News Articles by Missouri Pathway Staff

BOLIVAR, Mo. (BP) – Southwest Baptist University President Eric A. Turner submitted his resignation to the SBU Board of Trustees during the board’s regular meeting Tuesday (Oct. 20). His resignation is effective Nov. 20 at the conclusion of the fall semester’s commencement ceremonies.

BOLIVAR, Mo. (BP) -- Southwest Baptist University's (SBU) Statement of Faith has not been implemented effectively across the fabric of the university, according to an external peer assessment committee that completed its work there in June. The committee, which was commissioned by SBU late last year, was led by David Dockery, chancellor of Trinity International University. In particular, the committee evaluated the key elements of Baptist distinctiveness that inform SBU's identity as a Missouri Baptist institution. See related Baptist Press report.

KANSAS CITY (BP) -- Missouri Baptists are one step closer to restoring The Baptist Home and Missouri Baptist University (MBU) to the "MBC family." On Tuesday (Feb. 19), the state's Appeals Court in Kansas City affirmed a lower-court ruling ordering The Baptist Home and MBU to seat trustees elected by the Missouri Baptist Convention.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (BP) -- A specially-appointed judge has ordered The Baptist Home and Missouri Baptist University to seat trustees elected by the Missouri Baptist Convention. If the ruling stands, the two organizations would resume operating under convention-approved charters and boards for the first time since 2001. In an 86-page opinion signed Sept. 27, Special Judge Karl DeMarce held that trustees of the Baptist Home and MBU violated Missouri law when they cut off the MBC's rights in 2000 and 2001, respectively. Both charters required MBC messengers to approve any changes. Once final, the court's order voids any unapproved amendments, reinstates the MBC's rights, and returns the entities to the MBC.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (BP) -- The Missouri Baptist Convention has asked the Circuit Court of Cole County to restore The Baptist Home and Missouri Baptist University to the MBC family. The Baptist Home, a three-campus senior adult residential ministry, broke away from the convention in September 2000, declaring its board of trustees to be independent and self-perpetuating. In August 2001, Missouri Baptist University (MBU), a four-year college in Clayton, Mo., took the same action, amending its charter to remove all ties to the MBC.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (BP) -- The Missouri Baptist Foundation is coming home to the Missouri Baptist Convention. The Missouri Supreme Court declined Tuesday (Sept. 20) to hear the foundation's appeal of an appeals court decision ordering its return to governance by convention-elected trustees.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (BP) -- The Missouri Court of Appeals has denied a motion by the Missouri Baptist Foundation to reconsider its ruling that the foundation return trustee governance to the Missouri Baptist Convention. The July 5 ruling affirmed a unanimous three-judge panel's ruling May 24 to return the foundation to the Missouri convention after 15 years of control by a self-appointed, self-perpetuating board. The foundation motion asked for a rehearing before all 11 judges of the Western District Court of Appeals in Kansas City.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (BP) -- Missouri Baptist Convention messengers moved forward during their 181st annual meeting in the restructuring of the convention's staff and in defending religious liberty. A total of 1,022 messengers and 236 guests from 440 churches met Oct. 26-28 at Springfield's University Plaza and Expo Center, where MBC Executive Director John Yeats set forth a vision of the convention's future by renewing its original mission to "make disciples, multiply churches, and develop leaders." Yeats urged Missouri Baptists to embrace a sense of urgency as they engage a culture desperately in need of the transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ.