February 2000

Published by the Missouri Baptists Laymen's Association

Mainstream Missouri Baptists:

A Political Front Group for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Missouri

In April of 1998, the Missouri Baptist Laymen’s Association officially launched Project 1000, an effort to begin electing conservative, pro-SBC officers committed to preserving the Missouri Baptist Convention’s historic alignment with the Southern Baptist Convention. The primary concern of Project 1000 was identified as the growing influence of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) within the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) and the theological and social liberalism that is so deeply entrenched within the CBF. 

Believing that the vast majority of Missouri Baptists are morally, socially and theologically conservative, Project 1000 emphasized that it was our desire to see the leadership of the Missouri Baptist Convention move from a pro-CBF center-left majority that has been willing to tolerate liberalism, to a pro-SBC center- right majority whose leadership would reflect a commitment to sound Biblical truth.  However, raising such concerns about the blatant liberalism within the CBF would prove to be an unpopular endeavor among moderate MBC leaders.

In July of 1998, a group of moderate, pro-CBF Missouri Baptist Convention leaders announced the formation of “Mainstream Missouri Baptists” for the specific purpose of opposing the efforts of  Project 1000.  Led by former MBC president Dr. Doyle Sager, the group ran a full-page ad in the September 10, 1998 issue of Word & Way opposing Project 1000 and conservative pro-SBC leaders.  At the bottom of the ad, however, were two very significant statements:  First; “We are not affiliated with CBF.”  Second; “We are not affiliated with Texas Baptists Committed.” 

Mainstream Missouri Baptists and the CBF

Though Mainstream Missouri Baptists (MMB) boldly declares that it is not affiliated with CBF, its public support and alignment with CBF in conjunction with its open hostility toward the conservative leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has made clear its vision for the future course of the Missouri Baptist Convention. 

On the back page of the May and June 1999 issues of the MMB newsletter, the group identified Project 1000 and those supportive of the Southern Baptist Convention as “Fundamentalists.”  Those, on the other hand, opposed to the Southern Baptist Convention and those supportive of the CBF were identified as “Traditional Baptists.”  The newsletter then states:  “There are two organizations which can help… traditional Southern Baptists in Missouri.  One is the CBF of Missouri and the other is Mainstream Missouri Baptists.” 

Though MMB is not officially affiliated with the CBF, several of its board members are:   

·         Dr. John Hughes:  Dr. Hughes, a former president of the Missouri Baptist Convention and pastor of First Baptist Church in Independence, is a member of the national CBF Coordinating Council.[i]  

·         Rev. Pete Hill:  Rev. Hill, a brother to MBC executive director Jim Hill, is pastor of Wornall Road Baptist Church in Kansas City and a former member of the national CBF Coordinating Council.[ii] 

·         Rev. Bob Webb:  Rev. Webb is pastor of Memorial Baptist Church in Columbia and is a member of the national CBF Coordinating Council.[iii]

·         Larry Jones:  Mr. Jones is a member of First Baptist Church in Jefferson City and has served on the Missouri CBF Coordinating Council.[iv] 

Dr. Doyle Sager, also a former president of the Missouri Baptist Convention and president of MMB, served as host pastor of the 1998 Missouri CBF General Assembly.[v]  Dr. Sager is pastor of First Baptist Church in Jefferson City which is listed as one of nine pro-CBF Missouri Baptist churches on the Missouri CBF web page.[vi]  (MBC executive director Jim Hill and Word & Way editor Bill Webb are both members of Dr. Sager’s church.)  The former pastor of First Baptist, Jefferson City, Gary Parker, is now the coordinator of Baptist Principles for the national CBF. 

Just after the 1999 annual meeting of the Missouri Baptist Convention, a special edition of Connect, the Missouri CBF newsletter, listed the top ten initiatives for the next two or three years.  One of the listed initiatives is for the Missouri CBF to:  “Help Mainstream Missouri Baptists succeed” in defeating Project 1000.[vii] 

“Mainstream” – A Euphemism for CBF

In a press release announcing the formation of Mainstream Missouri Baptists, Dr. Doyle Sager stated:  “For lack of a better term, we call ourselves ‘Mainstream Missouri Baptists.’”[viii]  However, the term “mainstream” has become the descriptive term of choice for those sympathetic to the CBF -- a euphemism for “moderate” and “liberal.”

Since its very beginning, the Missouri CBF has used the phrase “Mainstream Missouri Baptists” to describe those sympathetic to the CBF.[ix]  Likewise, the term “mainstream” has become a favorite of the national CBF.  In an eight-page CBF publication entitled “A Conversation with Daniel Vestal,” the CBF coordinator identifies CBF “moderates” as “the mainstream of Christian faith and Baptist identity:”  He writes:   

…I used to resent the term ‘moderate.’  It sounded lukewarm or half-hearted…and I don’t ever want to be described as a lukewarm Christian.  But in recent years, events in Baptist life have led many to reconsider the labels applied to us.  The Baptists who make up the Fellowship are frequently described by the media and others as ‘moderates.’  In my own case, I have come to identify with the term in the sense that it describes the mainstream of Christian faith and Baptist identity.[x] (emphasis ours)

In the August 1998 issue of Connect, an article appears encouraging Missouri Baptists to abandon the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board in favor of the CBF’s Global Missions program.  The newsletter states:  “You have other options.  Contact CBF of Missouri about the 3M Plan --  Missouri, Missionary, Mainstream.”[xi] (emphasis ours)  In an undated 1998 Missouri CBF letter opposing Project 1000, the group identifies the things they believe in as “mainstream Baptist values.” (emphasis ours) 

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