James Hill is the associate pastor of Southwest Baptist Church.  The son and grandson of Baptist ministers, James holds Bachelor of Arts degree from William Jewell College and a Master of Divinity degree from Central Baptist Theological Seminary.  Prior to his service with Southwest Baptist, James has severed churches in Kansas City and Jefferson City, most recently as pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church.  Rev. Hill has severed with Southwest Baptist since April 2006.  James is married to the former Ms. Tara McCoy.  James and Tara live a few blocks from church with their cat, Frankie.

Dr. Larry Smith is the Minister of Music for Southwest Baptist.  Dr. Smith is also a professor at Missouri Baptist University, where he directs the Chorale, Chamber Singers, and Choral Society.  He teaches courses in conducting, secondary music education, music theory, musicianship, choral literature, and choral techniques.  He is a graduate of Baylor University and holds a Master of Music in Conducting from Texas State University-San Marcos as well as the Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Music from Arizona State University.  He has served churches in Texas, Arizona, California, and Missouri.  Dr. Smith also serves as the Multicultural and Ethnic Music Chair for the Missouri Choral Directors Association.

Mr. Michael Hodges is our Youth Minister.  He is a ministry student at Missouri Baptist University and plans to attend seminary after graduating in May 2010.  Michael began his service with Southwest Baptist in November 2008 as our Youth Ministry Intern prior to being called as our Youth Minister in August 2009.  Michael recently married the former Ms. Melissa Maschmidt.  Melissa is also a ministry student at Missouri Baptist University.

Mrs. Meredith Rataj is the Worship Ensemble Coordinator at Southwest.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from Truman State University and a Masters of Science degree in marriage and family therapy from Fuller Theological Seminary.  Meredith has served as a missionary in Argentina and on church staff as education director.  Meredith currently works as a bilingual marriage and family therapist for the Catholic Charities Southside office.  Meredith lives in Shrewsbury with he husband, Steve, and their two preschoolers, Asher and Helena.

Mrs. Ruth Ann Yorg directs our Child Development Center (CDC), a five-day a week preschool program of Southwest Baptist Church.  Our CDC is state regulated and has classes for children from age 2 to pre-Kindergarten.  Mrs. Yorg has been with the CDC for over 30 years.

Mrs. Judy Fussell is our church secretary and has been with Southwest Baptist since 2005.  She is married John and they have a 3-year old named Charlie.  The Fussell family lives in St. Peters.

Please Note:  Each of our staff may be reached by email.  Email addresses are the first initial and last name of the staff person, followed by @southwestbaptistchurch.org.  For example: Mike Jones would be mjones@southwestbaptistchurch.org.  Links are not provided as we attempt to reduce the amount of spam received.