Legal Deception or Spiritual Rebellion:

Trustees Violated Law and Trust

There is no higher spiritual authority "on earth" for the trustees of the agencies and institutions of the Missouri Baptist Convention than the messengers from the churches meeting in annual session.

At the 2001 annual meeting of the Missouri Baptist Convention, messengers spoke with absolute clarity and in overwhelming numbers regarding the “stealing of the five MBC Agencies:

1.      Messengers voted to escrow all Cooperative Program funds for the 2002 budget until the trustees of the five agencies rescind their unethical and illegal actions. 

2.      Messengers voted to escrow the 2002 Missouri Mission offering funds until the trustees rescind their actions. 

3.      Messengers voted to reject a new “covenant agreement” with The Baptist Home recommended by the (then moderate-controlled) MBC Executive Board, which gave approval of The Baptist Home’s unethical and illegal action. 

4.      Messengers voted to instruct the MBC Executive Board to secure a “legal opinion” to confirm the illegality of the actions taken by the trustees of the five agencies. 

5.      Messengers voted to pass a resolution calling for the trustees to rescind their actions and to seek reconciliation with the convention. 

6.      Messengers voted to elect the trustees to the five “stolen” agencies nominated by the MBC nominating committee as required by the MBC’s legal governing documents, thus rejecting the trustees elected by the self-perpetuating trustee boards. 

7.      Messengers voted to elect a fourth consecutive slate of conservative, pro-SBC convention officers.

There is a simple remedy for legal deception. Spiritual rebellion, however, requires a much more difficult spiritual remedy.