A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving a control channel message in a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) mobile communication system are provided, in which a control channel message generator generates a pilot/MIMO field indicating at least one of a pilot format, a MIMO transmission rank being a number of transmission layers for transmitting encoded packet streams, and precoding information for MIMO data transmission, and outputs a control channel message including the pilot/MIMO field, and a transmission module converts the control channel message to a radio signal and transmits the radio signal to an MS. In the case of using common pilots for data demodulation and at least one of knock-down precoding and ready-made precoding for the MIMO transmission, the pilot/MIMO field includes information about the at least one precoding. In the case of dedicated pilots for data demodulation, the pilot/MIMO field indicates a format of the dedicated pilots.