JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The executive board of the Missouri
Baptist Convention (MBC) will convene Jan. 14 in a special meeting to hear
details of the state executive director’s resignation for “immoral behavior.”
In an internal e-mail dated Jan. 7 obtained by Associated
Baptist Press, convention president John Marshall said Executive Director David
Tolliver submitted his resignation, effective immediately, on Jan. 6.
Marshall, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Springfield,
Mo., said he and another pastor were asked to attend a meeting with Tolliver
and an unnamed associational director of missions Jan. 6.
Before they arrived,
Marshall said, Tolliver “had already resigned in response to allegations made
by a woman.”
Marshall said both the executive board meeting scheduled at
2:30 p.m. and a preceding called meeting of the administrative committee at
1 would be in executive session.
Tolliver, 60, had been executive director of the Missouri
Baptist Convention since February 2009.
Before that he served 22 months as
interim executive director after the executive board fired his predecessor,
David Clippard, in 2007 for reasons including low morale in the Baptist
Building and conduct and comments deemed unprofessional by convention leaders.
Frank Page, president of the Executive Committee of the
Southern Baptist Convention, released a statement about Tolliver’s resignation
through Baptist Press.
“It is disheartening to learn of any fellow believer
succumbing to sinful choices,” Page said.
“It is doubly so when the individual is in a visible and trusted role of
ministry leadership.”
In his e-mail to Missouri Baptist leaders, Marshall said Jay
Hughes, associate executive director of support services, has been named acting
interim director until the administrative committee can bring a final
recommendation to the executive board.
“At this moment, all our energy must be directed toward
ministering to our personnel in the Baptist Building,” Marshall wrote.
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