After defeating the incumbent president of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) by a more than 2-to-1 vote, new president Gerald Davidson said he has been a conservative for decades.
In fact, he said he was a part of the conservative movement within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) “long before the ’79 election of Adrian Rogers.”
But Davidson, 71, who in 1991 also won the state convention’s presidency, recently allowed his nomination in opposition to a group of conservatives whom he described as having developed “a political machine, so to speak.”
Davidson and three other nominees promoted by a “Save Our Convention” (SOC) movement won landslidelike victories during the MBC’s Oct. 29–31 annual meeting over a slate supported by the Missouri Baptist Laymen’s Association.
The association’s Project 1000 campaign had been unopposed in tallying a string of victories in recent years. “We went through the battle in the Southern Baptist Convention over the inerrancy of God’s Word and the liberalism that had developed. And Missouri fought that same battle,” Davidson, a former SBC first vice president, told Baptist Press.
“But, you know, there comes a time when we have won the battle,” he said, acknowledging that “there’s always going to be problems that are going to develop” from time to time.
“But there’s no sense in conservative Bible-believing Baptists fighting with other conservative Bible-believing Baptists. It just divides, it gives a bad image, it gives a bad picture to the world.”
Davidson said he and others who joined in the SOC effort are seeking to “pull the convention together and get rid of all the bickering and division that seems to have developed over the last few years.”
“We just want an open convention where the people are able, under God, to speak and lead out and have a part in the whole process.”
Of Project 1000’s success in reversing the moderate/liberal direction of the Missouri convention, Davidson said, “I think it was good that we were able to organize and get together and make some changes.”
But in the Missouri convention as well as the SBC, the groups that won the victory over those who didn’t believe in biblical inerrancy “kept going on and on and on, and they got more and more picky and more controlling,” he said.
‘A general uprising’
In Missouri, Davidson said, “They were the ones who basically controlled who was going to be the president, the first vice president, second vice president and so forth.
“And they began to pick on other issues or develop issues that weren’t even basically there.
“So, very few people had anything to say about the operation of the convention. All the committees were staffed by this particular group … .
“I think there came a widespread feeling across the state convention that we just did not need somebody telling us who is going to be the president … and telling us who was going to run what committee.
“And so, as a result, I think there was just a general uprising.
“The thing that sort of, I guess, broke the camel’s back, so to speak, were the actions taken against our executive director [David Clippard] this past year and his dismissal.
“I think that sort of culminated all of it.”
Davidson said he hopes the victories by SOC nominees send a message that “we’re not interested [in having] a group of people that’s going to dictate and rule and reign over the convention for the next several years.”
Davidson, pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church, Arnold, Mo., defeated incumbent Mike Green’s attempt to become the first MBC president to be re-elected since messengers voted to permit that option in 2005.
Two former MBC presidents, Kenny Qualls and Jay Scribner, squared off in nominating Davidson and Green.
New officers elected
Davidson was nominated by Qualls, who succeeded Davidson in the pulpit at First, Arnold, Mo. Green, director of missions for Twin Rivers Baptist Association, was nominated by Scribner, retired pastor of First Baptist Church, Branson, Mo., and a messenger from Ridgecrest Baptist Church, Springfield, Mo.
But other dramatic moments were still ahead in the election of officers.
Scribner was defeated 577–310 in the race for first vice president by the SOC-supported incumbent, Bruce McCoy, pastor of Canaan Baptist Church, St. Louis.
And in the race for second vice president, Roger Moran, the chief organizer of Project 1000, was defeated 649–160 by John Marshall, pastor of Second Baptist Church, Springfield, Mo., a congregation that leads the state convention in gifts through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong missions offerings. Moran, founder of the Missouri Baptist Laymen’s Association, is a member of First Baptist Church, Troy, Mo.
For recording secretary, SOC-supported Chadd Pendergraft, pastor of Splitlog Baptist Church, Goodman, Mo., defeated Jerry Williams, director of missions for Barry County Baptist Association, 601–174. (BP)
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