MBC welcomes Jim Carter as ministerial services specialist
By Allen Palmeri
Staff Writer
August 9, 2005
JEFFERSON CITY – Jim Carter, pastor, First Baptist Church, Ferguson, will be joining the staff of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Oct. 1 as ministerial services specialist.
Carter, 55, has served in the St. Louis metropolitan area for five years as First Ferguson’s pastor. He and his wife, Marcy, a trustee at Southwest Baptist University, have been married 34 years, with five grown children.
Carter has been a pastor in Arkansas, Indiana, Texas and Missouri. Along the way, he and Marcy have developed a specialized ministry to families and married couples to the point where they have conducted 60 conferences in 13 states, plus Mexico and Chile.
“The Lord has taken us from pastoring in a rural church, to small communities, to county seat churches, to mid cities and also two metropolitan areas,” Carter said. “I’ve pastored churches that are 150 years of age, and I’ve also started two churches and was the founding pastor, so the Lord’s given us a wide variety of opportunities.”
Roy Spannagel, MBC associate executive director, is excited to have Carter coming on board.
“He’s going to be helping pastors and churches who are in conflict,” Spannagel said. “He’ll be helping provide leadership resources across the state and help with deacon work. He comes from a very extensive background of pastoral ministries. He’s pastored several congregations and he’s been a church planter, so Jim really brings a lot of resources to the table for this position.”
Carter said he intends to focus on conferences, leadership training and ministerial services. As part of his desire to serve well as an MBC staff member, he plans on attending a transitional pastors conference Aug. 15-18 in the Baptist Building
“I really have a heart for pastors,” he said.
Carter was born in Carthage and graduated from Joplin High School in 1968. Two years later he married Marcy, and he was licensed as a minister that same year by Forest Park Baptist Church, Joplin. Four years later, after graduating from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas, he was ordained by First Baptist Church, Webb City.
First Ferguson is the tenth church he has served in a ministry capacity, and Carter has now reached that stage of life where he wants to focus on helping pastors find the pathway to encouragement.
“We understand their vital role, and sometimes even in the midst of the crowd it can be a lonely place,” he said.