JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — At a Jan. 17 meeting in Sedalia, Mo., 350 Baptists representing 104 churches gathered to consider starting a new state Baptist convention. Their winter of discontent stems from conservatives they claim have changed the rules and character of the Missouri Baptist Convention.
At that meeting, organizers announced plans to constitute a new group to be called the Baptist Convention of Missouri, but they hadn’t filed papers with the Missouri secretary of state.
Enter Cindy Province, a lay leader in Project 1000, the group that toiled in denominational war to win control of the Missouri Baptist Convention in recent years.
Less than a week after the new group’s announcement, Province, who lives in the St. Louis area, went to the secretary of state’s office in Jefferson City and filed papers to incorporate a nonprofit entity to be called Baptist Convention of Missouri.
“My primary purpose in doing that is not really hard to figure out,” she said. “I simply wanted to protect the name.”
So she paid a $25 filing fee and took the name out of circulation Jan. 23, even though she has no intention of using the name.
Organizers of the new convention reacted on hearing their preferred name had been lost. They adopted the name the Baptist General Convention of Missouri.
And this time, they took precautions to protect their name. W.B. Tichenor, an attorney working with the organizers, filed papers with the secretary of state Jan. 24, just to make sure the name was safe.
Share with others: