Posted: 9/26/07
BGCT Executive Board OKs
reduced budget, staff reduction
By Ken Camp
Managing Editor
DALLAS—After extensive debate, the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board voted 52-28 to approve a $50.1 million budget recommendation—a move that eliminates 25 to 30 Baptist Building staff positions.
The board will recommend to the BGCT annual meeting in Oct. 29-30 in Amarillo a $50,126,356 total budget for 2008—a $473,644 reduction from the 2007 budget. It includes $43,326,356 from the Cooperative Program budget and an anticipated $6.8 million from investment earnings and other sources.
The budget requires approval by messengers to the state convention’s annual meeting. However, staff cuts will begin to be implemented immediately, Executive Director Charles Wade reported. Staff members who lose their jobs will receive a severance package, counseling and placement assistance, he noted. The 2008 recommended budget provides no salary increases for remaining staff.
Both Wade and Jerry Dailey of San Antonio, chairman of the board’s administration support committee, stressed how painful they found it to make the recommendation.
During transition related to changes in governance and organizational reorganization—and following a period when fewer churches contributed and some large churches cut their giving levels significantly—the BGCT relied on earnings and interests from reserves, Wade noted. But the executive leadership team was committed to decrease reliance on off-budget income sources, he added.
Wade, who retires Jan. 31 as executive director, said it would not be fair to pass on to his successor the responsibility for cutting staff.
“It’s not responsible for the board or for your executive director to postpone dealing with these issues,” he said.
Much of the discussion during the board meeting centered around where cuts appeared—and which areas received increases during a year when some people would lose their jobs.
The missions, evangelism and ministry area shows the largest cut of any section—a $505,813 reduction in the 2008 budget. Areas showing apparent losses include $338,184 from missions, $21,892 from ministries and $13,825 from evangelism.
Promotion costs such as postage, printing and advertising—transferred to the communications office for centralized management in an effort to achieve savings through economy of scale and improve efficiency—accounts for $211,000 of the $505,813 apparent cut.
A portion of the $294,813 remaining net loss to that area will be offset by funds made available through the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions and by money received from the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board, Chief Operating Office Ron Gunter explained.
The total promotion budget transferred from individual programs to the communications office totals $602,000. Without considering that a portion of the losses shown in the 2008 budget summary reflect those transferred dollars, other areas posting reductions include:
• $188,321 cut from the congregational ministries area, with $109,372 coming from field staff areas—$61,564 cut from church starters and $47,808 cut from congregational strategists. Western-heritage, African-American and Hispanic work areas received increases, while the intercultural and bivocational congregational ministries showed reductions.
• $64,986 cut from institutional ministries. The broad category includes chaplaincy, theological education and the Texas Baptist Historical Collection—each of which received some increases—and the Texas Baptist Laity area, which showed a $92,424 cut. Actual support to schools, childcare and family services ministries and hospitals dropped $172,742.
• $94,118 cut from Texas Baptist Men.
• $68,014 cut from associational ministries.
The communications office showed a $412,593 increase, but it included the $602,000 in promotional money from other program areas. Excluding the transfer, the area lost $189,407.
Several areas posted increases in the 2008 budget:
• $461,171 added to the financial management area. In addition to changes and upgrades in information technology and continuing increases in building support and engineering, a part of the increase is due to the addition of an internal audit function to the area, Chief Financial Officer David Nabors explained.
• $102,610 for the Christian Life Commission. The board rejected an amendment by Bruce Webb from First Baptist Church in The Woodlands that would have frozen the CLC at its $969,167 level, rather than budgeting $1,071,777 for 2008.
• $94,804 added to the leadership area for ministries such as the intentional interim program, deacon training and emergency assistance to terminated ministers.
• $26,366 added to the chief operating officer’s office and $8,004 to the executive director’s office budget.
The board voted down an amendment by Gloria DuBose from First Baptist Church in Midland that called for across-the-board percentage cuts.
Nabors noted the approach had been considered, but the staff’s management team decided it was unwise to “penalize” all areas by a flat percentage rather than looking at specific places where tasks could be combined or eliminated.
Doug Evans, pastor of First Baptist Church in Laguna Park, spoke in favor of the motion regarding across-the-board cuts.
“It’s more about restoring trust than about saving jobs. It says to Texas Baptists, ‘We’re all willing to take the hit,’” he said.
Evans also expressed dissatisfaction with the cuts in hands-on ministries that directly affect churches. If the BGCT cuts back direct services to churches, attendance at the state convention’s annual meeting will continue to plummet, he predicted.
“We have a 235-seat auditorium at Laguna Park, and you’re welcome to meet there in 2009,” he said. “We can’t continue to ignore the churches. It’s going to bite us.”
Gunter stressed in many cases, ministry assignments will be combined rather than eliminated altogether.
Alton Holt from Silsbee asked the staff leaders to estimate about what percentage productivity and effectiveness would be reduced.
Gunter called on Wayne Shuffield, team leader in the missions, evangelism and ministry area. Shuffield estimated his area would be negatively affected by about 20 percent initially, with about 10 percent of that attributed to a “learning curve” as staff become familiar with new assignments. He estimated it will take three to six months before personnel become fully effective in their new tasks.
Ed Jackson from First Baptist Church in Garland said laymen understand the reality of layoffs. Most lay people think of the BGCT in terms of the institutions with which they are familiar—not the personnel at the Baptist Building in Dallas, he noted.
“We’re not giving the institutions the support they need,” he said. “More and more, Texas Baptists are going around the Cooperative Program budget and giving directly to the institutions.”
While Jackson said he would vote in favor of the proposal as a “transitional budget,” he advised the board to take a hard, strategic look at what the BGCT chooses to include in the budget. Churches will cast their own votes by how they give, he noted.
In other business, the board:
• Elected John Petty, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Kerrville, as chairman and Steve Dominy, pastor of First Baptist Church in Gatesville, as vice chair.
• Recommended to messengers at the annual meeting a special agreement between Baptist Child & Family Services and the BGCT. Under the agreement, the agency would elect two-thirds of its own board, and the BGCT in annual session would elect the remaining one-third. The requirement that all trustees be Baptist would remain in effect,and a majority of the board would have to be members of BGCT-related churches.
• Created a fulltime staff position for a Hispanic educational advocate to help Texas Baptists address the high school dropout rate among Hispanics.
• Approved a missions partnership between the BGCT and the National Baptist Conventional of Venezuela.
• Passed a resolution in remembrance of Ron Edwards, pastor of Minneulla Baptist Church in Goliad and two-term president of the Texas Baptist African American Fellowship, who died May 31.
• Heard an explanation from the executive director regarding BGCT involvement in the New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta in January. Kenneth Jordan from First Baptist Church in Alpine said some people had asked him why BGCT participation in the event was not decided by a vote at the state convention’s annual meeting.
Wade responded that the BGCT was invited to participate because of its membership in the North American Baptist Fellowship as part of the Baptist World Alliance.
“I had no thought at all that it needed approval,” he said. “I didn’t feel it was necessary to bring it to a vote.”
Wade was among Baptist leaders from throughout the United States and Canada who responded to an invitation to meet with former President Jimmy Carter on April 10, 2006, to talk about ways Baptists throughout North America could cooperate and strengthen their fellowship.
The New Baptist Covenant convocation—which includes a joint assembly of the four largest historically African-American Baptist conventions in the United States—grew out of that initial meeting. When other prominent Democrats—particularly former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore—signed on as participants, it sparked controversy and charges that it had become a partisan political platform.
Wade noted Baptist Republicans also were invited to participate.
Sen. Lindsay Graham of S.C. and Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa have agreed to participate. Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and a GOP presidential candidate, initially agreed to take part, but he later withdrew his endorsement of the meeting.
• Conferred the title “executive director emeritus” on Charles Wade, effective Feb. 1.
• Approved money from earnings on memorial funds for several areas, including $100,000 to the WorldconneX missions network and $175,000 to provide Baptist Standard subscriptions to some church leaders.
• Referred back to the administration support committee a proposed constitutional change that would allow a greater number of messengers to the state convention’s annual meeting from small churches that contribute substantially to the BGCT budget.
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