NASHVILLE – Joining thousands of Southern Baptists from across the nation, 634 Missouri Southern Baptists gathered in Nashville for the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) annual meeting here, June 15-16.
With 15,726 messengers and 3,856 guests, the meeting was the largest SBC gathering in more than two decades.
Several Missourians were elected or appointed to leadership within the SBC during the meeting.
On June 14, prior to the SBC annual meeting, members of the SBC Executive Committee (EC) chose Monte Shinkle, pastor of Concord Baptist Church, Jefferson City, to serve as EC secretary.
Then, during the annual meeting, two Missouri Baptists were selected as SBC officers. For the 24th time, Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Director John Yeats was elected to serve as SBC recording secretary. Yeats received 3,545 votes for the position while first-time nominee Adam Blosser, pastor of Goshen Baptist Church in Spotsylvania, Va., received 2,753.
Don Currence, administrative pastor at First Baptist, Ozark, was reelected by acclamation as SBC registration secretary. Kathy Litton, who delivered Currence’s nomination speech, was elected to the position over Currence at the 2019 annual meeting in Birmingham but was unable to fulfill it last year after the Orlando gathering was canceled due to COVID-19. Litton stepped down from the position earlier this year when her husband, eventual SBC President Ed Litton, announced his intentions to accept a nomination for the position.