Jim Hill, ex-MBC executive director named BGCM interim executive director

Jim Hill, ex-MBC executive director named BGCM interim executive director

May 11, 2004

     ROACH – James L. Hill, former Missouri Baptist Convention executive director, has been named interim executive director of the fledgling Baptist General Convention of Missouri (BGCM), effective June 1.

Hill’s appointment was announced April 30 during the new convention’s annual meeting at the Windermere Conference Center . Hill resigned his position with the MBC in October 2001, saying he found it impossible to work with the Convention’s conservative executive board.

Speaking to messengers attending the BGCM, he said he was excited about the new opportunity to work in a position “not burdened by the typical denominational bureaucracy.”

Hill replaces H.K. Neely, a former Southwest Baptist University dean, who has served as a volunteer for the BCGM the last two years. Hill will receive a salary.

Hill told the Word and Way newspaper that he recognized a problem in the MBC 10 years ago. “The peak year was 1964. It’s been in decline ever since…. What I was hoping to do [as MBC executive director] was to throw out the bureaucracy and streamline [operations],” he said.