September 25, 2000

Texas leaders say new funds greatly needed
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___Institutions that will benefit if the Baptist General Convention of Texas reallocates millions of dollars away from the Southern Baptist Convention expressed gratitude for the additional financial support and described needs for even more money.
___The BGCT Administrative Committee has recommended redirecting about $5.4 million currently allocated to SBC causes to BGCT ministries in the 2001 budget. The proposal will be considered by the BGCT Executive Board this week. If approved, it will be presented to the BGCT annual session in Corpus Christi Oct. 30-31.
___The recommendation suggests capping support for the six SBC seminaries at $1 million, down from the current $5.3 million. The balance of those funds would be divided between Hispanic Baptist Theological School in San Antonio, Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene and Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University in Waco.
___The Administrative Committee also proposed reducing the current $1.1 million allocated to the SBC Executive Committee and SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission to $10,000 for the Executive Committee and none for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Beneficiaries would be Hispanic ministries throughout the state, particularly along the Rio Grande, human welfare ministries and the BGCT Christian Life Commission.
___"Certainly this is significant," noted Keith Bruce, director of the BGCT Christian Education Coordinating Board and interim director of the BGCT Human Welfare Coordinating Board. "I hope it means a renewed vision and commitment we have for our opportunity to impact not only the state but also the world."
___If additional funds are provided for theological education, they will be well spent, Bruce said.
___"Truett and Logsdon are seminaries that are experiencing tremendous growth," he said. "They have tremendous opportunities, and it's important to give them funds to get off the ground in an even more effective way."
___Texas Baptist theological education is vital for the larger Baptist enterprise, Bruce added, noting half of all Southern Baptist ministerial students are enrolled in BGCT-affiliated universities.
___"We have a responsibility to provide theological education," he said, citing an additional focus on non-degree ministerial training. "And with our changing culture, Hispanic Baptist Theological School and its multi-cultural focus is tremendously important for our state and really our nation."
___Increased funding for human welfare will mean supporting much-needed ministries, he added. "Our human welfare institutions are putting God's word to work, making a difference in the lives of families like single moms and babies that need to be adopted."
___Through their human welfare institutions, Texas Baptists also have a global impact, he said, pointing to Buckner Baptist Benevolences' ministries in Russia and Romania and Baptist Child & Family Services' ministries in Mexico and Moldova.
___Increased funding is needed desperately, stressed Kevin Dinnin, president of Baptist Child & Family Services.
___"The human welfare agencies each day are faced with the reality of more people coming to us than we have resources to serve," Dinnin said. He estimated his agency can only serve one in five referrals.
___"Everything we do costs money. There is never enough to fulfill the needs of our programs," he said. "It is almost a daily issue of our agency that we evaluate our financial resources as they compare to the needs we face."
___For example, at Breckenridge Village, a facility for mentally disabled adults in Tyler, about half the residents are able to stay because of scholarship assistance. "We consistently have to turn people away," he lamented. "When the scholarship fund is empty, it is empty."
___Dinnin affirmed the decision to provide additional funds to Texas Baptist ministries. "We're very supportive of the convention leadership and their sensitivity to reallocate those funds," he explained. "When I look at these funds reallocated to agencies like ours, I see it will spread the gospel and provide resources to meet basic human needs."
___He also urged churches that are thinking about leaving the BGCT because of the funding decision to reconsider.
___"Churches that are pulling out of the convention are to a great degree abandoning children on the streets," he said. If they curtail funds to BGCT human welfare agencies, "they are stopping ministries to homeless families, women and children," he added. "I'm convinced the majority of people in the pews do not realize that."
___Ken Hall, president of Buckner Baptist Benevolences, expressed both appreciation and disappointment regarding the funding allocated to his agency.
___"I love the Baptists of Texas and believe that they want to care for the hurting masses of our great state," Hall said. "Buckner is immensely grateful for the support we receive from Texas Baptist churches."
___Still, he is "disappointed that the Administrative Committee didn't make funding of human welfare agencies a higher priority," Hall added. "My heart continues to break for the children, pregnant teens and older adults we are unable to serve because funds are not available.
___"If the Baptists of our great state don't touch these lives in Jesus' name, who will? I pray that as budget considerations develop in the future, human welfare ministries will be given greater consideration through increased funding."
___The decision to allocate funds to Hispanic Baptist Theological School and to Hispanic ministry statewide is "wise stewardship," said Albert Reyes, the school's president.
___"Given the demographic projections for the population growth in Texas for the next 30 years, the (funding) decisions demonstrate an understanding of the times and wisdom," Reyes said, citing the rapid and escalating expected increase in the state's Hispanic population. "The figures I look at reveal a multicultural mission field here in Texas, even in the next five years."
___The implications of those trends point directly to the Hispanic school, he added. "We need a place where Texas Baptists can turn for cross-cultural missions training. That's what we specialize in."
___Increased funding will impact the school by helping it achieve accreditation and certification, toward which it already is progressing, he said.
___"I cannot imagine a better time," Reyes stressed, "considering where we are as a state, as Texas Baptists and as an institution."
___Increased funding likewise will make a strong impact at Logsdon and Truett, their leaders reported.
___"It will enable us to increase our support for students, supplementing tuition costs," said Vernon Davis, dean at Logsdon. "I have struggled with the legitimacy of allowing students to graduate with big debts and then go into ministry. I don't want to see students doing that."
___Randall O'Brien, interim dean at Truett, echoed those sentiments. "The most important thing for us is always to be able to provide assistance for the ministerial students," he explained. "One result of our good fortune here is we will be able to make it possible for greater numbers of ministerial students to come our way.
___"So many of them are dependent upon scholarships, or otherwise they would be unable to attend seminary, with the skyrocketing cost of education in our country."
___The proposed funding can help supply "some basic start-up funds" for Logsdon, Davis added, citing three examples.
___One is "substantial development of our library resources at the graduate level," a step vital for completing the new school's accreditation process, he said. Another is promotion and student recruitment, "telling the Logsdon story."
___The third is development of a distance-learning program that would provide the technology to allow students in other sites to participate in classes originating on the Abilene campus, he said.
___"This is important for a couple of reasons," he noted. "We already have a center in Corpus Christi, and the logistics of faculty travel are difficult. We will continue to send some of our people down there, but we want to have some receiving stations down there so we can set up interactive classrooms."
___Logsdon hopes to duplicate that idea in other areas, such as El Paso, and in remote places where ministers who cannot move their families to Abilene can continue to train and prepare, he said.
___Logsdon now has 82 students. "I don't believe we will ever grow as fast on this campus as Texas Baptists need us to," Davis acknowledged. But he hopes the Abilene campus can accommodate 250 students and the distance-learning centers can make theological education available to another 200 to 250 students in five years.
___Truett now has about 250 students and wants to grow significantly, O'Brien said, noting supplemental funds will help the seminary reach its potential.
___"We've got some God-sized goals as far as preparing a place and an education for ministers God has called," he reported. "But it does take resources to achieve your goals.
___"We're grateful the Baptist General Convention of Texas and friends have supplied resources to provide the kind of theological education Texas Baptists have given us the mandate to provide," he said.
___"We offer theological education for our Texas sons and daughters out of an attitude of gratitude rather than entitlement. We certainly appreciate the BGCT empowering us to do the very work that Texas Baptists want us to do."
___Noting "the winds of change are blowing" across the denominational landscape, O'Brien expressed gratitude "that the winds of providence have blown in our direction." BGCT changes are enabling Truett to "provide scholarship assistance for our students, provide cutting-edge technology in the classrooms and ... helping us fund academic chairs and programs that otherwise would not be possible at this time," he said.

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