Missouri Baptist Convention Property In Foreclosure Net

October 31st, 2007

A property belonging to Missouri Baptist Convention will be up for foreclosure sale on 6^th November 2007. The legal representative of MBC opines that the foreclosure notice will not deter them in their effort to recover five other properties including the Windermere Baptist Conference Center. The target is to have Cole County Court declare that MBC is entitled to get back all of its 1,300 acres free from any lien or transfer by February 2008. Simultaneously they have filed a separate petition in Camden County court giving the names of all those involved in this foreclosure. MBC is prepared to take any sort of action to stall the transfer of this property to a third party. Any purchaser will be buying it should be aware of the litigation.

The Windermere Baptist Conference and four others – Baptist Home Retirement Center, Word & Way News Journal, Baptist Foundation and Missouri Baptist College are located by the Lake of the Ozarks. To prevent the Missouri convention from electing their trustees, they changed their corporate charters in 2000/01. The total assets of this seceding group are approximately $250 million. MBC came forward with a Christian arbitration proposal but this was not well received and resisted for a year. The convention then turned to the law in August 2002 bringing the accusation that charter changes dishonored Missouri law.

The title of this land, which is now in foreclosure, was transferred in March 2001 to the Windermere Baptist Conference Center. The trustees of the latter were to be elected by the MBC. This was in accordance to the Convention’s New-Direction reorganization rules that had been introduced by Jim Hill, a former executive director of MBC. On July 2001 the board of the corporation changed its to charter to the status of self-perpetuation, seceded from the Convention and staked its legal rights on the 1,300 acres.

The Windermere board took a loan of over $20 million in 2003 but defaulted. As a result it conveyed 941 acres of vacant land to the lender by deed-in-lie-of-foreclosure. On February 2006 the developer, Jester, took and mortgaged this 941 acres planning to construct houses, condos, villas and commercial units as well as a home for the retired. Jester tripped up on his mortgages and courted this foreclosure notice. The fight goes on and meanwhile no more trees can be cut down!

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