Together: Needed Miraculous, compelling vision_51704

Posted: 5/14/04

TOGETHER:
Needed: Miraculous, compelling vision

Last fall, a consultant told me we could not achieve the results I was seeking in the Baptist General Convention of Texas unless our Baptist Building culture and structure changed. That was the day I knew we had to begin working to make significant changes.

I wanted to know how we could offer churches personalized consulting and know whether we actually helped them. I wanted to link churches with similar problems to a network that would enable them to find good solutions. I wanted a way to measure effectiveness. We have said we want to help churches and related ministries be the presence of Christ in the world. I wanted to know whether we were succeeding.

The BGCT is the largest Baptist state convention in America. But largest does not necessarily mean most effective.

A pastor friend loaned me a book about the business transformation at IBM: “Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?” Louis Gerstner became chief executive officer at IBM when things were looking bleak. The company was losing market share, and its employees were rocked back on their heels. Gerstner writes: “We had to stop looking for people to blame, stop tweaking the internal structure and systems. I wanted no excuses. I wanted no long-term projects that people could wait for that would somehow produce a magic turnaround. I wanted–IBM needed–an enormous sense of urgency.”

Last November, BGCT President Ken Hall urged us to address the need for change in our Baptist culture and way of doing our work. He knows there are many good, even extraordinary, things about this convention. And it is that very truth that can lull a great organization into believing change isn't necessary. Gerstner describes it as “the arrogance of success” to which great companies often succumb.

Our staff has spent time talking about the process of change and the opportunities before us. Many have been quiet cheerleaders for change ever since I came to this office. Consultant Sherrill Spies has helped explain the development of a strategic planning effort. We are excited because we believe God is calling us to the future. And no one wants us to succeed in being the presence of Christ in the world and fulfilling his vision more than God does.

Lay people, ministers, institutional presidents, directors of missions, seminarians and college students have identified critical issues facing our churches and this convention. With their passionate and thoughtful participation, the work has begun well. Now a strategic planning committee will help shape the vision and structure we are asking God to put before us. Then let us “press on toward the goal” to which God is calling us (Philippians 3:14).

At the beginning of the process, I laid before our task force members this hope: “You and I seek from God a new and passionate vision for Texas Baptists, a vision born in prayer and compelling enough that we will give our lives to see it accomplished unto the glory of God.”

I told our staff: “We will not hide from the future … nor will we run from it. When God's people have moved forward to do God's will, they have almost always explained their experience as a miracle.”

I am looking for a miracle of God. To expect anything less will mean we have dreamed too small and hoped for too little. Pray for us, Texas Baptists. We serve a great God and a great people.

We are loved.