Executive Board approves decreased BGCT budget
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___DALLAS--Next year's budget for the Baptist General Convention of Texas will be 8.8 percent smaller than this year's budget but still will enable the convention to meet its strategic goals, members of the BGCT Executive Board were told Sept. 25.
___The Executive Board approved the budget presented by the convention's Administrative Committee and took numerous other actions during the fall meeting at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas.
___In other action, the board elected Brian Harbour, pastor of First Baptist Church of Richardson, chairman of the board. He succeeds Rudy Sanchez, who was the first Hispanic to hold the position.
___The board also approved a change in relationship with Buckner Baptist Benevolences that amends the way that agency's trustees are elected, approved a new relationship agreement with Houston Baptist University and authorized transactions related to the potential merger of Baptist Health System of San Antonio with Christus Santa Rosa Health System.
___Both BGCT Treasurer Roger Hall and Administrative Committee Chairman Stephen Hatfield explained that the lower budget was necessary because of lower receipts in the current year. For the eight months ending Aug. 31, total Cooperative Program gifts were 6 percent under budget and gifts to the Texas part of the BGCT Cooperative Program were 11 percent under budget.
___The BGCT divides its Cooperative Program giving into two categories, one for Texas causes and one for worldwide causes. Churches are allowed to determine their own split between the two areas.
___Also as of Aug. 31, total Cooperative Program receipts were down 14.3 percent over the same time last year. Total gifts to the Texas part of the Cooperative Program budget were down 10.4 percent over last year.
___"I do not enjoy standing before you presenting a budget that represents a decrease," said Hatfield, pastor of First Baptist Church of Lewisville.
___However, "changes in Baptist life and changing patterns of giving" are impacting the BGCT budget, he acknowledged.
___Those changes include increased competition from an alternative state Baptist convention started by fundamentalists who want to more strongly align themselves with the Southern Baptist Convention, as well as reaction to budget changes enacted by messengers to the BGCT annual session last fall.
___Although all BGCT churches still are able to direct their worldwide missions gifts as they choose, this is the first year the BGCT has promoted an Adopted Budget that diverts some funds from SBC seminaries and two other SBC entities and gives the money to Texas Baptist missions and education causes.
___Hatfield acknowledged the Administrative Committee is aware that many Texas Baptist churches still are studying their giving options. "Churches are going to take their own time and discuss this," he said.
___But he urged all BGCT-affiliated churches to give through the Adopted Budget.
___The proposed 2002 budget for the BGCT projects $43.36 million in Cooperative Program gifts, plus another $4 million in other income for the Texas budget. These totals do not include church-directed gifts for worldwide ministries such as the SBC, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship or Baptist World Alliance.
___Hatfield explained the budget originally included a 3 percent pay increase for BGCT employees. However, that was eliminated when the convention learned it would face a 20 percent increase in health insurance costs next year, he said.
___Despite the challenges, "this is a budget that is trim but will help us meet our goals," he said. "We still believe we can meet our priorities."
___Hall reported BGCT executives have been working to reduce personnel costs, eliminating 32 positions through attrition and reorganization.
___Hall also said the BGCT has experienced a net loss of 279 churches this year, with 148 new churches added and 427 existing churches leaving. That is a net drop from 5,997 churches to 5,718.
___ The new agreement with Buckner Baptist Benevolences was crafted in joint consultation between Buckner's trustees and administration and leaders of the BGCT's Human Welfare Coordinating Board.
___Keith Bruce, coordinator of institutional ministries for the BGCT, commended the process as a model for future negotiations with Baptist agencies, noting Buckner had not taken any unilateral action.
___Under terms of the new agreement, the BGCT will elect one-third of Buckner's board rather than all the board. The remaining two-thirds of the board will be elected by the Buckner board itself.
___All trustees will continue to be drawn from Baptist churches, and Buckner pledges in the document to continue to be a Baptist ministry agency closely and uniquely affiliated with the BGCT.
___Buckner President Ken Hall said the change is necessary to ensure more ethnically diverse representation on the board of trustees.
___Several Executive Board members questioned what he meant by this and why sufficient diversity could not be found within the membership of BGCT-affiliated churches.
___He noted that Buckner, while still rooted as a Texas Baptist agency, has become an international ministry. Buckner receives only 2 percent of its operating budget from the BGCT.
___Demonstrating greater ethnic diversity in its governance is important both for seeking funding from charitable foundations and for gaining a hearing in the African-American communities Buckner seeks to serve, Hall said.
___"As you look at this room, we are very, very white," he said. "We need to enlarge that diversity."
___While the BGCT is gaining in the ethnic diversity of its membership, "there are broader issues than can be addressed within the churches affiliated with the BGCT," he added.
___After about 30 minutes of discussion, the new relationship with Buckner was approved without objection. The matter now goes to the BGCT annual session in Dallas Oct. 29-30.
___The Executive Board also approved a resolution regarding a possible alliance between Baptist Health System of San Antonio and Christus Santa Rosa Health System.
___Representatives of Baptist Health System and the BGCT explained the action was necessary because of severe financial problems at the San Antonio hospital.
___Like Baptist Health System, Christus Santa Rosa is a non-profit hospital with a faith-based approach. The proposed alliance between the two hospitals would maintain both those distinctives, said Julian Stewart, a member of the Baptist Health System board of trustees.
___Stewart said the parties involved hope to have a definitive agreement worked out by Nov. 1 and to implement the alliance by Jan. 1.
___In other action, the Executive Board:
___ Elected Harbour chairman in a three-way contest with John Ogletree of Houston and Bobby Broyles of Earth.
___ Elected Ogletree, pastor of First Metropolitan Baptist Church in Houston, as vice chairman.

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