No second term for Hall as BGCT president; cites need for diversity_80904

Posted: 8/06/04

No second term for Hall as BGCT
president; cites need for diversity

By Marv Knox

Editor

DALLAS–Ken Hall has announced he will not seek a second one-year term as president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

He will preside at the BGCT annual session Nov. 8-9 in San Antonio and then step down from the convention's highest elected position.

Hall hopes his precedent-defying move will help the BGCT rotate its top leadership more rapidly and embrace greater diversity of leaders, he explained.

The last time a president did not seek re-election was 1963. K. Owen White, who had been elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention that year, declined a second term.

“I'm going to try to encourage our Baptist family to think in terms of one-year presidencies instead of the traditional two one-year terms,” said Hall, who is president of Buckner Baptist Benevolences, a statewide child-care, aging-care and family-ministry agency affiliated with the BGCT.

Although the convention's constitution allows a president to serve three consecutive one-year terms, most presidents serve two years.

For more than 50 years, the tradition of presidential re-election has limited the BGCT to five presidents per decade, half the number that would have been possible if presidents served only one year, Hall said.

The convention has too many people and too much talent to restrict the leadership to a few people, he added.

“It's time to enlarge the tent,” he said. “In this era of fast-paced growth of our culture, we need to make space for more diversity in our highest office.

“Hispanics, African Americans, other ethnic groups, women and laypersons need the opportunity to have the honor to serve and to exert leadership.”

The BGCT never has had a non-Anglo or female president; they all have been white males. The last time a layperson served as president was 1964-65, when Abner McCall, then president of Baylor University, led the convention.

The rumor that Hall might not seek a second term circulated in mid-summer, and he acknowledged that some Texas Baptists who heard those rumors twisted his arm.

“I've had a lot of people asking me to continue to serve, to reconsider my position,” he said.

“But I think we need a different kind of leader: Someone who sees things from a different perspective than the white Baptist who's tied to traditions that sometimes limit our ability to read other groups and make them feel included.”

Hall's plan to step down means he will leave office midway through a major convention reorganization process.

He has been a primary promoter of reorganization and has worked alongside BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade to guide the endeavor.

"I've enjoyed helping us focus on our priorities, and I hope the leadership I've exerted has benefited the convention," he said. "But if our walk is going to match our call, then our leadership (through the transition) can't look like the stereotype of Baptist leadership.

“Hopefully, by our leadership being more diverse, this will enable us to recruit more diverse denominational employees and strengthen the depth and breadth of our convention.”

That will have a profound impact upon Texas Baptists, he predicted.

“We need to discover ways to invite other Baptists and ethnic communities to join the BGCT in reaching this state for Christ,” he explained. “It can be better done if led by someone who represents the best of our inclusiveness.”

Hall's decision about a second term does not reflect disappointment or negative feelings regarding his term as president, he stressed.

“This year has been an unbelievably all-consuming experience–as energy-depleting as I've ever had,” he conceded. “But it's also been rewarding. I've seen a future for Texas Baptists I'm not sure I knew existed.

“There's an energy for reaching this world for Christ. Our churches, our institutions desperately want to honor the Lord and extend his kingdom.”

Hall has enjoyed experiencing such spiritual passion firsthand.

“I've loved the year. It's been energizing for me spiritually, energizing to me as a churchman,” he said. “But it's time for someone else to lead. I can influence that more by stepping aside early rather than later.”

Prior to becoming Buckner's president in 1994, Hall was pastor of First Baptist Church in Longview. Previous pastorates included Crestview Baptist Church in Midland, Eastwood Baptist Church in Gatesville and Riverside Baptist Church in Stephenville.

He has been a director of the Baptist Standard, chairman of the BGCT Committee on Committees, and member of the BGCT Executive Board and Resolutions Committee. He is a deacon and Sunday school teacher at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas.

He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Tyler, earned master's and doctor's degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and is an honorary alumnus of Baylor University's George W. Truett Seminary.

He and his wife, Linda, have two adult children and two grandchildren.