Messengers expect busy 3 days at Cape
Missouri Baptists gather for 172nd annual meeting
CAPE GIRARDEAU – Many Missouri eyes will focus on the Show Me Center here at Southeast Missouri State University Oct. 30 through Nov. 1 as 2,000 messengers representing approximately the same number of churches affiliated with the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) gather for their 172nd annual meeting.
The theme of this year’s meeting, “Restoring Our Passion” based on Romans 1:16, will be a mixture of worship and business. Messengers will hear preaching including a theme interpretation, or a series of three brief sermons, from Tony Preston, professor, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, and the convention sermon to be delivered by Gerald Davidson, recently retired pastor of First Baptist Church, Arnold.
During the meeting’s business sessions, attendees will hear reports from the convention’s Executive Board, staff, committees and agencies. The report from the Credentials Committee is sure to garner considerable attention after messengers overwhelmingly approved single alignment at the 2005 meeting. There will also be a report from the Legal Task Force, which is in charge of the MBC’s legal effort to retrieve five breakaway agencies. Messengers will also elect a new slate of officers. MBC President Ralph Sawyer, pastor, First Baptist Church, Wentzville, will preside over the annual meeting.
In addition to the reports, messengers will introduce, debate and vote on motions, or actions they wish the convention’s Executive Board, staff, committees or agencies to take. They will also introduce, debate and vote on a variety of resolutions, which expresses the opinion of the messengers on particular issues. As of Oct. 23 seven resolutions had been submitted for consideration to the Resolutions Committee. They address subjects ranging from cloning and the sufficiency of Scripture to church enrollment and an expression of gratitude for accommodations.
The meeting will feature congregational singing as well as musical presentations by Denver and the Mile High Orchestra, the choirs of First Wentzville and Lynwood Baptist Church, Cape Girardeau, and Joel Engle, vocalist and pianist. Grant Jessen, minister of music, First Wentzville, is the music coordinator for the event.
The annual meeting begins at 6:30
p.m., on Oct. 30 and concludes with an 11 a.m. address by special guest Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Land is expected to address the cloning controversy in Missouri and several other moral issues facing the state and nation.
All sessions are open to the public and news media. A complete schedule can be seen on pages 14-15.
The annual meeting is preceded by the day-long Missouri Baptist Pastors’ Conference which begins at 8:50 a.m., Oct. 30. A complete schedule for the conference is on page 17.