Messengers dialogue face-to-face with BGCT officers in breakout_111703

Posted: 11/14/03

Messengers dialogue face-to-face with BGCT officers in breakout

By Russ Dilday

Buckner News Service

LUBBOCK–Officers of the Baptist General Convention of Texas fielded an array of questions during an open forum at the BGCT annual session in Lubbock Nov. 10.

The dialogue with convention officers was one of more than 60 breakout sessions offered at this year's meeting. The forum, which attracted nearly 120 participants, included both outgoing and newly elected BGCT leadership.

One participant asked if future BGCT planning included “sending our own foreign missionaries.” BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade answered that the new missions support entity of the BGCT, WorldconneX, “does not see itself as a missions-sending agency. We have taken the position of encouraging churches to do missions and not compete with other agencies.”

Another asked why the BGCT was reaching outside Texas with missions dollars and not using SBC agencies to do missions work. Brian Harbour, outgoing chairman of the BGCT Executive Board, explained missions partnerships are facilitated at the request of churches and international entities.

One participant focused on recent disputes at Baylor University by asking, “Why are we renominating someone to the regents who, from what I've read, has caused so much trouble at Baylor?” That was a reference to regent Jaclanel McFarland of Houston, who was investigated by fellow regents after charges of misconduct surfaced although no evidence was found to substantiate those charges.

Outgoing BGCT President Bob Campbell emphasized the inherent freedom in the BGCT nominating process. “We do not stifle dissent because someone won't go along,” he said. “I know (Baylor President) Robert Sloan and I know Jaclanel McFarland, and they can settle their differences as adults.”

Two others urged the convention leaders to promote the Baptist Standard, either by providing subscriptions for every Texas Baptist household or encouraging churches to include the subscriptions in their church budgets.

Another participant asked: “How is the lowered budget affecting the BGCT?”

Newly elected BGCT President Ken Hall, president of Buckner Baptist Benevolences, said the “reality of lowered giving has been in the people not being served through BGCT ministries.”

Using Buckner as an example, Hall noted that during the peak years of BGCT Cooperative Program giving, “We were receiving about $930,000. This coming year, if the budget is met, that contribution is about $730,000. For us to take care of an abused or neglected child, the average cost is about $30,000 annually. That means fewer children cared for, and that's just one institution.

“When dollars are reduced to the BGCT, you are directly reducing value to those Texas Baptists serve,” he said.

Another question: “Will we pull out of the SBC?”

“None of the leadership is planning on withdrawing from the Southern Baptist Convention,” Campbell replied. “As long as your church sends money to the SBC to pass along through the BGCT Cooperative Program, we're going to do that.”

Another participant asked how many churches in Texas are dually aligned with the BGCT and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

“We think it's right at 300 right now,” Wade said. “The other convention has, I think, 1,300 churches. We have 5,700, and about 300 are doubly counted or dually aligned. We've lost right at 750 churches that have gone uniquely aligned (with the SBTC). Last year, we lost about 75 churches and started 264 new churches. The future is reaching out to new people who haven't been reached.”

Other questions revolved around the relationship between the BGCT and SBTC and SBC. One pastor said, “I feel like a child of a bad divorce.”

Wade responded: “I didn't ask for this fight. I didn't ask for the missionaries to be told they had to sign stuff or they would be removed from the field. I didn't ask for a new confession of faith designed to push people away. I was always happy for people to be in the SBC and BGCT who didn't agree with me.

“If you're going to use the divorce analogy,” he said, “know that we didn't want anybody to leave, but we couldn't make them stay. We had to stand up and say, 'Here is who Baptists are' or we were going to lose that.”

The dialogue with convention officers was one of more than 60 breakout sessions offered at this year's meeting.