals-court ruling that a Baptist conference center on the Lake of the Ozarks acted legally when it changed articles of incorporation to switch to a self-perpetuating board of trustees in 2001.
Leaders of the Missouri Baptist Convention had appealed a Feb. 3 ruling by the Missouri Appeals Court for the Western District that the state convention is not a member of Windermere Baptist Conference Center's corporation and that no legal contract exists between the two entities.
The state's high court denied an application for transfer from the appellate court May 5. The decision leaves in place a lower court's ruling from last year that the convention surrendered its right to elect the camp's trustees when messengers voted to incorporate Windermere as a separate non-profit entity in 1999.
Dan Bench, Windermere's president and CEO, welcomed the Supreme Court's denial. "We urge the MBC to accept these judicial rulings and allow Missouri Baptists to put this sad conflict behind us," he said in a press release.
Michael Whitehead, the convention's legal counsel, referred a request for comment to The Pathway, the state convention's in-house newspaper. By press time for this story May 6, the paper's staff had not responded to an Associated Baptist Press reporter's e-mail requesting comment. The state convention's executive director and the head of a convention "agency restoration group" formed to win back breakaway entities from the state convention also did not respond to requests for comment.
A separate lawsuit seeks to stop Windermere from selling any of its property. A circuit judge dismissed that case in April, but Whitehead says that ruling was based on procedure and had no bearing on the convention's argument that messengers were misled into turning over Windermere's property to a separate corporation as part of a sweeping strategic plan led by the convention's former executive director.
Convention leaders met privately in February, authorizing the legal team to continue to pursue a jury trial to attempt to recover Windermere's property even if it cannot reclaim the corporate entity.
Windermere was one of five agencies sued by the convention in 2002 for moving to self-perpetuating boards of trustees. The claims were separated in 2007, and Windermere was chosen as the first to go to trial.
Trial dates have not been scheduled for lawsuits involving four other formerly affiliated entities that also moved to self-perpetuating boards in 2000 and 2001. Those entities are Word & Way, The Baptist Home, the Missouri Baptist Foundation and Missouri Baptist University. Word & Way, a newspaper established in 1895, is a publishing partner of Associated Baptist Press in a collaborative effort called New Voice Media.
The state convention is also named as defendant in a $10 million countersuit brought by a businessman blocked from developing 943 acres of Windermere property he purchased in 2006.
Windermere's lead attorney, Jim Shoemake, called the nearly seven years of litigation "needless" and said costs were "immeasurable" for all involved. Shoemake said actions of Windermere's board of trustees "were always consistent with both Missouri law and the corporation's best interest."
Convention leaders contend that Windermere was built using mission money from the convention's Cooperative Program unified budget, and that the property morally and legally belongs to the state's Southern Baptist churches.
Political factors complicate the dispute. The charter changes made by the entities came near the close of a long-running struggle between fundamentalists supportive of the Southern Baptist Convention's "conservative resurgence" and more moderate Baptists who formerly held power in the MBC. After that power shifted, some moderates broke away to form the Baptist General Convention of Missouri, in part to sustain ministries of the breakaway agencies.
Now in its seventh year, the BGCM is led by Jim Hill, former executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention who resigned in 2001 over philosophical differences with the MBC executive board.
Windermere CEO Bench says Windermere continues to be open to all Missouri Baptists, just as it has been for more than 50 years, though Windermere leaders in the past have alleged that the Missouri Baptist Convention has tried to undermine the camp's ministry by dissuading groups and speakers from attending.
-30-
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press. Vicki Brown, a freelance writer for Word & Way, contributed to this story.
Related ABP stories:
County judge dismisses second suit against Missouri Baptist institution (4/13)
Mo. appeals court refuses to rehear convention suit against Windermere (3/31)
Appeals court sides with Missouri Baptist conference center (2/3)
Judge rules in Windermere’s favor, against convention (3/6/2008)