At press time, still no nominations
for recording secretary announced
ST. CHARLES – It has been announced that four pastors will be nominated to serve as Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) officers during the MBC annual meeting here, Oct. 26-27. Two of these nominations are for the office of second vice president, while at press time no nominations had been announced for the office of recording secretary. One other nomination is for president, and another for first vice president.
Since Missouri Baptist messengers can nominate candidates to serve as MBC officers from the floor, announcements are not required prior to annual meeting.
Jon Nelson, pastor of SOMA Community Church in Jefferson City, will be nominated for the office of president, according to Monte Shinkle, pastor of Concord Baptist Church, Jefferson City, who will make the nomination.
For the past two years, Nelson has served as first vice president of the MBC.
“It will be my privilege to nominate Jon Nelson for president of the MBC,” Shinkle said. “Jon has served us well during the two years he has been first vice president. He understands the need for wisdom and sound decision making in these critical days. He will depend on the wisdom from the Lord and the counsel of godly Missouri Baptists. I have mentored, prayed with, and rejoiced over Jon’s ministry. He loves his family, shepherds his church and seeks his Lord. He will do well.”
Chris Williams, pastor of Fellowship Church in Greenwood/Raymore, will be nominated for the office of first vice president, according to Malachi O’Brien, pastor of Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church, Harrisonville, who will make the nomination.
Sharing his intentions to nominate Williams, O’Brien wrote in a press release that, ever since Williams became senior pastor of Fellowship Church, “it has experienced explosive growth.”
“In the last nine-years the church has gone from under 100 people in attendance to over 1100 people in weekly worship (pre-COVID-19) and from one location to two locations,” O’Brien said. “Fellowship Church in 2019 gave $70,891 to the Cooperative Program, and they have given $52,065 through August 2020, and another $50,000 to non-SBC causes. They are one of the leading churches in giving to the Missouri Missions Offering (MMO), and in 2019 the church was the second largest giver to MMO.”
O’Brien will also be nominated for the office of second vice president, according to Shaun Jones, executive pastor of worship and media arts at Fellowship Church, Greenwood, who will make the nomination.
“Dr. Malachi O’Brien a graduate of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, is a former MBC Pastors’ Conference president and served in 2016-2017 as the youngest elected second vice president in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention,” according to a press release that Jones sent to The Pathway.
It continues, “Malachi pastors a 152-year old rural Southern Baptist Church that has seen over 125 baptized in the last 9 years. … Malachi also is the founder/CEO of MalachiMedia, a modern day social media marketing company, a fellow for the Falkirk Center at Liberty University, and leads Young Evangelicals for Trump.”
Lane Harrison, founding and lead pastor of Life Point Church, Ozark, will be nominated for second vice president, according to Josh Hall, pastor, Selmore Baptist Church, Ozark, who will make the nomination.
“Under Lane’s direction, LifePoint Church has grown from a church plant of 35 people in 2004, to a thriving church of several hundred in attendance each week,” Hall said. “Lane holds to the inerrancy of God’s Word, and leads his church to engage in God’s mission at home and abroad, including support for the Cooperative Program.”