JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) executive board members meeting here, Aug. 24-25, approved the Missouri Baptist Convention’s 2021 spending plan, recommended various governing documents updates, and applauded a new pro-life, pro-family initiative advanced by three MBC entities. The board also recommended that the MBC enter into a missions partnership with the Montana Southern Baptist Convention.
2021 spending plan approved
The MBC’s 2021 spending plan is based on a $15 million Cooperative Program (CP) budget approved by the board earlier this year. This budget sets aside 5 percent of the total CP giving for “shared expenses,” which are allocated for annuity protections and The Pathway. The board approved a spending plan for these “shared expenses,” which amounted to a total of $915,636 (For more detail, see executive board recommendation #3 on page 10 of this edition of The Pathway.)
From the remaining CP budget, 35 percent is allocated for Missouri Baptist missions and ministries. The board approved a spending plan also for these funds, which amounted to a total of $5,512,944. (For more detail, see executive board recommendation #3 on page 10 of this edition of The Pathway.)
Additionally, according to the CP budget, 22 percent is set aside for Missouri Baptist entities, including the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home, The Baptist Home, the MBF, Southwest Baptist University, Hannibal-LaGrange University and Missouri Baptist University. The remaining 38 percent is allocated for Southern Baptist Convention causes. Any CP receipts above the budgetary goal will be split evenly between MBC and SBC ministries.
Changes to governing documents
Additionally, the board recommended bylaw and constitutional changes to create continency plans so that the business and ministry of the MBC and its entities may continue amid the COVID-19 pandemic and similar unexpected emergency situations. The MBC constitutional amendment will be presented to messengers at the 2020 annual meeting, but will be voted upon at the 2021 annual meeting.
Similarly, the board recommended changes to the governing documents of some MBC entities, some of which involved contingency plans to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and similar emergency situations.
The board also made four recommendations regarding updates and amendments to the governing documents of The Baptist Home and The Baptist Home Foundation, and one recommendation regarding amendments to the Missouri Baptist Foundation bylaws. These recommended changes were unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(To read all of these recommended updates and amendments, see executive board recommendations #6-17 on pages 11 and 15 of this edition of The Pathway.)
Additionally, the board approved an update of the rules and procedures for the MBC’s nominating committee. The MBC posts the nominating committee rules and procedures online at https://mobaptist.org/executive-office/nominating/.
‘For Family For Life’ initiative applauded
The executive board also made a resolution, applauding a pro-life and pro-family initiative that involves a partnership between the Missouri Baptist Foundation (MBF), the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home (MBCH) and The Baptist Home Foundation (TBHF). This synergistic initiative exists, according to the resolution, to “educate, advocate, and endow the sanctity of life activities of these benevolent ministries.”
“We are grateful for our institutions working in concert to encourage a biblical worldview through their respective ministry assignments,” the resolution states. “We resolve to find ways to support and promote the initiative through our churches and associations. We hope that our churches will grant our institutions access to their people in such a fashion that every Missouri Baptist has a life/estate plan that honors Christ and His redemptive work. We join with you in prayer for people in our churches to be stalwarts of life the womb to the tomb with our words, our actions, and our resources.”
Missions partnership recommended
The executive board recommended that the MBC’s proposed missions partnership with the Montana Southern Baptist Convention last for seven years, beginning on Jan. 1, 2021, and ending on Dec. 31, 2028. The board also left open the option of extending the partnership for an additional seven years, if desired by both conventions.
Other business
In other business, the MBC executive board:
• recommended that the 2020 MBC annual meeting offering be given to Oasis International for the benefit of the Good Neighbor Initiative, a ministry to refugees that Missouri Baptist churches in St. Louis have been heavily involved with in recent years.
• authorized an architect to create construction drawings for the Baptist Student Union building project in Springfield, and approved the use of up to $600,000 in general reserve funds to cover this cost, in anticipation of these funds being replenished as soon as $2.5 million in donated funds for the project have been received.
• approved a revised master plan for The Baptist Home, Ashland, and authorized The Baptist Home president: 1.) to enter into construction financing for up to $2 million for completion of the Ashland campus’s independent living apartments; 2.) to pursue MBC approval for up to $15 million in construction financing in order to complete Phase I of the Ashland construction project; 3.) and to secure long-term financing that is not to exceed $9 million.
• authorized the MBC executive director to use $300,000 of general reserve funds to complete the renovation of the seventh floor at the Baptist building in Jefferson City, which was damaged by a fire earlier this year, if no other funds are received from GuideOne insurance.
• accepted the 2019 audit report and recommended that the audit firm, Clifton Larson Allen LLP, be retained for a three-year period to conduct an independent audit of the MBC executive board;
• authorized the chairman and secretary to “execute Corporate Authorization Resolutions” for updating authorized signers on MBC bank accounts.