JEFFERSON CITY – Members serving on the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Executive Director Search Committee will be announced and a final report from the Organizational Study Committee (OSG) concerning the structure of the MBC staff top the agenda for the MBC Executive Board’s April 11-12 meeting at the Baptist Building.
The announcement of the make-up of the Executive Director Search Committee ends two months of deliberations and selections to the committee by a five-person subcommittee named by the Executive Board Jan. 14 following the accepted resignation of David Tolliver. Jay Hughes, MBC associate executive director, was named interim executive director by the Executive Board Jan. 6. Five members of the MBC Executive Board served on the subcommittee charged with selecting the Executive Director Search Committee.
The OSG report is scheduled for a special evening session, starting at 7 p.m., on April 11. It is expected that the OSG report will offer recommendations for the Executive Board to consider that could reshape the structure of the MBC staff. The OSG was formed Dec. 15, 2009, to study the MBC staff structure in light of decreasing Cooperative Program giving and a desire to optimize ministry efficiency.
Hughes is expected to brief the Executive Board on recent negotiations with the North American Mission Board (NAMB). Those talks have centered on the 16 MBC staff positions that receive 50 percent of their funding, plus medical benefits, from NAMB. NAMB is undergoing a major restructuring in which its assets are being redirected toward evangelistic church planting and leadership development.
The Executive Board will also get its first look at a proposed 2012 budget, one that Hughes said could turn out to be lower than last year’s $15.15 million budget.
The board’s work groups will meet April 11 at 9 a.m. Its committees will meet April 11 at 11 a.m. except for interagency relations which meets at 9 a.m. and the administrative committee at 1 p.m. The April 12 plenary session begins at 8:30 a.m. and is open to the public.