Missouri Baptist Convention
The Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) is a network of over 1,700 independent Southern Baptist churches that work together to carry out the Great Commission. Missouri Baptists elect an Executive Board that oversees the convention’s ministries, which in turn are carried out by the MBC missionary staff.
MBC ministries are funded by the faithful giving of Missouri Baptists through the Cooperative Program through their local churches.
Missouri Baptists recognize eight regional areas in the state and work cooperatively with 58 Baptist associations. Each association represents a number of Baptist churches in a particular region.
What is a Missouri Baptist church?
A Missouri Baptist church is a local body of baptized followers of Jesus who voluntarily affiliate with the over 1,700 churches of the Missouri Baptist Convention. Missouri Baptist churches are affiliated with the Missouri Baptist Convention. The MBC is affiliated with the national Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). By covenanting together in their faith, church members seek to extend the gospel message to the ends of the earth.
Videos
These videos may serve as a brief introduction to the Missouri Baptist Convention.
Membership
The Missouri Baptist Convention (“MBC”) is composed of Messengers from Southern Baptist churches singly aligned with the MBC, and cooperating with the MBC in its program of single alignment with the Southern Baptist Convention (“SBC”).
Baptist churches are autonomous and may associate with other organizations, conventions, associations, or affiliations, so long as no part of those associations is incompatible with the MBC’s Charter, Constitution, Bylaws, and statement of faith, as determined by the MBC. The MBC always has the right to determine the qualification of its own Messengers and affiliated churches. The MBC may at any time accept, decline, or discontinue a church’s affiliation, or may seat, decline to seat, or remove as Messenger(s) any person(s) challenged as disqualified by reason of personal grounds or by reason of the character or attitude of the church sending such Messenger(s).
Each messenger is elected by his/her local church and attends the annual meeting to vote on convention business. Messengers are not instructed how to vote by the churches, but vote their own conscience on matters ranging from the election of convention officers to adopting a budget for the coming fiscal year.
Attendance at the annual meeting is not limited to messengers.
Although not eligible to vote on convention business, many visitors may attend the convention sessions for the benefit of worshiping with other Baptists from across the state.
Who are the Convention officers?
Each year, convention messengers elect officers to fill these positions: President, First Vice President, Second Vice President and Recording Secretary. The officers preside over the Missouri Baptist Convention Annual Meetings and also serve as ex-officio members of the Missouri Baptist Convention’s Executive Board.
The 2023-2024 officers (who will preside over the 2024 annual meeting) are:
President: Chris Williams
email: cwilliams@fcfamily.org
First Vice President: Wesley Vance
email: drwesleyvance@gmail.com
Second Vice President: Richard Young
email: ryoung@southhavenchurch.org
Recording Secretary: Justin Perry
email: pastorjustinperry@gmail.com
Entities
Missouri Baptists financially support and elect the board members of these entities:
Baptist Homes & Healthcare Ministries
Missouri Baptist Children’s Home
Missouri Baptist Foundation
Hannibal-LaGrange University
Missouri Baptist University
Southwest Baptist University
Baptist Associations
Missouri Baptists recognize eight regional divisions or “areas” within the state and 58 associations in which local churches are grouped for cooperation with one another.
The Cooperative Program
The Cooperative Program (CP) is the funding process Southern Baptists have used since 1925 to support missions and evangelism at the state, national, and international levels. Through CP the mission of one church is extended to ministries that reach the lost, hungry, and hurting.