Posted: 11/10/06
Pattern of exaggeration
repeated in Mexico, observers say
By Ken Camp
Managing Editor
Otto Arango exported church planting strategies he developed in South Texas to Latin America through the Piper Institute for Church Planting, a 2-year-old nonprofit corporation that evolved from the Institute for Church Planting he founded in McAllen.
But some observers familiar with his church starting initiatives in Mexico assert Arango—the central figure in an investigation that revealed misuse and mismanagement of Baptist General Convention of Texas church starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley—also exported a pattern of exaggerated claims.
Results in northeastern Mexico
Dexton Shores, director of BGCT Border/Mexico Missions, conducted a survey last December of church starts in North Tamaulipas in northeast Mexico. His survey of 43 pastors—reported by the Piper Institute to have started 75 percent of all new works in the area—found only 12 percent, at most, of the church starts could be verified.
“Our survey results revealed that 42 of the pastors had started a total of nine new churches with PICP institutes, and one pastor who was also the PICP regional coordinator responsible for the entire exaggerated report said that his church started 14. Counting his 14, the total results were 23 of the 199 (church starts) reported by PICP,” Shores said.
He also pointed to inflated figures regarding the number of active students and graduates in the church planting institutes reported by the Piper Institute in the region.
“Of the 43 pastors surveyed, eight said they had used the PICP materials for a short time and suspended classes due to lack of attendance and never resumed. Twenty-two of the 43 pastors surveyed (50 percent) said they had never used the PICP materials at all,” Shores said. “Only 25 percent were still using the PICP materials.
“The survey revealed only 17 percent of the number of graduates reported by PICP, or 32 percent if the nine graduates reported from the PICP regional coordinator’s institute are added.”
E.B. Brooks, executive director of the Piper Institute, called the survey “incomplete, inaccurate and un-audited,” and he disputed its assessment of the institute’s work in northeastern Mexico.
“We have individual statements detailing name of the church, address, pastor’s name and his or her address, the telephone number and an attendance figure for each of the churches started,” Brooks said, noting the information was provided both to the institute’s board in September and to BGCT Executive Board staff leaders.
“Current data from northeastern Mexico, through our indigenous coordinators, indicate that there are 992 students enrolled in training, some of whom have started 198 churches. According to the coordinators, there are an additional 24 cell groups, which, in their terminology, are intended to grow to become churches.”
A study by two Piper Insitute staff members and a board member verified the existence of at least 47 new churches in the specific region Shores surveyed, Brooks noted.
But Shores said he spoke with three leaders of the North Tamaulipas Regional Convention who said there was no report at their annual meeting last month of any new churches that grew out of the training institutes that use Arango’s curriculum.
“They said they would like to see the list of all these 47 new churches, with pastors’ names, church names and addresses, since they are unknown to the regional convention,” Shores said.
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| Dexton Shores |
While the exact numbers of church starts in northeastern Mexico are disputed, critics of Arango’s approach point to what they see as a pattern of questionable claims.
A five-month investigation initiated by the Executive Director and the BGCT Executive Board's officers uncovered evidence that 98 percent of the 258 church starts in the Rio Grande Valley reported by Arango and two of his colleagues no longer exist, and some never existed except on paper. The BGCT gave more than $1.3 million support to those 258 church starts in the Valley.
Arango, the Piper Institute’s founding president, did not reply to e-mails and phone calls asking for answers to specific questions. Over the space of two weeks, he was given the opportunity to respond to more than 20 issues, but he offered no reply other than two brief e-mails. In the first, he asserted the investigators’ report presented to the BGCT Executive Board contained 13 to 15 mistakes or contradictions, but he did not specify their nature. In the second, he said he was out of the country and referred all questions to Brooks.
The Piper Institute
“The Piper Institute for Church Planting has nothing to hide and is open to questions regarding our work,” Brooks said.
A statement posted on the Piper Institute website reads: “We are very concerned by the allegations of misconduct in the church starting work of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. We look forward to answering those charges that involve the Piper Institute staff and others related to this organization. We take these allegations very seriously, and we will respond in an adequate manner.”
A called meeting of the Piper Institute’s board of directors is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 14 in Dallas, during the BGCT annual meeting.
Bill Nichols, chairman of the board, expressed personal confidence in Brooks, saying, “In all the time I have known E.B., I have never known him as anything other than a man of the highest integrity.”
Likewise, Nichols said, Arango never did anything to bring into question his integrity or credibility. He noted the board sought to verify numbers reported to them, and all indications pointed to the truthfulness of the statistics.
“However, because of the cloud that has come over our two leaders, justified or not, there is a decision our board must make—whether the cloud has become so overwhelming that we cannot afford to keep the Piper Institute going,” Nichols said.
Nichols remained committed to the strategy of training laypeople to start churches. The cause of starting new churches in Latin America and empowering laity is bigger than a single organization, he added.
“I believer the approach of giving dignity and respect to laymen has sparked the fires of evangelism and a spirit of freedom, and whatever we do, it won’t be put out. It will go on with or without us,” Nichols said.
Some leaders in the effort to fund mission work, and church starting in particular, have expressed concern that the cloud of suspicion cast by this scandal should not darken one of Texas Baptists’ finest names—the Paul and Katy Piper family.
The Pipers’ commitment to help start churches spans more than five decades, reported Kent Reynolds, executive director of Christ is Our Salvation, the Pipers’ foundation, and Bill Arnold, executive director of the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation.
“When Mr. Piper was a young businessman, he committed what he was doing to the Lord,” Arnold said.
“Although he did not feel called to preach, he felt called to enable others to preach,” Reynolds added.
“They picked ‘Christ is Our Salvation’ because that was to be the major thrust of their work,” Arnold said, noting the Pipers believed “the Lord was going to bless them and they were going to provide for the Lord’s work.”
“Mr. Piper wanted to spread the gospel to as many people as possible,” Reynolds explained. “Mr. Piper felt his gift was making money, and he would turn around and provide funding to those whose gift was to carry on ministry.”
The Pipers’ close relationship with the BGCT began about a quarter-century ago.
“We found early on in the 1980s the BGCT had many good programs to spread the gospel,” Reynolds said, adding the Pipers have provided millions of dollars to the BGCT for efforts to start churches and to give them strength to survive and flourish.
The Pipers provided major funding for Mission Texas, the BGCT’s major church starting campaign in the 1980s, Arnold recalled.
“Mr. and Mrs. Paul Piper’s concern for sharing the gospel of Christ and their compassion for persons led them to give generously over many years of their time and resources to missions and other Christ-centered causes, such as Christian education, benevolence, ministry and evangelism,” noted Bill Pinson, the BGCT’s executive director during the Mission Texas effort and subsequent years, who worked closely with the Pipers.
“A host of people have been blessed because of their love for missions.”
For example, the Pipers provided $5 million to establish an endowment that provides low-interest loans to help small churches construct their first buildings, Arnold said. These churches could not even afford the closing costs on conventional loans. As the churches pay back their loans, the principal returns to the endowment, and the interest goes to Christ is Our Salvation to support other missions/ministry causes. Since 1989, 135 churches have received these loans.
Paul Piper Sr. died in January 2004. Trustees of the Christ is Our Salvation board are Katy Piper; the Pipers’ son, Paul Piper Jr.; and their granddaughter, Polly Piper Rickard. Paul Piper Jr.’s wife, Shirley Piper, also is actively involved in the foundation’s work.
The Piper family’s support for Baptist causes exceeded $5.4 million during the 2006 fiscal year—a figure similar to 2005 and expected in 2007, Reynolds reported. Total distribution to all causes was almost $10 million. The Baptist total included grants of almost $3.6 million and no-interest loans of nearly $1.9 million.
Beneficiaries included Baptist institutions in at least six states and Mexico.
BGCT recipients included Baptist Child & Family Services, Baylor University, Buckner Benevolences, Hardin-Simmons University, eight programs operated through the BGCT Executive Board as well as the Baptist Standard.
One of the beneficiaries was the Piper Institute, which received $150,000 in fiscal 2006.
The Piper name was added to the institute after its founding, when Christ is Our Salvation provided significant funding to help start churches in Mexico. However, the Piper family has not exerted control over the operations of the ministries it helps to fund, including the church starting institute, Reynolds noted.
“Mr. Piper (Sr.) didn’t want to be involved in the everyday activities of the organizations to which he provided support.
“He looked for people with passion and organizations with a good structure and provided funds to spread the gospel.”
Reynolds compared the Pipers’ contributions to churches’ gifts to the BGCT’s ministries: They give to missions and trust others to use those gifts wisely and honestly.
Piper Institute partners
The Piper Institute’s website features a page listing partners, including the BGCT, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, Baptist University of the Americas and the National Baptist Convention of Mexico.
Spokesmen for some of those entities affirmed their past relationship with the Piper Institute, but others sought to distance themselves from Arango and the institute he founded.
“The Baptist General Convention of Texas, through its Church Starting Center, sponsored and supported the beginning of the Institute for Church Planting which became, in 2004, the Piper Institute for Church Planting,” the institute’s websites states. “This visionary convention continues to partner with (the Piper Institute) and provides substantial financial support for its work.”
But that pipeline of funding from Texas Baptists has ended, said BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade.
“No more BGCT funds will be channeled through the Piper Institute this year, and no funds have been budgeted for Piper Institute projects in 2007,” Wade said.
“We count on our partnership with Rio Grande Valley Baptists, as well as Mexican Baptists, to accomplish effective church planting. The BGCT enjoys continued affirmation from the leadership of the National Baptist Convention of Mexico. The future in church planting depends on the integrated, trust-filled relationships among multiple Baptist groupings at the local church and association levels.
“Thankfully, church planting in the Rio Grande Valley and in Mexico stretches far beyond the efforts of a few people. Texas Baptists and Mexico Baptists have always counted on the strong efforts of hundreds of volunteers and visionary churches to accomplish healthy church planting on both sides of the border. Those efforts will not cease until the Lord returns.”
Don Sewell, BGCT executive liaison for missions relationships, noted the BGCT has used multiple methods of evangelism and church planting related to a variety of groups.
“The BGCT, as do all Christian organizations, relies on internal networks of trust among the laborers. Recent revelations of financial misappropriations have been vigorously addressed,” he said. “The BGCT staff members who were directly involved have decided to retire or resign. We grieve at the highly regrettable breach of trust.
“Texas Baptists have every right to enjoy trust in their state convention leadership. In turn, we pledge to make lasting corrections, strengthen stewardship of financial resources and rebuild trust.
“The church planting institute that directly relates to Otto Arango is an example of one of the many efforts to reach people for Christ. The board of that church planting institute deserves the chance to deliberate over the findings of the investigation, just as do all Texas Baptists,” added Sewell, who serves on the Piper Institute board.
CBF had a formal partnership with the Piper Institute, Arango and the Union of Baptists in Latin America—of which Arango is president—from Feb. 14, 2005, to June 30, 2006, said Lance Wallace, the Fellowship’s associate coordinator of communications.
“The partnership officially concluded on the date as originally agreed,” Wallace said, noting limited-duration partnerships have been standard CBF practice.
“CBF staff members have spoken to leaders from Central and South America, and we are satisfied that Piper Institute representatives were well-received and our funds were well-expended. We are satisfied with our partnership with the Piper Institute and look forward to future endeavors,” he said.
Neither Baptist University of the Americas nor Truett Seminary ever had any official partnership with the Piper Institute, leaders of those schools insisted.
“Baptist University of the Americas values the work of church planting in Texas, the nation and throughout the world. … However, BUA does not have a formal partnership with (the Piper Institute) and are unsure why we are listed as a partner,” President Albert Reyes said.
“Our only agreement has been to provide certain educational opportunities for church planters as the needs arose. However, we certainly believe that planting churches among Hispanics or any other segment of the population is a worthy goal, as long as the proper accountabilities are in place.”
Truett Seminary Dean Paul Powell agreed to serve on the Piper Institute board because of his friendship with the Piper family and his gratitude to them as financial supporters of the seminary, he said. However, he said Truett Seminary “is not a partner in any official sense” with the institute.
“We share a common commitment to the cause of Christ and church planting, but we are partners only in that we share a common desire to build God’s kingdom, and I am on the board along with some other trusting people. Obviously, they and we were too trusting of leadership without accountability,” Powell said.
Even though Truett Seminary never entered an official partnership, Arango pressed leaders at the school for their endorsement—“an association that would lend respectability” to his cause, Powell said.
At one point, he recalled, Arango even asked Truett Seminary administrators to provide him business cards printed with his name and the school’s logo—a request they denied.
“Otto was always wanting a partnership with us, but he could never tell me what that involved,” Powell said. “I told him clearly that we could not give free education to people, and we could not send faculty to Mexico or Central America. I now think he wanted the partnership to lend respectability to his cause.”
At the three board meetings he attended, Powell said he asked for an accounting of the work Arango reported.
“The exact words that I used in every meeting were: ‘This reminds me of the proverbial river that was a mile wide and an inch deep,’” he recalled. “I had asked for an accounting so often without getting it that it was getting embarrassing, and I was ready to resign. I was finally given assurances that the churches were there and thriving. We trusted the reports because we could not make site visits to so many places to check for ourselves.”
Powell questioned how so many churches could be started and survive without seasoned leadership or close supervision. “Obviously, they can’t,” he concluded.
Relations with Mexico Baptists
Perceptions about how the Piper Institute relates to another listed partner, the National Baptist Convention of Mexico, vary. Brooks maintained the Piper Institute works through indigenous coordinators who, in turn, work with churches.
“Those coordinators and the people with whom they work represent more than 25 of the 42 regional presidents,” Brooks said. “Those regional presidents sit on what is equivalent to a national executive board which conducts the business of the national convention between sessions. The work of the churches utilizing the curriculum and strategy of the Piper Institute is very well represented at the national level of Baptist life in Mexico.”
However, Shores painted a different picture of the Piper Institute’s relationship with Mexican Baptist leaders—specifically the officers of the National Baptist Convention of Mexico.
On April 6, Mexican Baptist national leaders met with staff leaders of the Piper Institute in San Antonio to present a 10-point statement of their position on church starting and a seven-point list of conditions for their continued work with the institute.
The National Baptist Convention of Mexico leaders made it clear their goal was to plant churches, not just small cell groups that never would be independent of a sponsor. They also noted they were developing indigenous training materials for church planters.
They outlined expectations about the need for people representing the Piper Institute to work with the national convention and its leaders, but accounts of that meeting differ. “There was no demand that Otto Arango work with their national coordinator. … There was a request that we do all funding of coordinators through the national convention,” Brooks said.
But Shores spoke by phone to National Baptist Convention of Mexico President Gilberto Gutierrez, and he offered a different perception.
“He says that they did demand that Otto Arango work through their national coordinator, Antonio Villa, and that he stop directly coordinating the regional coordinators from Texas because it generates interference, paternalism, distortion of information and little development of strategy plans,” Shores said. “President Gutierrez said there was no request that all funding of coordinators go through the national convention and that this statement is absolutely not true.”
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| Gilberto Gutierrez |
Brooks pointed to a follow-up meeting on May 17 in Mexico City involving three Piper Institute staff members and several Mexico Baptist leaders, including Gutierrez, Executive Director Raul Castellanos, Missions Vice President Juan Francisco Lopez and Church Planting Director Antonio Villa. “The meeting was friendly and thorough,” Brooks said. “At the end of the meeting, the president of the convention said that they would work with the Piper Institute very closely if we funded through the national convention, or, if not, treat the Piper Institute as they do many other independent missions organizations doing work in Mexico, with friendship and cooperation. The meeting ended with mutual prayer for the work of winning people to Christ in Mexico and warmth of fellowship.”
Later, Brooks said, he spent an additional three days in a retreat with the convention’s executive director and its chief financial officer, as well as past President Juan German Ortiz, pastor of Mexico City’s First Baptist Church.
At a recent Piper Institute board meeting, Ortiz “gave testimony of their more than 100 house churches growing out of their use of Piper Institute curriculum and strategy,” Brooks added.
But Shores insisted Gutierrez was less satisfied with the May meeting.
“President Gutierrez said that E.B. did give Mexico leaders a written document in the May meeting with very ambiguous answers to the conditions that were laid out” in April, he said. Gutierrez recalled confronting them about having recently gone to North Tamaulipas without the knowledge of the national coordinator, Antonio Villa.
“This is when the Mexico leaders made clear their demand that Otto work through the national coordinator in order for the relationship to continue,” Shores said.
Piper Institute staff leaders indicated they would take the concerns to their board and provide an answer later, he said.
“President Gutierrez said that to this day, they have never heard back from E.B. or Otto and have assumed that PICP is not going to work through the national convention,” Shores said, adding a stipend the Piper Institute previously had provided to the national coordinator ceased in June.
Gutierrez offered to travel to Dallas for the BGCT annual meeting and the Piper board meeting to clearly state the National Baptist Convention of Mexico’s position, if necessary, Shores added.
With additional reporting by Editor Marv Knox
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