MBC president called to be Twin Rivers DOM
WRIGHT CITY – It’s been almost three months since Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) President Mike Green resigned as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Republic, and now he is back in full-time ministry – this time as a director of missions (DOM).
Green, 51, accepted the call from the Twin Rivers Baptist Association June 25. He is the first director of missions to serve as MBC president since 1994, when Spring River Baptist Association’s DOM, T.O. Spicer, served.
Louis Hunt, pastor of Sulfur Lick Baptist Church in Troy, served as the chairman of the search committee that recommended Green to the association. Hunt, who has also been serving as the interim DOM, said he believes Green is the Lord’s man for Twin Rivers.
“He is known for his leadership mission-mindedness,” Hunt said. “He is good at building relationships with people, churches and pastors. More than that, he’s a good man who loves to see people get saved.”
Hunt said he didn’t think Green’s effectiveness as president of the MBC would change because of the new job description.
“He’ll just continue to be himself. He’ll lead just like he did while at his church (Calvary Baptist Church in Republic) with a passion for starting churches, leading people to the Lord and training up those already in the church.”
Green said that while being a DOM won’t change how he leads as president, it will give him a slightly new perspective on the convention.
“Being a DOM is different than a pastor,” he said. “I’ll not just have the experience of how a single church works with the Convention and in its processes.”
But even after his time as president ends (he has not said whether he will seek re-election), Green said he hopes to foster a stronger relationship between the churches of Twin Rivers and the MBC.
“I will encourage every pastor and every church to be involved as much as they can,” Green said.
Twin Rivers Association, headquartered in Wright City, is in the Convention’s east/central region. It has 41 churches with a total membership of 8,520, according to the 2006 Missouri Baptist Convention Annual Report.
Hunt and the committee have been searching for a DOM since the beginning of 2006. Green, who pastored Calvary for 25 years, will begin his duties Aug. 1. During his tenure at Calvary, the church grew from about 60 in worship to the current level of approximately 700.
Green is a fifth-generation Missouri Baptist and a native of DeSoto who has been very active within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and MBC. He was baptized at First Baptist Church, DeSoto, and served on staff at three Missouri Baptist churches, including a time as pastor of Iona Baptist church before coming to Republic. Known in the community as a longtime pastor in what has grown to be a regional church, he was asked to run for the Republic School Boad and served a total of six years.