April 29, 2002

New Missouri convention vows to shun Baptist politics
___By Bob Allen
___Associated Baptist Press
___BRIDGETON, Mo. (ABP)--Saying they are tired of politics in the Missouri Baptist Convention, 350 Southern Baptists met April 19-20 in suburban St. Louis to launch the Baptist General Convention of Missouri.
___"It's going to be a convention for people who don't want to fight anymore," said Randy Fullerton, who presided over the meeting. Fullerton is pastor of Fee Fee Baptist Church in Bridgeton, Mo., host church for the meeting.
___The new convention's vision statement says in part, "We desire to leave the strife and conflict of the past behind and move forward as we seek to fulfill the commission of our Lord Jesus Christ to make disciples of all nations."
___The new group pledges "to be inclusive in our fellowship" and to provide financial support for the Southern Baptist Convention and "all our Missouri Baptist institutions."
___While the convention "will welcome inquiries and requests for information" from churches and individuals, "we do not intend to actively recruit congregations," the vision statement also says.
___"We desire to leave the strife and move forward, even if that means walking backward into the future," said Jim Hill, former executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention.
___Factional strife has dominated Missouri Baptist life in recent years, as fundamentalists and moderates faced off in fierce campaigns for leadership posts. Fundamentalists, led by layman Roger Moran, eventually prevailed, and the convention's executive director resigned, saying he could not work with the new leaders. Last year, five Missouri Baptist Convention agencies switched to self-perpetuating trustee boards to guard against takeover. The convention responded by escrowing funds and threatening legal action to reclaim control of those agencies.
___Fullerton said his church, which has avoided taking sides in the long-running controversy, had voted to join the alternative state body out of a desire to put cooperation ahead of politics.
___"We have been willing to put our money where our mouth is," Fullerton said in describing the 195-year-old congregation's long record of denominational support, "but Fee Fee Baptist Church will not play politics."
___The group, formed in part to support the five agencies defunded by the Missouri Baptist Convention, ratified a basic Cooperative Program budget of $4 million, with 35.75 percent, or about $1.4 million, earmarked for national and international causes of the Southern Baptist Convention.
___The SBC is expected to refuse gifts from the new convention, however. While the denomination recognizes breakaway conventions in Texas and Virginia, Executive Committee President Morris Chapman has said he will recommend against doing the same with the new Missouri convention. The difference, he said, is it competes with the conservative-led Missouri Baptist Convention which remains a "faithful partner" with the SBC.
___Chapman's threat hasn't stopped the dissident Missourians, however.
___"If you choose to join this convention and you want to remain a Southern Baptist church, you can do that very simply," explained Sondra Allen, the new convention's secretary.
___The convention will advise member churches to deduct 35.75 percent of their monthly Cooperative Program contribution--the same amount forwarded to SBC causes by the Missouri Baptist Convention--and send it directly to the SBC Executive Committee in Nashville, Tenn.
___"In doing so, you would still be sending money to the SBC," said Allen, a member of First Baptist Church of Jefferson City, Mo. "You would still be a Southern Baptist."
___Paul Powell, a member of Third Baptist Church in St. Louis, called for removing the SBC funding portion of the budget. "It's almost for sure we're going to be rejected by the Executive (Committee) of the SBC," he said. "I think many of us here are tired of being kicked around by the fundamentalists."
___Fullerton ruled Powell's motion out of order, however, explaining that at that point only the nine incorporators who organized the convention were legally authorized to conduct its affairs.
___Later, Powell said: "I think a lot of us are disappointed we are not making the statement we need to be making. I really regret that the incorporators are asking us to support something we don't want to support."
___Fullerton replied: "There are a lot of people who want to support the SBC, even though they disagree with them, as long as they don't control us."
___H.K. Neely, an incorporator from First Baptist Church in Bolivar, added: "We determined way back there if any fences were going to be built, they would be built by the other side."
___The budget funds all the institutions and agencies of the Missouri Baptist Convention, adding supplemental monies for the five agencies defunded by the Missouri Baptist Convention--the Baptist Home, Missouri Baptist Foundation, Windermere Baptist Conference Center, Word & Way and Missouri Baptist College.
___"Our ultimate goal would be ... to completely replace the funds that are in escrow," Allen said.
___Dick Lionberger, pastor of First Baptist Church in Savannah, Mo., is president of the new group. St. Louis pastor Owen Taylor is vice president, and Jefferson City layperson Allen is secretary. All three will serve one-year terms.
___Sixteen members of a board of directors will serve rotating terms of one, two and three years.
___The board of directors will meet May 10, Fullerton said, to adopt a committee structure and begin the process of selecting an executive director.
___No one knows at this point how many churches plan to affiliate with the new convention. Membership is open to both individuals and churches based on financial contributions.
___Core values of the Baptist General Convention of Missouri include commitments to "the history and heritage of Baptist life in Missouri," "financial support for all of our Missouri Baptist institutions," "cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention," "the Bible as the word of God," "missions and evangelism worldwide," "priesthood of the believer," "autonomy of the local church," "inclusion of all Baptists interested in cooperating for missions," "the church as God's primary agent of his redemptive work" and "religious liberty for all people."

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