Messengers to the Missouri Baptist Convention elected a slate of theologically conservative officers for the 10th consecutive year and disqualified 19 churches under the convention's single-alignment stipulation approved at last year's annual meeting.
Messengers also approved a resolution encouraging Missouri Baptist church members to exercise moral stewardship regarding the businesses they patronize, keeping in mind that Wal-Mart in August asked and received permission to join the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, pledging to give them $25,000 annually and helping Wal-Mart to “advance diversity,” or homosexuality.
Concerning Amendment 2, the embryonic stem cell initiative on the Nov. 7 ballot, the convention voiced “absolute and unwavering opposition” to the prospect of cloning in the state. Missouri Baptists were encouraged to participate in a day of fasting and prayer Nov. 5 as part of the effort to defeat the amendment.
The amendment later passed by a razor-thin margin. According to the Missouri Secretary of State's office, of the 2-million-plus votes cast, 50.7 percent voted “yes,” while 49.3 percent voted “no.”
Mike Green, 24-year pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Republic and the MBC's current first vice president, was elected president without opposition. Outgoing President Ralph Sawyer declined to run for a second one-year term in order to spend more time on the needs of the church he pastors, First Baptist Church in Wentzville.
Also elected without opposition were the rest of a slate endorsed by the conservative Missouri Baptist Laymen's Association: Bruce McCoy, pastor of Canaan Baptist Church in St. Louis, first vice president; Jim Cogdill, director of missions for the Cape Baptist Association, second vice president; and Lisa Albert, wife of Rodney Albert, chairman of the MBC's Christian Life Commission and pastor of Hallsville Baptist Church, recording secretary.
Special guests during the convention's Oct. 30-Nov. 1 sessions in Cape Girardeau's Show Me Center included Joyce Rogers, widow of Adrian Rogers, longtime pastor of the Memphis-area Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn., who made brief remarks on Oct. 31, and U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, who addressed the messengers Nov. 1.
On the evening of Oct. 31, International Mission Board president Jerry Rankin and Southern Baptist Convention president Frank Page both spoke during an IMB appointment service of 67 new missionaries.
A total of 1,550 people, including 1,162 messengers, registered for the annual meeting.
Among the 19 churches disqualified for convention MBC membership were First Baptist churches in Jefferson City, Cape Girardeau, Independence and Lee's Summit, each of which have ties with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship or the moderate Baptist General Convention of Missouri.
Missouri is unique in its approach to single alignment in that no other state convention in the SBC has passed such a definite statement articulating its ties to the SBC.
A representative of one of the disqualified churches, Third Baptist in St. Louis, said the church would be praying for the Missouri Baptist Convention and requested that messengers respond in kind. It was the only public comment before messengers voted on the disqualifications.
Messengers approved a $16.5 million budget for 2007, with 1 percent set aside for Cooperative Program missions education and promotion. The remaining $16,335,000, or 36 percent, will be designated for SBC causes and 64 percent for MBC work. That represents .25 percent more for Southern Baptist work than was budgeted for 2006. The 2007 budget sets a goal of $4 million for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, $2 million for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions and $325,000 for the world hunger offering.
The MBC remains locked in a five-year legal battle with five entities whose trustees voted to make their boards self-perpetuating by amending their charters.