September 3, 2001

A third Missouri institution declares charter changes
___By Bill Webb
___Missouri Word & Way
___ST. LOUIS--The Missouri Baptist College board of trustees voted Aug. 23 to amend its charter to give final approval of trustees to the board itself. The decision was made by a 16-10 vote in a closed session that lasted more than two and a half hours.
___The college becomes the third Missouri Baptist Convention agency to switch to a self-perpetuating board, taking the decision to elect trustees out of the hands of the state convention through its elected messengers.
___The Baptist Home, a retirement agency, took similar action nearly a year ago, and trustees of Windermere Conference Center did the same recently.
___College President Alton Lacey said trustees took three other actions during its closed session:
___ Revised the covenant statement the college already has with the state convention, changing language that has to do with trustee election.
___ Re-elected the nine trustees eligible for re-election this year and elected three more to fill vacant seats on the board.
___ Asked Lacey "to convene a committee of the board to work with the appropriate state convention committees, expressing our desire to negotiate alternatives that would assure our continued relationship to the convention" in the wake of the board's decision to become self-perpetuating.
___"All of our trustees expressed a strong desire to continue to be a part of and work with the Missouri Baptist Convention," Lacey said after the meeting. "The only change will be in how our trustees are selected."
___Prior to the meeting, Lacey gave two reasons for the college executive board's recommendations:
___ The security of the college's and convention resources if the college or another state convention entity were to be found guilty in a liability lawsuit.
___ The uncertainty of political activity in the state convention and the college's ability to "continue to serve all Missouri Baptists and remain responsive to the convention's wishes that the college be sound academically, fully accredited and aware of the need to place Christian emphasis at the center of educational life."
___Trustee Chairman Randy Fullerton said the trustees "became concerned when the (state convention) nominating committee came out with their guidelines." Those new guidelines adopted by the committee but not approved by the convention at large, rendered some trustees ineligible for re-election who otherwise would have been eligible to serve another term.
___Changes enacted or proposed by the Missouri convention's nominating committee and a continuing review committee have raised concerns that fundamentalists who solidified control of the convention last year are moving to capture control of the convention's agencies and institutions as well.
___Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Directory Jim Hill, who has been publicly critical of the fundamentalist-initiated changes, is expected to either resign or be forced from office due to changes brought about by the nominating committee's work.
___Moderate and self-described "mainstream" Missouri Baptists already have begun talking about the possibility of forming an alternative state convention.

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