JEFFERSON CITY—Faced with the prospect of nearly 300 non-complying churches who do not meet membership requirements after a four-year period of grace, the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Credentials Committee has established a compliance deadline of June 30 while emphasizing there will be a strong and intentional effort to retain as many of these churches as possible. With 298 churches in jeopardy due to their non-giving through the Cooperative Program (CP), leaders meeting Feb. 2 at the … [Read more...]

GALENA—Stone County Sheriff Richard Hill, a member of First Baptist Church of Kimberling City, is proud of the jail ministry work that goes on in this southwest Missouri town with an advertised population of 440 just a little west of Branson. The men who make it happen are Bob Reed, an ordained Baptist minister who is part of an Assembly of God church in Ozark, and Harold Stanley, a member of First Baptist Church, Cape Fair, and an associational worker for Tri County Baptist Association in … [Read more...]

JEFFERSON CITY – The “not just another conference” conference CORE is coming to Missouri Baptists. The two-day meeting revolves around three core values as Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) seeks to better equip believers to live out the Great Commission. Those values are becoming disciples, missional living and developing leaders. The conference is March 19-20 at Concord Baptist Church in Jefferson City. It begins that Monday at 1 p.m. and goes through Tuesday at noon, so anyone from … [Read more...]

JEFFERSON CITY — Reaction within the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) to the recent Obamacare mandate that most religious employers provide health care coverage for contraception was both swift and fiery. MBC President John Marshall, pastor, Second Baptist Church, Springfield, got right to the point. He called it “reprehensible.” David Krueger, chairman, Christian Life Commission, and pastor, First Baptist Church, Linn, agreed. “This is one of the vilest decisions any American … [Read more...]

The movers arrived on Thursday. They brought all the boxes into our house. Now, every box must be opened and a determination must be made about the contents. When you have amassed a lifetime of items and memories, moving makes for long days and late evenings. The goal is to have everything in every box appropriately set. As we were putting the finishing touches on my study, we discovered one more box. “What’s in that box?” At this stage of the game, I’m thinking I don’t want to know what … [Read more...]

Somebody asked me what super power I would want if I could have any of them. I thought about it, and then I decided on Batman’s. Because as far as I can tell, Batman’s super power is this: having a fat boatload of money. That one just seemed the most reasonable. After thinking about it a little more, I decided it was entirely conceivable that I’ve already been bitten by a radioactive spider. It would have to have been a spider that had the spider super power of being a regular human. So … [Read more...]