For the past five years, Director of Missions Trent Young has lived at the campground owned by the Gasconade Valley Baptist Association. He’s the only paid staff member for the association and the campground, and with the help of volunteers he works throughout the year to maintain the property so it can be used by churches for fruitful ministry.
“I’ve seen lives changed every summer in all of our camps, and I know that’s the case in the other camps across our state,” Trent told me in a phone conversation earlier this month. “Kids come to know Christ, adults come to know Christ, and families are even changed. People have been called into ministry at our camps. It’s a great opportunity for people to get away from the noise of life and experience God in a place where He can speak to their hearts.”
Benjamin Hawkins, editor of The Pathway
Unfortunately, on March 2, Trent felt compelled to attend a committee in the Missouri House of Representatives, where he testified against House Bill 3142 (HB3142)—a bill that threatens to place the Gasconade Valley Baptist Camp and other Missouri Baptist camps under the thumb of state bureaucracy.
Inspired in part by the tragedy at Camp Mystic in Texas last summer, HB3142 has the laudable goal of ensuring that adults and children in Missouri campgrounds are safe from various risks. Trent told me he understands the heart of the bill, and he already addresses safety issues on his association’s campground. But the bill, he added, is an overreach that would burden camp ministries across the state by requiring licensure with the Department of Social Services (DSS). He believes the burden on camps in finances and time required to comply with the proposed legislation could even shut down some good camp ministries around the state.
Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Executive Director Wes Fowler shares Trent’s concerns about HB3142. On March 30, he met with the bill’s sponsor, Missouri Representative Cameron Parker, to share his concerns.
“Missouri Baptists deeply appreciate Rep. Parker’s commitment to child safety—we share it completely,” Fowler told The Pathway. “But HB 3142, even as amended in committee, would require churches and associations to obtain state licenses and submit to government oversight by DSS to conduct any ministry considered an ‘overnight camp.’
“That is a line Missouri Baptists cannot cross,” Fowler emphasized. “The First Amendment and Missouri’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act exist precisely to protect the church’s freedom to proclaim the gospel and minister to children without seeking the government’s permission to do so. We urge the legislature to preserve the core safety provisions of this bill while adding a clear exemption for church-operated ministry camps.”
At Fowler’s request, MBC legal counsel Mike Whitehead on April 1 sent Rep. Parker a 5-page letter summarizing the MBC’s concerns with the House committee’s substitute for HB3142. The letter addresses several cases of vague, open-ended, or otherwise problematic language in the bill and proposes amendments that would remedy these issues. Ultimately, however, the letter takes issue with the bill’s lack of a religious exemption for state licensure.
“Missouri Baptists strongly support the safety objectives of this legislation—emergency planning, weather monitoring, and evacuation procedures serve the children our churches love,” the letter reads. “Our concern is not with those objectives, but with preserving the principle that the State may inform and encourage, while leaving the governance and operation of church ministry to the church. We believe the General Assembly can achieve the State’s safety goals without requiring religious camps to obtain government licenses as a condition of conducting ministry.”
HB3142 could come to the House floor at any point before the end of this year’s legislative session, May 15. Before the bill comes to a vote, Missouri Baptists should contact their state representatives and encourage them not to pass HB3142 without this religious exemption. (Missourians can find their representatives online at https://house.mo.gov/.) In this way, Missouri Baptist camps can safely and freely continue to transform lives through the gospel.
Mark your calendars
On another note, I encourage Missouri Baptists to take part in two upcoming events at the state Capitol:
• The Midwest March for Life, April 30 (Learn more at https://midwestmarchforlife.com/);
• The National Day of Prayer Rally, May 7 (Learn more at https://theprayerinitiative.org/missouri-national-day-of-prayer/).