Cathcart joins MBC church planting team

By Allen Palmeri
Staff Writer

October 18, 2005

JEFFERSON CITY – Adding a church planting strategist like Ron Cathcart to the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) lineup is like adding a home run hitter in the sense that he is creating a bit of a buzz in the stands.

“He is probably going to be responsible for more of what we may call a power plant kind of strategy,” said MBC State Church Planting Director Jerry Field.

In other words, if the MBC is ever going to plant another megachurch to go along with the five it currently has, Cathcart, 45, is likely going to be right in the thick of both the planning and implementation stages. He has already proven himself, Field said, through the planting and shepherding of Two Rivers Church, St. Charles, which has grown from nothing in 1999 to a church this summer that averaged more than 800 in worship. Only five percent of MBC churches run 800 or more, Field said.

Cathcart, who joined the MBC staff Oct. 1, is already involved with some talks to explore the possibility of the MBC partnering with a group in Chicago to plant a megachurch in St. Louis.

“That’s kind of what he brings to the table,” Field said.

Cathcart will work with two other MBC church planting strategists in St. Louis, Ben Hess and Rick Biesiadecki, in an effort to concentrate a lot of resources in an area that is proving to be fruitful, Field said. A time will come when some of those resources will be shifted, Field said, but for now, these three staffers will focus on the east side of the state.

Cathcart lives west of St. Louis in Defiance. From 1995-1999, he was senior pastor of Weldon Spring Baptist Church. Before that he served three years as minister of church growth at Riverside Baptist Church in Denver. He also served four years on staff at a church in Texas developing a single adult ministry. He and his wife, Debby, have four sons.

“He is bringing a different mindset,” Field said. “He’s bringing a wonderful set of gifts to the table. The challenge is for me to guide the whole team into really jelling as a team that’s a unit together.”

Cathcart was in Jefferson City Oct. 3 for a church planting team meeting. He also participated in MBC In-Office Day Oct. 4.

“I’m very excited about the opportunity to plant churches specifically in the St. Louis area but all over Missouri and to be quite honest with you all over the United States and all over the world, if God would allow me to be a part of something like that,” Cathcart said. “I want to be a part of a church planting movement.”