EDITORIAL: Stoke the flame of the BGCT’s torch

Hats off to the folks planning this year's Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting Oct. 24-26 in Amarillo. Faced with slumping attendance, they've tried to revamp Texas Baptists' yearly gathering. They modeled it after the popular Catalyst conferences, featuring strong speakers with compelling stories. They crammed it with breakout sessions providing practical resources. They planned opportunities for hands-on ministry. And they focused everything on a couple of Baptists' favorite themes—evangelism and missions. So, we've been praying and hoping for a big turnout.

These are laudable innovations. But for drawing a crowd, they're beside the point. People attend the annual meeting because they care about the BGCT; they'll return when and if they start caring again.

Controversy always attracts Baptist crowds. That accounts for the record 1991 gathering in Waco (11,159 messengers), when a wary Baylor University distanced itself from the BGCT after ultra-conservatives took control of the Southern Baptist Convention. Add Amarillo in 1994 (6,199), when Texas Baptists redefined the Cooperative Program so churches could direct their funding toward or away from the SBC and its new competitor, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Include Corpus Christi in 2000 (6,713), as the BGCT wrestled with identity after a competing SBC-centric convention formed. Conflict created a common denominator for those crowds. But passion for the convention provided a greater reason for gathering. So, even during less-contentious years, the meeting often attracted from 5,000 to 7,000 messengers. This year's event is likely to reach a count closer to last year's 948 than the mid-2,000s, typical before all the "Baptist battles" began.

Figuring out how to ignite Texas Baptists' torch will be the next BGCT executive director's No. 1 task. (A search committee is expected to recommend a candidate soon, perhaps by the end of the year.) And while attendance at annual meetings provides one indicator of how brightly that torch burns, fiddling with the format won't stoke the flame. It will burn brightly if we resolve larger issues. They include:

• Determine the convention's purpose. Most Texas Baptists agree the BGCT exists for the churches. But the elephant in our room is disagreement over what that means. Is the convention's purpose to help churches collaborate to do big things they can't do themselves? These include missions, large-scale church planting, benevolence, student ministry and education. Or is it here to provide low-cost congregational resources, such as consulting for programs? Can—and should—it do both? Recently, many of our strong churches determined they can work with hand-picked partners to take on the big tasks, and they can secure resources from myriad providers. They've taken much of their money with them, leaving the convention with an unfunded mandate for servicing smaller churches. We've got to figure out the BGCT's priorities and the churches'—large and small, rich and poor—stake in them.

• Allocate resources wisely. This is a corollary to the first point; budgeting is a specific tactic necessary to achieve larger strategies. Messengers in Amarillo will vote on a BGCT operating budget of $41.3 million; eight years ago, the figure was $50.9 million. We've still got a lot of money, but to be effective, the BGCT must make hard decisions. We would be better off funding the highest-priority items for excellence than spreading money as broadly as possible. We also need to think how we can coordinate skills, knowledge and ability, so that Texas Baptists help each other directly and depend less on centralization.

• Restore identity. One source of malaise is the sense that "the BGCT" is its political apparatus and the Executive Board, both sources of recent disaffection, whether or not you agree with the rationale. Meanwhile, the convention's 20-plus institutions knock the top off ministry, associations collaborate regionally and hundreds of churches innovate creatively. We're all "the BGCT," and our identity is stronger when we see ourselves standing together.

—Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard. Visit his blog at www.baptiststandard.com.