April 30, 2001
EDITORIAL:
What -- or who -- is the BGCT?
___To hear folks talk these days, you'd think "the Baptist General Convention of Texas" is an unconnected, unelected denominational demon running amok among Baptists. One person describes "the BGCT's arrogance" as if it foments from an animate bureaucratic being. Another says some Texas Baptists refuse to support "the BGCT's actions," as if those Baptists had no say in the matter. Still another suggests "the BGCT is out-of-control" as if it were an escaped animal from a religious zoo.
___This talk escalated in the past two weeks, following the Standard's April 16 report on first-quarter contributions to the BGCT Cooperative Program. Those numbers had been anticipated since last fall, when messengers to the 2000 BGCT annual session overwhelmingly adopted a new "preferred" budget that recommended trimming support for Southern Baptist Convention seminaries by 80 percent, defunding the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and reducing funding for the SBC Executive Committee from $746,291 to $10,000. The beneficiaries were to be the BGCT ministry-training schools and Hispanic ministry in Texas, as well as programs to address moral concerns and human needs.
___The budget vote wasn't as simple as it looked, of course. Rather than creating a new budget, messengers effectively added one more option to a long list of budgeting choices available to BGCT-affiliated churches. And as predicted on this page, churches have elected to "vote" with their pocketbooks. At the end of the first quarter, 19.5 percent supported the changes by funding them, 42.4 percent favored the old way of budgeting and relating to the SBC (meaning they continued to support the six SBC seminaries, the Executive Committee and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and all other SBC agencies at previous levels) and 14.9 percent didn't like either method and drafted their own giving formulas. Plus, 23.2 percent did not contribute to the BGCT budget.
___These figures delight opponents of the budget change, who point with glee to less than one in five BGCT churches that support the "preferred" budget. They talk of "power plays" and "arrogant action." They objectify the BGCT, treating it as if it were some third-party political entity with which no one has any affiliation. Never mind that more than 5,000 churches remain part of the BGCT.
___All this raises a question: What, or who, is the Baptist General Convention of Texas?
___Some sound as if they believe the BGCT were its executive director, Charles Wade, or the employees of the Baptist Building in Dallas. Others act as if it were the heads of BGCT-affiliated agencies and institutions. And some talk as if it were a puppet operated remote-control by the Texas Baptists Committed political-support group.
___Actually, the BGCT is comprised of the cooperative efforts and ministries of all the affiliated churches. They send messengers to the annual sessions, and those messengers make decisions for the convention that direct all its boards and agencies and institutions throughout the year. Most notably, they elect trustees who direct those organizations, and they approve budgets that undergird the organizations' ministries. They also make decisions that inevitably impact all Texas Baptists.
___Take the much-maligned budget change, for example. It all started democratically, when a messenger rose at an annual session and proposed that a committee be created to study SBC and BGCT theological education. Messengers agreed and authorized the committee. They charged duly-elected BGCT officials with naming the committee and allowed the committee a year to do its work. The committee studied and came back with a report and recommendations, which were released well in advance of the annual session--in plenty of time for all Texas Baptists who cared to attend as messengers to prepare to do so. Then those messengers overwhelmingly approved the committee's proposal, instructing the Administrative Committee and staff to implement the decision. And so each church, which did send or could have sent messengers to both annual sessions that brought about the new budget, then received an opportunity to support that budget as it so desires.
___Interestingly, opponents of these changes, which were approved by overwhelming margins at BGCT annual sessions, don't seem to be bothered by even more radical changes in the SBC, which were precipitated by razor-thin majorities. Ironically, the SBC has broached no disagreement or dissent, while the BGCT continues to allow dissenters to create their own formulas for relating to both state and national conventions. But that represents a huge difference between the SBC (control) and the BGCT (freedom).
___The BGCT is not perfect. No organization, even a religious one, is perfect. But the BGCT is comprised of committed, compassionate, consecrated people--Texas Baptists, one and all.
___ Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
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