McCoy actively pursues qualified nominees

HOLTS SUMMIT – Bruce McCoy, pastor of Canaan Baptist Church in St. Louis, stopped at Union Hill Baptist Church Feb. 27 for the second of what he hopes will be 12 meetings with Missouri Baptists to generate more applications for trustee positions on Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) boards and agencies.

McCoy, chairman of the MBC Nominating Committee, summarized his role.

“I’m going out and making sure folks know the process,” he said.

McCoy, who launched this series of forums with an appearance before the St. Louis Metro Baptist Association, seemed to connect well with the participants at Union Hill. One said that McCoy is a good listener who is genuine and sincere. McCoy acknowledged that diligence, fairness and perseverance with the handling of the Nominating Committee process are essential components of his chairmanship as he aims to broaden the participation of more Missouri Southern Baptist conservatives.

“There are some complicated formulas built into the Missouri Baptist polity that require so many folks who are lay people vs. ministers,” McCoy said. “For example, you can’t have more than two-thirds of ministers or two-thirds of lay people on particular boards or agencies. And so we need to get more lay people, clearly. Most of our pastors are willing to serve, and we’re thankful for them, but we need them to help us find lay people in their churches. So I’m asking for the greatest number of people—conservative, to be sure, Missouri Baptists—to get them involved and be considered for service.”

One of the problems faced by previous chairmen of the Nominating Committee has been a lack of qualified applicants. Simply put, not enough Missouri Baptists are stepping forward to fill out profile sheets so that they can be considered. This has placed an inordinate amount of pressure on previous Nominating Committees who have had to scramble at the last minute to come up with a complete slate of nominees. Seeking to be proactive over the next four months, McCoy is choosing to recruit.

Anyone can submit a name for consideration through the MBC website. Here is the link: www.mobaptist.org/nominations.

McCoy is wearing three hats of leadership within the MBC right now. He is first vice president, having been elected to that office last year at the annual meeting in Cape Girardeau. He also chairs the five-person review committee charged with investigating rumors related to the character of the executive director, Executive Board staff, board and committee members. He was asked to provide his definition of leadership.

“Servanthood,” McCoy responded. “Jesus said, ‘Whoever is to be greatest among you is to be servant of all.’ I’m nobody great. I know that. But I want to serve.

“I’m finding so many wonderful people like we visited with tonight (at Union Hill)—good-spirited people with so much biblically in common, theologically, of course, concerned about some of the procedural things. As we explain it, so far I’ve not heard anybody say they didn’t like it. I’m simply following the procedures that are in the book.

“I want to give this year’s Nominating Committee the greatest database of qualified Missouri Baptists we’ve ever had.”