BGCT designed to meet churches’ wishes

Posted: 3/31/06

BGCT designed to meet churches’ wishes

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

DALLAS—If a church needs help from the Baptist General Convention of Texas, should a church representative: (a) call the service center at the Baptist Building; (b) contact a regional congregational strategist; or (c) directly phone somebody he or she knows on the BGCT Executive Board staff?

The correct answer: (d) any of the above.

The revamped BGCT organizational structure—with a centralized call center in Dallas, congregational strategists and church starters located around the state and Dallas-based specialists who work primarily in interdisciplinary teams—provides multiple ways churches can access the state convention’s resources, staff leaders insist.

“We want to be available to our churches however they feel most comfortable relating to us,” said David Nabors, BGCT chief financial officer and treasurer.

The new approach may appear confusing to Texas Baptists familiar with the old structure of centers, departments and divisions, all based at the Baptist Building. But the new system grew directly out of desires expressed by Texas Baptists around the state, said BGCT Chief Operating Officer Ron Gunter.

“This is not something we just pulled out of the sky. It’s what churches asked for,” Gunter said.

Over the last two years, the BGCT has worked to bring its organizational structure in line with convention-approved strategic priorities. First, the BGCT dealt with governance issues—changing the bylaws and constitution, reducing the size of its Executive Board by more than half and giving the board greater decision-making authority.

While those matters were being resolved, BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade and his staff conducted listening sessions around the state and brought together focus groups to explore ways to improve the staff structure.

“The consistent messages we heard were: ‘Give us the resources where we are. Decentralize. And get out of Dallas,’” said Chris Liebrum, special assistant to the executive director.

In response, the BGCT has deployed congregational strategists and church starters to nine service areas around the state. Congregational strategists have a broad, general understanding of available resources and are trained as “first-responders” when churches have urgent needs, he explained.

“Congregational strategists are the 911 call,” Liebrum said. “They offer three things to churches. First, they are generalists who have a broad knowledge base. Second, they will be able to get there quicker than somebody based in Dallas. And, in time, they will be ones who will have a personal relationship with the churches in their areas.”

Since laptop computers and cell phones provide remote access to databases and other resources, most field personnel will spend the bulk of their time on the road visiting churches and will not have permanent offices—including field staff who serve the Dallas area.

“Why provide office space for someone who is supposed to be out in the field?” Gunter asked.

While BGCT staff in specialized areas—such as church starting—have served around the state for many years, deployment of generalists has caused some Texas Baptists to question whether the state convention is duplicating a role often performed by associational directors of missions.

“It looks like we are reinventing the wheel,” George Mosier of Dallas wrote in a Baptist Standard letter to the editor, published in February. “We already have area missionaries or directors of missions strategically placed around the state.”

Congregational strategists should neither duplicate nor usurp the role of a director of missions, Gunter ex-plained. They have been urged to build close working relationships with directors of missions in their service areas and let them know of their desire to serve alongside them as a support.

At the same time, everyone involved needs to recognize and respect the autonomy of the state convention and associations and realize each exists to serve churches, he added.

“Our churches have spoken to us and told us this is what they want, and we are going to serve our churches,” Gunter said.

In filling the congregational strategist posts, he added, staff leaders sought to respond to another message delivered in listening sessions—hire field personnel who have recent, hands-on experience in local-church or associational settings and an affinity for congregational life.

At the Baptist Building in Dallas, most personnel serve on an operational team—such as congregational leadership, research and development, or missions, evangelism and ministry—the leader of whom reports directly to Gunter.

The service center—a new office directed by Gus Reyes where staff initiate and respond to general phone calls about available resources—operates 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday.

“The physical arrangements in the Baptist Building had to be redesigned in response to the reorganization and a need for different space configurations,” Nabors said. “No Cooperative Program dollars were used.”

When the BGCT sold its downtown property in the late 1980s at the height of the real estate boom and built the current Baptist Building when construction costs were low, it enabled administrative staff at that time to create an endowment fund that has continued to fund remodeling needs for more than 15 years, he noted.

Likewise, up-dates in computer systems and other technology have been provided through designated endowment funds —not Cooperative Program money, he added.

And while some staff have retired or moved to other ministries, the current number of BGCT Executive Board employees roughly equals the number of staff prior to the reorganization, Gunter said.

Staff leaders haven’t been surprised some Texas Baptists have asked hard—sometimes critical—questions about the reorganization. Major organizational changes don’t occur painlessly or flawlessly, Liebrum acknowledged.

“We hear the criticisms, and we’re not blind to the challenges some have expressed,” he said.

And while the basic structure is in place now, specific elements will be subject to “constant tweaking” so they can be improved, Gunter added.

“We want to provide what churches asked for,” he said. “We’re here to serve churches.”