Remarks by President Albert Reyes

Posted: 10/03/05

Remarks by President Albert Reyes
at the fall meeting of the BGCT Executive Board

By Albert L. Reyes, DMin, DDiv

President, Baptist General Convention of Texas

Buenos Dias mis hermanos y hermanas! Saludos en el poderoso nombre de Cristo Jesus nuestro Senor y Salvador! Good morning brothers and sisters! Greetings to you in the powerful name of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior! Today is our third and final meeting this year of our Executive Board and my final opportunity to address this body as president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Thanks. I would like to take this time to personally thank you for your support and affirmation this year. Our times together have been full of blessing and encouragement. I would also like to express my appreciation to Dr. Charles Wade, our executive director for his leadership and his ongoing passion to lead us to do together what we could not do alone! Dr. Wade, thank you for your leadership this year! I want to also take this moment to thank our Executive Board Staff who serve with Dr. Wade for their commitment and loyalty to the Texas Baptist Family. Thank you for doing the challenging task of reorganization. I especially would like to take this opportunity to thank Ron Gunter for his diligence and focus on reorganizing our Executive Board Staff. You will hear more about his work later in our meeting. Drs. Michael Bell and Stacy Conner have been a joy to work with this year. I will miss their fellowship and partnership in this role. Finally, let me take this moment to commend our Executive Board Chair, Dr. John Ogletree for the excellent manner in which he has led us over the past few months.

BGCT Annual Meeting. We are just a few weeks away from celebrating our annual meeting in Austin, Texas. By now you know that our theme is “One Family – One Mission.” We hope to focus on our fellowship, our business, and our time together to celebrate the mission that draws into our Texas Baptist Family. I hope you will make plans on being there. You will notice that we are introducing Weekend Fest with a concert and exhibits on Saturday as well as events on Sunday prior to the our annual meeting schedule for Monday and Tuesday. I look forward to seeing you in Austin in November.

Year in Review. I started out last March challenging our Texas Baptist Family to consider a Jesus Agenda for the work ahead of us. We were to consider Governance changes through a restatement of our Constitution and Bylaws, and the Re-Organization of our Executive Board Staff, above our regular business this year. At this September meeting you will consider the culmination of countless hours of work, led primarily by Dr. Wesley Shotwell and those that have served with him on his committee. Make no mistake, the restatement of our Constitution and Bylaws coupled with the ongoing Reorganization of our Executive Board Staff is indeed the beginning of the transformation of our beloved BGCT and Texas Baptist Family. In fact, I would go as far as to say that these changes represent the most dramatic organizational changes our convention has seen in a generation of Texas Baptist life. In my earlier remarks this year I encouraged us to keep an outward focus on those who represent the primary object of a Jesus Agenda rather than merely focusing on ourselves. That message is vital to our transition into the new BGCT.

In my May Executive Board remarks I focused my attention on the subject of change. I asked what our theology of change was? That is, what do we believe about the God who never changes but is constantly changing the world in which we live and seeks to transform us into our new nature? I attempted to hold up a mirror for us to gaze into and to invite the Master to gaze into the core of our being. I invited us to look into the heart of the most Dynamic Change Agent to ever live: Jesus of Nazareth. I asked us to consider our response to change as well as the Divine Change Maker.

Change This Year. I could not have envisioned the change that we would see this year beginning with the Tsunami that rocked our world in December. I would not have imagined that Katrina and her twin sister Rita would make a surprise visit to the shores of Louisiana and Texas sending evacuees into our cities and churches. We would hope that Katrina’s and Rita’s sisters would stay home and not make their way into our Gulf Waters again this year. But if they do, we will be ready. These natural disasters have taught me that life is fragile, change is certain, and Texas Baptists have seized the multiple opportunities to be the presence of Christ in a world that desperately needs a word of hope and the peace that passes all understanding.

Someone has said that Grief is when something finishes before we wanted it to. Certainly the interruption of life for millions of people in the Gulf Coast Region and the introduction of death for countless numbers of people and their families has ushered in the experience of grief for many friends and neighbors. The shock, disbelief, denial, anger, depression, and all our God-given emotions designed to help us cope with change have hit us without rhythm or advanced warning. While my own family has not been personally impacted by the Tsunami or the Twin Hurricane Sisters, we have had our own losses this year, nevertheless. Many of you have continued to pray for my wife of almost 24 years, Belinda, as we have struggled through her diagnosis of Chronic Pain and Chronic Fatigue, otherwise known as Fibromyalgia. We have experienced our own sense of grief and loss on a daily basis. Belinda has regained about 50% of the strength she had about 18 months ago. She has given up her passion for teaching and stepped out of a tenure track position at Our Lady of the Lake University to stay home. Some of you have asked me how I have managed this year with the weight of this office, my work at BUA, and the increased attention my family has required of me this year. Well, I am not sure how I have managed other than re-engaging my daily time with the Master and depending on your prayers and support. This is not the first loss we have faced, nor will it be our last. That’s because change and loss are a natural and normal part of this life.

Job. We have learned to make our confession of praise. We have learned to say with Job: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” But can we take it up a few notches and learn to say with Job: “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him?” The true test of our identity in Christ can be found at the core of our character. Who we really are tends to surface in the midst of loss, change, and conflict. We are led to ask ourselves this question: Is life really about our Lord and Savior and his purposes in the world or is it about me?

The Servant. One of the refreshing images for me this year as I have traveled to the many meetings at the Baptist Building has been the magnificent sculpture in front of the building. It is a depiction of Jesus washing the feet of one of his disciples. The posture of Jesus is a bold reminder to me of who I really am, at my core. I am a servant and I wash feet. We wash feet on our knees. We use water, a towel, and some soap. We are Texas Baptists. We serve, that’s what we do. It matters not where we are assigned to serve, or whose feet we are assigned to wash, for the servant only wishes to please the Master and produce clean feet. We serve a living Savior; he is in the world today. We know that he is with us, no matter what our critics may say. We see his hand of mercy and we hear his voice of cheer. And just the time we need him, he is always near. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today; he walks with us and talks with us even through the Hurricanes’ way. He lives, he lives, salvation to impart. You ask me how I know he lives, he lives within our hearts.

The living Lord invites Texas Baptists to wash the feet of orphans, the elderly, the under-educated, the feet of those with different cultures, the feet of our churches, and those in need. We are one family, with one mission: to incarnate the good news through serving. So, let’s grab a towel, let’s get to our knees, and let’s keep serving the world next door to the Glory of God!