MBC alcohol policy change continues to move forward

By Allen Palmeri - Jun 18, 2008

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.—The latest phase of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) debate on alcohol policy took place May 21 in the MBC Committee on Continuing Review with deliberations leading to the next step July 14 when the MBC Administrative Committee meets in Hannibal.

Continuing Review Chairman David Krueger, pastor of First Baptist Church of Linn, will give a preliminary report on the committee’s findings pertaining to a change to the MBC Bylaws proposed by Executive Board Member Jeff Purvis, pastor of First Baptist Church, Herculaneum-Peveley, that would require everyone nominated to serve on MBC boards, committees, commissions or agencies agree to abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages and using any other recreational drugs. The committee ruled that the Purvis proposal, which has been adopted by the Executive Board, is in harmony with the MBC’s governing documents and would best fit, if adopted, in Section 8.

The May 21 action clears the way for the Executive Board to vote to include it in its report to messengers of the MBC annual meeting Oct. 27-29 in St. Louis. It would require a two-thirds majority of messengers to change the bylaws. Purvis, who chairs the Administrative Committee, predicted the measure would be approved in Hannibal and prepared for the messengers.

“If the average Missourian in the pews, Mr. and Mrs. Missouri Baptist, knows what the intent of the bylaw change is, they will say, ‘This is us, and those are the kind of guidelines for people we want to serve in our Convention,’” Purvis said.

Besides the alcohol abstinence policy, the motion calls for nominees to be Christians who are good-standing members of MBC churches and who support the principles set forth in the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message. Purvis said he obtained most of the language from the Florida Baptist Convention, which recently approved similar policy.

Purvis named several MBC committees that operate with absolutely no guidelines. One of those that was discussed in the Continuing Review Committee was the Committee on Convention Committees, which is appointed by the MBC president. MBC Interim Executive Director David Tolliver said he was surprised to learn that this important committee, which consists of members from each of the eight areas of the state and which appoints all standing committees of the Convention except the Nominating Committee, has been charged to do Convention business with no rules.

“There needs to be a uniform guideline for anybody or everybody who serves,” Purvis said.

At the last annual meeting, messengers passed a resolution urging that those who drink alcohol not be elected to serve as trustees or members of any entity or committee of the MBC. That led to a January policy addition by the MBC Nominating Committee on abstention to alcohol being placed on its profile sheets filled out by the various nominees.

Charges of “narrowing” and “micromanaging” have been leveled this year at MBC policy makers whose actions have kept the alcohol debate front and center, but Purvis flatly rejects those arguments.
“I don’t think this is a micromanage as much as it is this is who we are as Missouri Baptists,” Purvis said.

“It’s a minimum guideline for anybody who serves. You would have thought that would have been covered sometime in the past, but I guess nobody felt that was a need.”

In other action, the Committee on Continuing Review:

  • Determined that a motion from the Credentials Committee making a change to its rules and procedures does not conflict with the MBC’s governing documents;
  • Recommended that no action be taken on a motion to amend the Business and Financial Plan to ensure that all future contracts entered into by the MBC with Christians include an arbitration clause;
  • Chose to refer back to an Executive Board member for action a motion to initiate a bylaw change to replace officers who resign during the course of a year between conventions.

This article is reprinted from the June 3, 2008, issue of The Pathway, the newspaper of the Missouri Baptist Convention.

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