Board agrees to sell Texan Lodge at Glorieta

The Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board voted 77-0 to sell its 54-year-old lodge at Glorieta Conference Center for $100,000.

Since Glorieta 2.0—the Christian camping group that is buying the New Mexico conference center from LifeWay Christian Resources—imposed a Sept. 1 deadline on leaseholders to accept or reject an offer, the board could not wait until its regularly scheduled Sept. 23-24 meeting to deal with the matter.

Rather than decide strictly by mail or email balloting, Chairman Ron Lyles said he wanted to give board members the opportunity to discuss it and ask questions. So, the board met by Web-based conference Aug. 27 to consider a finance committee recommendation to sell the lodge. Board members had until noon Aug. 29 to vote by teleconference, email or phone.

Texan Lodge

The BGCT built the Texan Lodge in 1959 at Glorieta on land owned by the Baptist Sunday School Board, now known as LifeWay. The BGCT’s lease expires Sept. 30, and Glorieta 2.0 gave current leaseholders three options:

• A one-time buyout for $30 per square foot, with a minimum $40,000 and maximum $100,000 payment, regardless of the appraised value.

• A new 12-year lease. At the end of the lease, the building would go to Glorieta 2.0 for no compensation.

• Donate the building to Glorieta 2.0.

Jill Larsen, BGCT treasurer and chief financial officer, noted the BGCT’s attorney reviewed the lease and saw no reasonable possibility of success if the convention took legal action.

Declining use

For about 40 years, the Texan Lodge housed BGCT Executive Board staff whose job responsibilities included participation in many of the conferences offered at Glorieta, but that changed in recent years.

“LifeWay has reduced the number of conferences offered over the past few years to the point that in recent years, the lodge has only been used one or two weeks a year for conference attendees,” Larsen said.

Average operating costs of the lodge for the last eight years have been $15,000 a year, she reported.

At an Aug. 20 meeting, the BGCT Executive Board’s finance committee voted to recommend the board approve of the lodge’s sale to Glorieta 2.0 for $100,000 and authorize the Executive Board staff to dispose of its contents either by sale or donation.

Endowment fund

The committee also recommended the board use proceeds from the lodge’s sale to establish an endowment-type fund at the Baptist Foundation of Texas and use income generated by the fund to support BGCT-sponsored student camps.

In response to questions during the Web-based conference, Larsen noted the fund could be expected to produce $4,000 to $5,000 per year, and she pointed to Camp Exalted for African-American students and Camp Fusion for intercultural youth as likely recipients.

Since the fund would be established by the board rather than designated by a donor, the board could vote at any time to change how the money is used, she added.

Some board members who responded in the Internet conference expressed their desire to see the $15,000 previously designated for upkeep of the Texan Lodge directed to the facility needs of Baptist Student Ministries.

The board will vote on the 2014 BGCT budget at its Sept. 23-24 meeting. Normally, the board recommends a budget to the BGCT annual meeting, and messengers vote on it. This year, since the BGCT annual meeting was scheduled in July as part of a multiethnic Family Gathering, the convention authorized the board to approve the budget.