September 25, 2000

BGCT staff reorganization built around six units
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___A plan to flatten the Baptist General Convention of Texas' bureaucracy and push its ministries closer to the churches received the first round of approval this month.
___The BGCT Administrative Committee approved a staff reorganization plan proposed by BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade and a special study committee. The plan will

BGCT Staff Reorganization Chart.

be presented for final approval to the convention's Executive Board Sept. 26.
___"I'm trying to lead by pushing our ministry team out into the communities and churches of Texas--together, sharing the gospel and doing the work of God's kingdom," Wade said as he unveiled the reorganization proposal.
___By decreasing the number of bureaucratic levels and clustering teams of workers around common types of ministry, the convention can "press our services and ministries to the local churches," Wade explained in an interview.
___That can be accomplished by making the organization more flexible and responsive to Texas Baptists, he added. He intends for decision-making processes to function more quickly and for programs to be tailored more specifically to the needs of churches and other ministries.
___For example, every BGCT Executive Board program leader will be at most one step removed from Wade's office, he said. "It puts more decision-makers close to me. The creative work we do is right there close. We don't have to work through bureaucracy."
___The current Executive Board structure basically has been unchanged for about four decades. The lion's share of the work has been structured under two commissions and two boards--the State Missions Commission, the Christian Life Commission, the Christian Education Coordinating Board and the Human Welfare Coordinating Board, each with administrative staff and trustees elected from across the state. Program leaders often are separated from the executive director by at least two levels of administration.
___While the reorganization does not do away with the boards and commissions outright, it does restructure their components and remove layers of administration in several areas, Wade noted. The function of the elected trustees will be studied during the next couple of years, he said.
___The new structure primarily divides the Executive Board staff into six sections--church missions and evangelism, church health and growth, associational missions and administration, Christian ethics and public life, institutional ministries, and financial management.
___Most of the work of the State Missions Commission is relegated to two sections--church missions and evangelism, and church health and growth.
___The church missions and evangelism section will include eight programs--evangelism and prayer, the Church Starting Center, church facilities, Texas Partnerships, Mission Service Corps, River Ministry, creative church development and church ministries.
___The church health and growth section also will be comprised of eight programs--Bible study/discipleship, minister/ church relations, ministers' counseling, Texas Baptist Leadership Center, church information services, church administration and deacon ministry, worship and music, and church stewardship.
___Four programs assigned to the associational missions and administration section also up to now have operated through the State Missions Commission. They are relationships with associations and associational directors of missions as well as coordination of black church ministries, ethnic ministries and bivocational-smaller church ministries. This section also will supervise work with the state convention's committees and calendar planning.
___The Christian ethics and public life section will include the work of the Christian Life Commission. It also will involve networking with other Christians, promotion of Baptist distinctives, and research and planning.
___The ministries of the Human Welfare Coordinating Board and the Christian Education Coordinating Board will be combined into the institutional ministries section. This section will relate to the BGCT's universities and its academy, Baptist Student Ministries programs on college and university campuses statewide, health care systems, child care and aging care institutions, theological education programs at two seminaries and lay theological education. It also will relate to two institutions formerly operated under the auspices of the State Missions Commission--Hispanic Baptist Theological School and the Valley Baptist Missions/Education Center.
___The financial management section will supervise the work of eight departments--budget development, accounting and finances, information systems, Baptist Building support services, the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation, the Texas Baptist Historical Center, Cooperative Program services and convention planning.
___In addition, two boards elected by the Executive Board--the Baptist Church Loan Corp. and Texas Baptist Financial Services--will relate to the staff through the chief financial officer, who heads the financial management section.
___The coordinators of these six sections will participate in the administrative team that works directly with Executive Director Wade. In addition, the director of human resources, the executive associate and the director of communications will be part of that team. So will the executive directors of Texas Baptist Men and Woman's Missionary Union of Texas, which are separate organizations that work very closely with the Executive Board and utilize offices in the Baptist Building.
___The identities of three of the section coordinators already are known, Wade said. Keith Bruce, director of the Christian Education Coordinating Board and interim director of the Human Welfare Coordinating Board, will be coordinator of institutional ministries. Roger Hall, the convention's treasurer and chief financial officer, will remain in that capacity as head of the financial management section. And Phil Strickland, director of the Christian Life Commission, will continue to supervise the commission and lead the Christian ethics and public life section.
___Dick Maples will remain as executive associate, and Chris Liebrum will continue to serve as director of human resources, Wade said. The leaders of Woman's Missionary Union, Joy Fenner, and Texas Baptist Men, Jim Furgerson, will sit in on the administrative team.
___That leaves four vacancies--the coordinators of church missions and evangelism, church health and growth, and associational missions and administration, as well as the director of communications.
___Wade said he hopes to fill those vacancies very soon. And, noting his present administrative team includes only white males, he also pledged to diversify the staff leadership with regard to ethnicity and gender.
___On several occasions, Wade has told Executive Board staff members their employment is secure as long as they work hard and competently. The flattened structure and modest downsizing of the staff is made possible by some recent and impending retirements.
___If approved by the Executive Board this week, the reorganization would be started informally Oct. 1 and launched officially Jan. 1.

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