Updated: 11/10/06
Executive Board sets second called
meeting to respond to investigation
By Ken Camp
Managing Editor
DALLAS—The Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board will meet in executive session immediately prior to the convention’s annual meeting to consider its response to an investigative team’s report about mismanaged and misused church starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley.
The called meeting, slated from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Nov. 13, at the Dallas Convention Center will be the second special meeting of the board within two weeks. On Oct. 31, the board heard attorneys Diane Dillard and Michael Rodriguez and forensic accountant Carlos Barrera present evidence from a five-month independent investigation into allegations of impropriety in the Valley.
| The full report is available here as a pdf document.
See related articles: • Pattern of exaggeration repeated in Mexico, observers say • Executive Board sets second called meeting to respond to investigation Previous articles: • Evidence found of misuse of Valley funds • Investigation team outlines preventative steps • Brief excerpts from the report • Otto Arango's earnings claims disputed by directors of missions • BGCT faces challenges leaders say • EDITORIAL: Executive Board must rise to the occasion • Charles Wade has posted a response to the report here. |
They reported Texas Baptists gave more than $1.3 million in start-up funding and monthly support to three pastors in the Rio Grande Valley who reported 258 church starts between 1999 and 2005. Investigators presented evidence that up to 98 percent of those churches no longer exist, and some never existed—except on paper.
The investigation revealed poor oversight, uneven management and failure to follow established guidelines in church starting on the part of some of the BGCT Executive Board’s staff.
The investigative team offered seven recommendations to prevent misuse of church starting funds and to strengthen accountability. At its Oct. 31 meeting, the board took no immediate action on the recommendations, but BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade reported to the directors his plan to implement some of them.
A Nov. 3 e-mail sent to all Executive Board directors asked them to meet “for the purpose of discussing and considering any business related to the matters discussed in the report of the findings of the recent BGCT-authorized investigation of allegations related to the misuse of funds in connection with the Valley church starting activities … including determination of the board’s role in responding to and implementing the recommendations of the report and any additional appropriate actions or responses to the report.”
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