DALLAS—The Baptist General Convention of Texas has formed the Center for Effective Leadership to provide resources for pastors and other congregational leaders to develop leadership skills and practices. 

The center will help Texas Baptists develop leadership skills that will help congregations thrive, making an impact on their communities and the world, BGCT Executive Director Randel Everett said.

“The key to church and institutional health is the right kind of leadership. The Cen-ter for Effective Leadership was created to allow us to deal with this essential principle in pragmatic ways that provide tools and evaluations for our Texas Baptist leaders,” he said.

The center aims to help Texas Baptists increase their leadership abilities by pointing them to resources that are strong theologically as well as practically useful. Sometimes that will entail pointing individuals to existing resources.  Other times, the center will create resources by bringing Texas Baptists together who are passionate about a particular leadership issue, Center Director Ron Herring said.

By bringing Texas Baptists together, the center can create contextually accurate resources that provide the theological foundation for leadership, as well as practical leadership skills that will work in Texas Baptist churches.

“We want to assist churches and church leaders right where they are,” Herring said. “The resources we point people to and the resources we will create will help people better develop their leadership skills.”

The center is beginning its work by seeking feedback from Texas Baptists about where they find their leadership resources and what they would like to see created.

Listening is often the first step in effective church leadership, said Emily Prevost, the center’s associate director. It seems to be a logical point for starting the center’s ministry as well.

“If you walk in saying you have all the answers, you’re going to fail,” she said.

“In order to create significant solutions for leadership issues across the state, we need to make sure we’re addressing issues that actually exist. From that point, we can begin to bring people together to tackle the problems that Texas Baptists believe are most critical.”

In creating the center, Bivocational Specialist Cecil Deadman and Pastorless Church Consultant Karl Fickling were moved to the BGCT Christian Education/ Discipleship Center. Bill Claiborne, who primarily worked with Texas.E-quip.net, became a congregational strategist. The position held by Julie Sadler will be eliminated Oct. 31 as part of this strategic change.

The center’s budget will consist of limited BGCT cooperative funds and is intended to become self-supporting within a few years.

AUSTIN—Friendship International recently celebrated 40 years of service to women from all over the world—and making friends for Jesus.

Women meet weekly to learn American cooking, citizenship requirements and procedures, computer and other technological skills, creative writing, jewelry making, cardmaking and crafts, a wide variety of needlework skills and English.

While they are learning new skills and making new friends, a childcare team supervises their children.

Women from Iran, Turkey, Argentina, China, Japan, Iraq, Taiwan, Brazil, South Korea, Morocco, Peru, Mexico, India and France attended the first meeting of the year.

Women from 14 Austin churches volunteer to support the ministry that meets each week at Hyde Park Baptist Church, as it has for all four decades of the ministry.

“Getting to Know You” is the theme song of the group, and Director Virginia Kreimeyer said relationship-building has been one of the focuses of the group since its inception.

The group has its genesis in tragedy, she related.

In 1968, a doctoral student from India was pursuing his studies at The University of Texas, leaving his wife at home in their Austin apartment for long hours each day. One day, her loneliness reached its nadir. She walked to the Congress Avenue bridge over Interstate 35 and jumped, committing suicide.

In response, the Baptist Student Union director called a meeting of area pastors, telling them something had to be done to minister to the increasing number of internationals studying in Austin.

In 1969, Friendship International began reaching out to women from all over the world. The number of women varies from year to year and week to week, Kreimeyer said. There have been more than 500 women in attendance and as few as 80, but the number is not the important part, she said.

“We teach English, but we teach so many other things,” she said. “Mostly, we are a bridge to share Christ.”

Eddie Smith has been a part of the ministry almost since its inception. She has been meeting with women from all over the world 38 years. She has led the hospitality committee the last seven years.

“What got me here was living in another country and being that person who didn’t know the language, didn’t know the culture, didn’t have many friends. I had been that person living in another country,” Smith said.

“I feel like God has brought all these ladies to Austin, and if we can get to know them, the very first witness is as a friend.

“When the internationals come, some stay and some go back home. If we’ve planted the right seeds, they go back home with at least that seed of knowing who Christ is, and we don’t know what he’ll do with that. We don’t know how they will effect the people there.”

One of the former participants was known to have helped missionaries in Africa escape during a violent uprising.

The motivation to share Christ and change lives is what keeps the volunteers coming back year after year, Kreimeyer said.

“Our workers are some of the most faithful, committed women you can imagine. They are prepared—they don’t just show up. But most of all, they come ready to share friendship and the love of God with whoever is here,” she said.

Some women who were involved in the ministry have started similar ministries in the locations where they moved. Friendship International ministries have sprung up in Tyler, Houston and Kentucky.

“This is where the rubber meets the road,” Kreimeyer said. “You can be a missionary on Thursday morning and go home for lunch. I feel honored God has given me an opportunity to be a part.”

Baptist Student Ministries across the state are directing attention toward meeting needs in their own communities during Focus Hope weekends.

The weekend events offer times of worship and discovery as students learn firsthand how to live out their calling through missions and evangelism, while making an impact on the world around them.

The events—scheduled in lieu of statewide or regional Focus events offered in recent years by the Baptist General Convention of Texas collegiate ministry team—are designed so each BSM group could minister to its own campus and city as part of Texas Hope 2010, a BGCT emphasis for Christians to pray for the lost, care for the hungry and hurting and share the gospel with every Texan by Easter Sunday 2010.

“When we sat down and planned the year, we knew God wanted something different,” said Joyce Ashcraft, a priority resource and regional coordinator for the BGCT Collegiate Ministry.

“We had long sensed a need as we looked at Focus, and we didn’t know what God had in store. At the time we started to ask those questions, Texas Hope 2010 was beginning, and it just seemed like a good fit to emphasize this for Focus.” 

Stephanie Gates, interim BSM director at the University of North Texas, noted her students joined with three other collegiate ministries to have a weekend of worship and ministry in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Jennifer Williams, a student at Amarillo College, hugs children at the ackyard Bible Club the Baptist Student Ministry at Amarillo College held in Eastridge, a low-income, multicultural neighborhood in Amarillo. Other members of the group painted a house, ministered at a widow’s banquet and hosted a missions awareness night as part of the BGCT Focus Hope collegiate weekends. (PHOTO/Justin Adams)

As the 60 students spent Saturday helping paint a house, working at a Habitat for Humanity store and delivering furniture to international students, many were stretched to become more vocal in sharing their faith, she said.

“I saw one of my students who worked at Habitat who said she was amazed at how easy it was to talk to people” about the gospel, Gates said. “Some of the students were able to talk to other volunteers who were there to work off prison hours. They asked why we were there, and we were able to explain we were there because Jesus loves them. It was neat to see them discover that it isn’t hard to have a spiritual conversation with someone.”

When rain thwarted block-party plans of the BSM at Texas A&M Kingsville, students delivered the block party door-to-door.

“God changed our plans,” said Mike Cervantes, director of the Texas A&M Kingsville BSM. “We went old-school and walked door-to-door, passing out hot dogs and sharing the message of Jesus. Before we knew it, we had kids praying through neighborhoods and sharing the message of the cross. One student noticed every home they went to had people who were critically ill in some way. They quickly began to realize it was not a coincidence, but they were all divine appointments.”

The Stephen F. Austin State University BSM joined three other schools to partner with local ministries in delivering multimedia gospel compact discs that provide the New Testament in more than 300 languages.

Stephanie Williams and Justin Barrett with the University of Texas at Dallas Baptist Student Ministry help paint the interior of a house during a Focus Hope weekend. The UTD BSM joined with three other BSMs for a weekend of worship and service during Sept. 11-13. (PHOTO/ Stephanie Gates)

“I hope that they just catch a sense of getting involved and not just being complacent and content just to go to class,” said BSM Director Gary Davis. “I hope they not only see the need from other organizations and the need to go and serve, but they see ways they can get involved, help out and not just be students, but be servants as well. I think that came across, and they are trying to do that.”

Other groups saw changes internally as community was built and students refocused their relationships with Christ. Taylor Davies, director of the Amarillo College BSM, said he saw this happen in his students.

“I think they put themselves in a place where they wanted to hear God’s call for missions in their lives,” Davies said.

“I know God spoke to several of them. There were two students who joined us who weren’t believers. As they spent time in community, I think God spoke to them and showed them his heart for them, and they since have become believers.”

Brittany Vargas, a sophomore biology major at Amarillo College and one of the students who began a relationship with Christ, said her decision to follow Christ and participate in Focus Hope was partly from BSM students and staff consistently loving her and showing her how they were in love with Christ.

“After I heard about Focus Hope, I told myself that I would go there with the intention of finding something that will give me enough strength to help be become a better person again,” Vargas said.

“It wasn’t until the whole thing was over and we went back the BSM and had a mission fair that I realized I did want to commit my life to Christ and become a better person. I’ve never in my life been so in love with Christ. They have rubbed off on me. I am really in a different place now.”

Twenty-two Focus Hope weekends have been completed, and another 12 are scheduled to take place by the beginning of November. As students participate in the remaining weekends, Ashcraft hopes to see students take what they learn and transplant it into their daily lives.

“I think our No. 1 hope is that people will be served—whether that is through helping a church care for elderly members through cleaning a yard or painting, or helping a church host a block party,” Ashcraft said.

“I want college students involved in ministry to Texas. I think sometimes missions is so seen as something that happens in another country and somewhere else.

“Whether we see ourselves as missionaries or not, we need to see our responsibility as right around us. And I think that these Focus Hope weekends help with that.”

• Jack Bodenhamer has resigned as minister of youth/education at Trinity Church in Sweetwater.

• Mike Carper to Papalote Church in Sinton as pastor.

• Tim Cheatham has resigned as pastor of Bethany Church in Hearne.

• Sammy Elliott to First Church in Levelland as pastor.

• Larry Embry has been named pastor emeritus at First Church in Somerville.

• Mary Embry to First Church in Somerville as minister of music.

• Randy McDaris to First Church in La Vernia as youth minister.

• Jesse Motley has been called as youth minister at First Church in Lake Dallas.

• Drew Null has resigned as associate minister to students at First Church in Denton.

• Tim Penney has resigned as youth minister at First Church in Gonzales.

• Kenny Rawls to Skyline Church in Killeen as pastor from First Church in Nixon.

• Lucian Rudd to First Church in Rankin as interim pastor.

• Randy Samuels to First Church in Sinton as pastor from First Church in Three Rivers.

• Jack Shuford to Leesville Church in Leesville as interim pastor.

• David Silva to First Church in Pettus as pastor.

• Rick Stewart has resigned as youth minister at McQueeney Church in McQueeney.

• Seth Summers to First Church in Chilton as pastor.

• Pat Voce to Lawn Church in Lawn as pastor.

• Jonathan Waller to First Church in Runge as pastor, where he had been youth minister.

• Morgan Woodard to First Church in Golinda as pastor.

• Roger Yancey to First Church in Conroe as interim pastor.

• Wayne Shuffield, director of the Evangelism/Missions Center for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, will speak on “Go, Speak and Deliver Hope” for Texas 2010 at the 9th annual Hispanic Baptist Convocation of the Laity, Oct. 9-10, at Camp Buckner Hill Country Retreat near Burnet. Other key speakers include President Victor Rodriguez and Vice President Manuel Rios of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas; Baldemar Borrego and Alcides Guajardo, former presidents of the Hispanic Baptist Convention; Lorenzo Pena, director of associational missions for the BGCT; Alfonso Flores Jr., pastor of First Mexican Baptist Church in San Antonio; and Damon Hollingsworth of Texas Baptist Men. Aida Morales, former president of the Pastors’ Wives Conference, will speak at the women’s conference. For more information, contact Eli Rodriguez (214) 341-9435.

Kathy Dammon

• Two couples with Texas ties have been appointed as missionaries by the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. John and Kathy Dammon will serve in evangelism and church starting among the people of Southeast Asia. Both are graduates of East Texas Baptist University. He previously was pastor of First Church in Fairfield and was pastor of Fredonia Hill Church in Nacogdoches at the time of their appointment. They have three grown children.

Doug Taylor

Kathryn Taylor

Doug and Kathryn Taylor will serve in evangelism and church starting among the Sub-Saharan peoples of Africa. He has served in youth ministry at Central Church in College Station, Meadowbrook Church in Rockdale, Prestonwood Church in Plano, Sugar Creek Church in Sugar Land, Pinelake Church in Brandon, Miss., Istrouma Church in Baton Rouge, La., and Bear Creek Church in Katy. They consider First Church in Yoakum as their home church. They have three children—Kylie, 7; Karis, 5; and Caleb, 3.

• Baylor University’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing has dedicated the Barnabas Success Center and the Diane Roose Brinkman Study Room to position nursing students for success in the academic and professional lives. The dedication was part of a series of events marking the nursing school’s centennial this fall . A reunion to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the nursing school will be held Oct. 9-11 at Sheraton Hotel in Dallas. Check-in is from 2 to 6:30 p.m. The initial mixer event begins at 4 p.m. Friday. Rooms still are available at (888) 627-8191, mentioning Baylor nursing for a discounted rate.

• Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon Seminary will be the site of a conference titled “Baptists @400: Celebrating the Past. Imagining the Future” Oct. 12-13. The first session is at 2:30 p.m. Monday. Among the presenters are Tommy Brisco, Pam Durso, Jesse Fletcher, George Mason, Ellis Orosco, Keith Parks, Ronnie Prevost, Dan Stiver and Bill Tillman. The conference is free, including meals, but reservations are requested so adequate preparations can be made. For more information, go to www.logsdonseminary.org. To make reservations, call (325) 670-2194.

• Dillon International will present a free adoption information meeting from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20 at Buckner Children’s Home in Dallas. An overview of adoption from China, Korea, Haiti, India, Hong Kong, Ethiopia, Russia and Honduras will be given. A domestic program for Texas families and new opportunities in Ghana and Nepal also will be highlighted. For more information or to reserve a spot for the meeting, call (214) 319-3426.

• The National Center for Church Architecture will hold a workshop from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 31 at Dallas Baptist University to equip church leaders considering or planning a relocation of their church. In addition to the stages of a move, participants will learn how to compare the potential of their current location to the potential of a future location. The $200 fee includes lunch and syllabus. The fee is discounted to $150 for registrants prior to Oct. 16. For more information, call (817) 937-8292.

• Howard Payne University students will join with The Good Samaritan of Brownwood in an event that will raise awareness and money for hunger needs Nov. 6. The event will be held at Brownwood’s Depot and Civic Cultural Center from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and will feature musical presentations each half hour, a silent auction and soup. The cost is $10 per person. Ninety percent of the proceeds will go to fight hunger locally while a tithe will go to Heifer International to combat international hunger issues. For more information, call (325) 643-2273.

• Peter Williams will give a lecture at Houston Baptist University’s Dunham Bible Museum Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. on “Moral Objections to the Old Testament.”

• Larry Baker has been appointed director of the doctor of ministry program at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon Seminary. In addition to 25 years of pastoral ministry experience, Baker was a professor of Christian ethics and pastoral ministry at Southwestern Seminary and Midwestern Seminary.

• J. Gordon Melton has been named a distinguished senior fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion. The author of more than 40 reference and scholarly books, he is noted for his Encyclopedia of American Religions, first published in 1979 and now in its eighth edition.

• The Texas Education Agency has approved East Texas Baptist University to begin offering a special education supplemental certification to its students in the School of Education. ETBU teacher education students who seek this certification will be able to teach special needs students in their primary area of certification.

• In recognition of September as “Infant Mortality Awareness Month,” Baptist Children & Family Services’ Healthy Start program held informational forums at community centers throughout Laredo, focused on protecting babies’ lives by mitigating dangerous circumstances in the home. In addition to the educational pieces given to parents, BCFS also distributed nearly 100 home fans to families living in the colonias to protect children from the South Texas heat.

Anniversaries

• First Church in Aransas Pass, 100th, Oct. 15-18. On Thursday at 7 p.m., the Singing Men of South Texas will present a concert followed by an ice cream social. A reception will be held Friday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday will include gospel music from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., meal at 5:30 p.m. and words from former pastors. A bonfire on the beach also will be held for youth. Sunday will begin with a continental breakfast at 9:45 a.m. The morning service will feature the recognition of former staff and leaders. Marshall Johnston is pastor.

• First Church in Onalaska, 100th, Oct. 25. A meal will follow the morning service, with singing from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. History books will be available for $13. Don Wilkey is pastor.

• Lino Castaneda, 10th, as pastor of New Jerusalem Mission in Sherman.

• First Church in Blanco, 150th, Nov. 8. A reception will begin at 8:45 a.m. For more information, call (830) 833-4632. A barbecue lunch will follow the morning service. Rusty Hicks is pastor.

Ordained

• Jeremy Labelle, Joe Pickle, Bill Plummer, Scott Reib, Chris Sale, Roger Segars, Richard Stephens, Jeff Thomas and Brian Wood as deacons at First Church in Denton.

Revivals

• LakeView Church, San Angelo; Oct. 4-7; evangelist, Robert Barge; pastor, Mike Dorman.

• Springlake Church, Paris; Oct. 14-16; evangelist, Rick Perkins; music, Teresa Harmening; pastor, Michael Redus.

DALLAS—For the second consecutive year, the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board approved a budget proposal reduced from the previous year.

Messengers to the BGCT annual meeting in Houston will consider a $44,029,505 budget for 2010. The total budget calls for $38,865,000 from Texas Baptist cooperative giving and $2,135,000 from investment income, with the balance in revenue provided by conference and booth fees, funds from the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board, product sales and other sources.

The proposed budget—a 9.8 percent decrease after adjustments for organizational realignment—includes no cost-of-living increases for BGCT Executive Board staff, and most open positions are not budgeted. One position in the Center for Effective Leadership related to women in ministry has been eliminated.

Developing a 'realistic' budget

“As we went into this process, we wanted a realistic, pretty conservative budget,” BGCT Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Jill Larsen said.

All parties involved in developing the budget proposal wanted to avoid creating a budget that would require adjustment later, and they wanted to minimize staff reductions, she said. Also, since the amounts BGCT-affiliated institutions receive from the Cooperative Program are based on a percentage of receipts, budget planners wanted to provide a realistic projection of anticipated income.

Over the past 16 months, the budget has been reduced 20 percent, Larsen noted. The total number of BGCT employees—including part-time staff and Baptist Student Ministry personnel—has been cut from 406 in 2006 to 272 in 2009.

The recommended budget also cuts staffs’ non-matched employer-provided retirement contribution from 10 percent of salary to 5 percent, resulting in a savings of about $630,000. It leaves in place the matching-fund benefit whereby the BGCT matches an employee’s contribution of 1 percent of salary for every three years of service, up to 5 percent.

The board also authorized in 2010 the use of up to 1 percent of investment earnings from endowment accounts—beyond the amount normally distributed by the Baptist Foundation of Texas—up to $470,000. Of that total, $235,000 was included in the recommended budget.

The additional 1 percent added to the foundation’s distribution would bring the total draw to 5.5 percent, still below the 7 percent allowed by the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act of 2007, Larsen noted.

Worldwide portion of receipts

She projected income from the church-directed worldwide portion of cooperative giving would provide $1,518,000, with $1,143,000 directed to Texas Baptist initiatives and partnerships.

The 2010 proposed budget—with estimated worldwide receipts—would direct 48 percent to evangelism/missions, 27 percent to education/discipleship, 10 percent to advocacy/care and 15 percent to administration.

The 2010 recommended allocation for the worldwide portion of the budget includes continued funding for River Ministry and Mexico missions, missions mobilization, Texas Partnerships, Baptist World Alliance, Texas Baptist Men’s international ministries and international/intercultural missions. It adds ongoing funding for Go Now student missions and promotion of the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger.

It also includes limited-time funding for western-heritage churches outside Texas, Baptist University of the Americas, the Hispanic Education Task Force and Texas Hope 2010.

Final approval yet to come

Ed Jackson from First Baptist Church in Garland reminded his fellow board members that neither they nor messengers to the BGCT annual meeting had the final authority over the budget.

“Our churches have the final vote. And in effect, our churches have voted down the last two budgets,” he said. He noted about 2,000 churches affiliated with the BGCT gave nothing through the Cooperative Program.

Larsen reported as of July 31, Texas Cooperative Program receipts were at 94.75 percent compared to the same period in 2008 and were at 88.89 percent of budget. Expenses were at 91.2 percent of budget. To cover the overage, the BGCT accessed $1 million from reserves with board approval.

Texas Hope 2010 on track

BGCT Executive Director Randel Everett, in his report to the board, opened the floor for questions, and he responded to a query about whether Texas Baptists are on schedule or lagging behind in meeting the Texas Hope 2010 challenge. Texas Hope is an emphasis on praying, meeting the needs of hungry people in Texas and sharing the gospel with every person in the state by Easter 2010.

“I feel like we’re in the fourth quarter—the time when the game gets exciting,” Everett said. “It’s crunch time. It’s time for action. We’ve got to call our churches to prayer. … It’s going to take all of us.”

BGCT President David Lowrie, pastor of First Baptist Church in Canyon, focused on the Texas Hope 2010 goal of making sure every child in Texas has a nutritional meal each day.

“How can someone have hope if their children are hungry?” he asked.  

Eliminating hunger in Texas may seem to be an impossible task humanly speaking, but God can multiply resources when they are given to him, Lowrie stressed.

“If Jesus has ever asked you to do something impossible, it’s because he believes in you,” he said. “What do we have in our hands? We need to turn loose of what we have in our hands and put it in the hands of the Lord.”

Future Focus Committee

Stephen Hatfield, pastor of First Baptist Church in Lewisville and co-chair of the long-range planning Future Focus Committee, told the board his committee would present its report—“Living Hope”—to the BGCT annual meeting in Houston.

The committee determined early “we needed change sooner rather than later,” he said. The report will include seven affirmations about BGCT operations and nine findings and recommendations.

The Executive Board dealt with one recommendation the Future Focus Committee presented to the 2008 BGCT annual meeting—a proposed name change for the state convention.

After exploring several options—a formal name change, a “doing business as” option or a “branding” option—the board voted to recommend that the BGCT adopt the trademark “Texas Baptists” to gradually replace the term “Baptist General Convention of Texas” in common usage. The convention’s formal and legal name will not change, but the BGCT will use the trademark as its logo and public image.

Board nixes schedule change

The Executive Board rejected a proposal that would have changed its format for at least one meeting in 2010.  The board normally meets in Dallas three times a year for two-days meetings—the first day filled with subcommittee and committee meetings and the second day devoted to a meeting of the full board.

Due to overnight lodging and meals, the two-day board meetings cost about $40,000 each.

The proposal would have changed the May 2010 gathering to a one-day board meeting. All committee meetings were to take place during the month before—electronically if possible.

Bruce Webb, pastor of First Baptist Church of The Woodlands, warned the measure could have the “unintended consequences” of decreasing involvement and discussion in committees. Other board members also voiced concerns about the proposal, pointing to the value of face-to-face interaction in committee meetings. The board rejected the recommended change.

Multiple other actions

In other business, the Executive Board:

• Elected officers Debbie Ferrier from Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston as chair and Van Christian, pastor of First Baptist Church in Comanche, as vice chair.
• Authorized subordinating the BGCT’s lien on the original campus of Baptist University of the Americas to Frost Bank to secure the school’s $2.25 million loan. It will permit refinancing that will allow amortization of the loan over 15 years. The board also authorized the BGCT to obtain a first lien on the unencumbered land of the new campus.
• Approved a revised relationship agreement with Valley Baptist Health System, to be presented to the BGCT annual meeting for consideration.
• The new agreement calls for the BGCT’s primary governance influence to be moved to a subsidiary entity of the health care system—Valley Baptist Hospitals Holdings Inc.  At least one-fourth of that board would be Baptist, with the BGCT electing a majority of those individuals. The Valley Baptist Health System board would become self-perpetuating, with one BGCT-elected trustee of the subsidiary board serving as a member.
• Approved a recommendation that messengers to the annual meeting approve a merger of Baptist Memorials Ministries and Baptist Memorials Services, both of San Angelo, into a single entity that would become affiliated with Buckner Retirement Services.
• Authorized a recommendation to the BGCT annual meeting that would amend the agreement between the BGCT and the Baptist Church Loan Corporation. The proposal provides for financial separation between the Baptist Church Loan Corporation and the BGCT. The change would enable the corporation to borrow and repay its obligations on its own financial capabilities, and it would reduce the potential liability of the BGCT. The Baptist Church Loan Corporation would continue to be run by its board of directors, all of whom must be members of BGCT-affiliated churches. The BGCT would have the right to elect one-third of the board. The Baptist Church Loan Corporation would release the BGCT from any and all guarantees of loans—past, present and future.
• Approved a recommendation to the BGCT annual meeting calling for creation of a 12-member commission to work with representatives from the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas to review and revise the unification agreement between the two conventions. Commission members would be appointed by BGCT officers elected at the annual meeting in Houston.
• Approved a one-time exception to the BGCT annual meeting exhibitor policy for LifeWay Christian Resources. According to policy, prospective exhibitors at the annual meeting must provide a letter affirming support for the BGCT, its mission and its leadership.
• LifeWay met all other requirements but declined to provide the letter of affirmation. LifeWay President Tom Rainer informed BGCT officials LifeWay exhibits in a variety of venues, and its policy does not allow for an official endorsement of any entity where it exhibited. The board agreed to a one-year, one-time exemption to allow time for that matter to be resolved.
• Authorized the Executive Board chair to appoint a special committee to evaluate the level of institutional funding by the BGCT and to study how those funds are allocated to BGCT-affiliated institutions. A report by the committee will be presented to the May 2010 Executive Board meeting.

Texas Baptists Committed, formed as a political organization two decades ago to resist a “fundamentalist takeover” of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, has accepted the resignation of its executive director, David Currie.

Currie, a San Angelo rancher who has led Texas Baptists Committed since its inception, resigned Sept. 28, effective immediately, reported Debbie Ferrier, chair of the TBC board of directors.

About a week earlier, he announced he was stepping down to become executive director emeritus in his “Rancher’s Rumblings” e-mail newsletter. At that time, he reported the organization would move its office from San Angelo to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

After several days of constant thinking about the transition, Currie decided to advance the process and resign outright, he said.

“I wrestled around with what it means to be emeritus,” he explained Sept. 28 from Dallas, where he had traveled to attend the fall meeting of the BGCT Executive Board. “And when I got here today, I called my wife and said, ‘I don’t want to do this,’ so I’m moving on.”

“I’ve got other things I want to do,” he added. He has been a managing partner of a 2,700-acre sheep and cattle ranch in Concho County since 1968. Since 1995, he also has been president of Cornerstone Builders, a custom home building company in San Angelo.

“I doubt I would’ve been a good emeritus, anyway,” he said, chuckling.

The Texas Baptists Committed board will appoint a committee to search for a new executive director and will seek a church in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to provide office space, noted Ferrier, of Houston, and Bill Tillman, TBC’s immediate past chairman, of Abilene.

With Currie’s resignation, the San Angelo office will close immediately, Ferrier said. The board will work with its staff members there—financial assistant Charlotte Caffey and administrative assistant Carol Scott—during the closing process and help them find other employment, she said.

In his e-newsletter article, Currie presented a rationale for moving the organization’s offices to Dallas-Fort Worth: “Much of (Texas Baptists Committed’s) work involves working with the Baptist General Convention of Texas—keeping folks informed about the work of BGCT institutions, agencies and universities, and also acting as a watchdog in relation to BGCT policies and actions.” The BGCT Executive Board, which coordinates much of the convention’s operations, is based in Dallas.

Texas Baptists Committed “continues to have a vital ministry in Baptist life, but … (the organization) needs to move forward on initiatives that meet the new challenges of 21st-century Baptist life, and much of that work is the type of work for which I don’t have the training or—to be honest—even the desire to do,” Currie wrote.

At its apex of influence, Texas Baptists Committed succeeded in mobilizing thousands of messengers from churches around the state to attend BGCT annual meetings to elect a series of candidates endorsed by the organization. Those candidates included the state convention’s first Hispanic, African-American and female presidents.

Last year, Texas Baptists Committed agreed to refrain from endorsing any candidates for BGCT office.

In recent years, as the organization has experienced financial hardship and endured questions as to its continued reason for being, the group has tried to shift from its previous role of political organizing to a new identity as promoter of BGCT ministries and institutions, as well as a voice for historic Baptist principles.

Currie served from 1988 to 1990 as field coordinator for Baptists Committed to the SBC, a national organization of Baptists moderates that developed into Texas Baptists Committed. Since 2000, he has worked as a consultant with the national Mainstream Baptist Network.

Prior to that, he worked as a special projects coordinator with the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission in Nashville, Tenn., as pastor of First Baptist Church in Mason and as a special assistant to the director of the Texas Department of Agriculture.

Currie is a graduate of Howard Payne University, and he earned master of divinity and doctor of philosophy degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

CLEVELAND—First Baptist Church has fully grasped the Texas Hope 2010 vision to share the gospel with all Texans by Easter 2010. Their proof—31 new believers baptized during an open call baptism service and Southern-gospel concert held on the lawn of the church.

This 400-member church placed an ad in the local newspaper inviting the community to come and even be baptized. The service started at 4:30 p.m. with a cookout and Southern-gospel concert following.

Pastor Russ Tynan of First Baptist Church in Cleveland baptizes Jacob Waller.

“When some of the church members saw me take out an ad in the paper and set up a pool outdoors and say that we were going to feed people who came, some of the adults were a bit concerned that maybe this wasn’t holy enough since we weren’t inside the church building,” said Russell Tynan, pastor of the church. “After the baptism, many came back and said that this was unbelievable.”

In July, Children’s Minister Susan Adams took 70 children to camp and saw 24 decide to follow Christ. When the group returned, Roger Yancey, director of missions for the Tryon-Evergreen Baptist Association, suggested that the church use the children’s baptisms as a way to reach out the community.

Several hundred people attended the event, the majority being visitors to the church. Many mentioned they came after seeing the newspaper ad just because of curiosity, Tynan said.

Once at the event, several community members chose to be baptized with the children. Those who came that afternoon to be baptized first met with a counselor from the church.

“We asked them first if they would explain baptism and why they think they needed to be baptized,” said Lloyd Lewis, a deacon at the church. “We wanted them to tell us why they were there. We wanted to make sure they didn’t think that this baptism was going to save them and that they weren’t just doing this because their friends were doing it. We wanted to make sure that they were understanding and had accepted Jesus into their heart.”

The church advertised its “open call baptism” service and Southern-gospel music concert.

The number of baptisms that day was significant because the church had not baptized that many people in one day in recent decades. Since the open call baptism, 15 more people have asked to be baptized.

Adams believes that consistently reaching out to unchurched children of the community during the church’s summer children’s program played a role in many coming to Christ recently. She also sees this as God using Tynan to heal old wounds in the church and open new doors for the congregation to gain a heart to reach the city.

“In the past, our church has been through a lot with our ministers and staff,” Adams said. “Things came out in the past that were very, very traumatic, and we needed a time of healing. Brother Russ came in with all these new ideas, and he has this way of making you think: ‘Oh my gosh. Of course we can do that.’ It’s amazing how one person can come in and light the fire. Now everyone is excited and motivated and ready to do this. He is exactly what we needed.”

The baptisms are confirmation that God wants to use this church in a mighty way, and he is making the church more outward focused, Tynan said.

“When I first came here a year ago, I thought this place has huge potential,” he said. “I really thought we could baptize over a hundred this year, but for whatever reason, the people didn’t see the same thing that I did. And now with this baptism event, people, even the older members, are excited about reaching our community.”

Much of the change began during spring revival services at the church, ones that sparked heart changes among the congregation. Shortly after that, the church made plans to begin Café Connect, a casual service with a coffee bar held in the church gym, in June. The service has a contemporary worship band with a simulcast of the sermon in the traditional service held in the sanctuary.

Lewis attributes the growth to this new service being geared to young families who wouldn’t feel comfortable attending the traditional service, but he also sees this as a movement only God could cause.

“About six months ago, even the older people sensed something was changing and happening,” Lewis said. “We have been praying for years that this type of thing would happen and it was amazing. I’m sure that anyone couldn’t tell you what we did to make this happen. Maybe it was just that we quit trying hard and let God do it.”

When the church tested a few services in June, more than 100 community members came. From the beginning, the service grew only by word of mouth. This fall, the church plans to advertise the service to the whole community.

To continue reaching out to the community, the church will begin delivering the Texas Hope 2010 gospel compact discs throughout the city starting mid-September as well as hosting monthly evangelistic events.

“It’s been amazing to see how this church of 134 years is reaching out to the community,” Tynan said. “I believe this is the kind of work that directly relates to Hope 2010.”

An empty pulpit doesn’t have to mean an empty sanctuary, some long-time ministers insist.

At any given time, roughly 600 Baptist General Convention of Texas-affiliated churches are without a pastor. A pastor may have retired or moved to serve another congregation. The church may have terminated the pastor. Or the congregation simply may not have enough money to pay someone to fill the pulpit permanently.

Many churches view these periods as times between leaders, but they can be much more, according to BGCT Pastorless Church Consultant Karl Fickling.

“They view the interim period as a time to do nothing but tread water and look for a new pastor,” Fickling said. “That means the next pastor will have to face those issues. What we’re saying is that needs to be a time when churches work through their issues, clarify their call and begin to grow.”

If congregations will use times when they do not have a pastor to reflect on who they are and what God is calling them to be, they will be in a much healthier place when they are ready to call a pastor, Fickling noted. They can begin to create a ministry plan for how to accomplish what God is asking of them.

When churches understand who they are, they have a better idea what they want in a pastor, Fickling said. They know their talents, desires and callings. In turn, they have an idea of the type of leader that can get them there.

The BGCT Intentional Interim Ministry provides an excellent tool for pastorless churches to use to assess their history, leadership, connections and mission, Fickling noted. Trained, experienced ministers lead the congregations to look systematically at themselves, at their communities and to God in laying the groundwork for the future.

Long-time intentional interim minister Jan Daehnert recently praised the intentional interim program for helping revive numerous churches. Although the congregations had to make some tough decisions, churches were brought together by a unifying vision and able to move forward to reach people in the name of Christ.

Charles Lee Williamson receives the inaugural Intentional Interim Award from the Baptist General Convention of Texas, presented by Associate Executive Director Steve Vernon. The award is named in honor of Williamson, Jan Daehnert and Dick Maples, who helped pioneer the program among Texas Baptists. (BGCT PHOTOS)

The intentional interim pastor is a peacemaker, Daehnert said. Interims step in when pastors are under attack and churches are in conflict. They find a way to reunify congregations.

Daehnert and fellow intentional interim statesmen Charles Lee Williamson and Dick Maples recently received the inaugural Intentional Interim Award named in their honor.

If a church is willing to examine itself when it doesn’t have a pastor, it will increase the chances of it hiring the correct person when it is time to call a pastor, Fickling said.

“One of the biggest issues is the pastor and the church were not a good match to begin with,” Fickling said. “Search committees, often all they know is the look for the best preacher they can afford. Pastors often make the mistake of thinking they have a vision for what a church should do and roam from church to church to church looking for a place where that vision will work.”

For more information about the BGCT’s Intentional Interim Ministry program, contact Fickling at (888) 244-9400.

BROWNSVILLE—Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville dreams big—so big that the members set a goal to see 20,000 people place their faith in Christ this year. And they expect to surpass that goal within the next few weeks.

The 2,000-member congregation isn’t set on winning souls for the sake of numbers but to make disciples who will reproduce themselves wherever they are, Pastor Carlos Navarro said.

To accomplish that objective, church members share the gospel by hosting block parties, providing free breakfast to people crossing the border each morning, sending missionaries and mission teams to Latin American countries, ministering to the sick through a weekly health clinic and living out the Great Commission in all they do.

“Since I came here in 1993, I set goals every year in the soul-winning effort,” Navarro said. “We started with a goal of 1,000. Then we went to 2,000. We were increasing it by 1,000 each year.”

To reach 20,000 in one year may seem unattainable and unrealistic to some, but the church said it is possible—and likely.

In tallying results of their witnessing efforts, the church includes people who come to faith in Christ through direct interaction with West Brownsville members, whether in a worship service at the church or through international missions where they serve alongside local churches in Latin America or through personal evangelism done in day-to-day life.

Many of these believers have been baptized into the West Brownsville church, but many have joined churches in their hometowns or back in their home countries.

Pastor Carlos Navarro shares about Christ during a worship service held at a block party. Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville uses block parties, personal evangelism, border outreaches, home Bible studies and medical clinics to share the hope of Christ with people in Brownsville, the surrounding area and Latin America. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville)

Much of this growth came as every member in the church took seriously the task of sharing the gospel, Navarro said. The church stresses that it is each Christian’s responsibility to witness, not just the responsibility of the church staff or leadership.

“I don’t just tell them how to do it, but I show them how to do it,” Navarro said. “I created that environment before I came. I did it with my wife and two kids first. And as soon as I accepted the invitation as the pastor, I went out by myself because the church wasn’t use to doing this. Since I went ahead of them, they now do it gladly when they see it.”

On average, the church sees 1,200 people a month accept Christ through ministries at the church and along the Rio Grande, as well as through mission partnerships in South America. By late September, the church had seen 18,300 come to Christ this year, with about 70 percent of those decisions happening in Texas.

The evangelistic spirit of the church is an example of the Texas Hope 2010 to give every Texan an opportunity to respond to the gospel by Easter 2010.

“Our church has an emphasis on evangelism and missions and reaching people,” said Mary Perez, a member of the church. “From the beginning of coming here, we were taught that as Christians, we need to reproduce ourselves. On an everyday basis, we are taught about winning souls. It is a way of life. We do this locally and in Mexico. Then we started mission trips to South America about five or six years ago.”

Perez and her husband Rogelio took the evangelistic spirit of the church to heart as they went with their children to Argentina to serve as missionaries for a year. They were the first missionaries to be fully supported by the church. Now, the church supports missionaries in eight Latin American countries, Spain and Morocco.

To keep international ministry before the congregation, Navarro highlights a different country each Sunday. Members originally from that country will share and offer prayer requests for the country before the church joins them in praying for evangelistic efforts there.

The church has started four churches in Mexico and five in Texas and uses 18 cell groups to disciple believers within the mother church. Perez credits the congregation’s ministry vision and family atmosphere to training new Christians how they can become involved in the work.

“We have a program set up where we give new Christians 13 lessons on basic theology,” Perez said. “After that, they go to the second level, and we teach them a little more in-depth about the church and opportunities for ministry.”

Roland Lopez, Hispanic church planting consultant with the San Antonio Baptist Association, said that the church’s vision and strategy is what has been used for ages. And members are passionate about sharing the gospel as a lifestyle.

“The strategy is that it’s just the old-time stuff that he uses,” Lopez said about Navarro’s evangelism and outreach efforts. “You have to present the gospel to people. The more people you present the gospel, there is more of a chance that someone will respond.

“If we can define revival, which is the rekindling or reactivating of people to spiritual things and to spiritual commitment, I think that Carlos has done that and is doing that with the city of Brownsville. He has really impacted the community by gospel presentation, but also in modeling Christianity.”

WACO (ABP)—Students at two historic Baptist schools are taking Jesus’ command to feed the hungry and quench the thirsty quite literally.

Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Baylor University in Waco are feeding their communities through the Campus Kitchens Project. The initiative is an effort by students to keep extra food on their campuses from going to waste—and to challenge the very roots of malnutrition in their communities.

According to the group’s website , 20 schools across the country have started their own Campus Kitchens chapters. Students coordinate the redistribution of leftover food from dining halls to people in need.

The chapter at Wake Forest has been serving since 2006. According to Shelley Graves, the kitchen’s coordinator, in that short time about 1,200 volunteers have worked to serve meals in the Winston-Salem community. Graves said student volunteers work in donated kitchen space and help serve 350 to 400 meals per week, Sunday through Thursday, to a number of local organizations that serve the disadvantaged.

“Students are really the ones that are running the program from day to day,” Graves said. In fact, she noted, the program’s volunteer spots are very popular among Wake students.

The Campus Kitchen at Baylor is just beginning its first full year of service to the Waco community. It is one of the two major initiatives of the Baylor Interdisciplinary Poverty Initiative . According to Gaynor Yancey, faculty coordinator for the initiative and associate dean at the Baylor School of Social Work, the project gets faculty, staff and students “all concentrated on the fact that poverty is one of the major issues in the world.”

(L to R) Sheena Smith, Flor Avellaneda, Christine Hersh and Marianne Magjuka celebrated the grand opening of Baylor University Campus Kitchen earlier this year. The students were four of the more than 40 BUCK volunteers, who made 1,000 box lunches for volunteers working on the Martin Luther King Day of Service. (PHOTO/Baylor)

The Baylor kitchen was born from a project in Yancey’s advance practice class in the social-work master’s program.

“What would normally take a year to a year-and-a-half, my class did in three-and-a-half months,” she said. The process taught the students how to start an organization by breaking the class into teams, with each functioning as a team would in a real-world organization. The teams had a plate full of tasks ranging from working with the university, administration, and local food service, to being trained as safe food handlers, writing grants and organizing volunteers.

Their work paid off when the kitchen officially started on Baylor’s campus Jan. 17—the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. On that day alone, volunteers served 1,000 boxed lunches at nine different sites to people who were marking the day by serving their community.

Like the Wake Forest kitchen, the Baylor kitchen is student-driven. Last semester, Yancey said, the program had about 350 student volunteers.

One of this year’s student volunteers and leaders is coordinator Anna Imose.

Campus Kitchens Wake Forest University encourages volunteers to use their creativity put thoughtful touches on the food they prepare like this football cake. (PHOTO/Melissa Duquette)

Her responsibilities include all of the planning, scheduling and paperwork—including a monthly report to the national office of Campus Kitchen.

This year, Imose said, the Baylor chapter will continue to prepare one full meal a week to be served at a local organization. They also will be taking food that can’t be stored to the Salvation Army, which serves three meals every day of the week.

To Imose, her role as a student coordinator is about more than just serving food.

“You realize how important food is,” she said. “I never realized how much of an influence it has. … (I) learned that in the simple thing of feeding people they are more willing to listen to you … open up to you … it opens a door that I never thought was possible.”

Campus Kitchens’ mission goes beyond simply feeding people, to include teaching them about healthy eating and living.

Christine Hersh is Baylor’s kitchen manager. A nutrition-sciences major, she acts as the chapter’s nutrition coordinator as well. Her job is to take the reclaimed food and decide how to make nutritious meals out of it, along with running the kitchen and making sure food-safety standards are being followed.

Students Helen Woldemichael (L) and Demetria Williams (R) volunteered their time to help Baylor University Campus Kitchen (BUCK) with its grand opening earlier this year. (PHOTO/Baylor)

This year, the Baylor kitchen will partner with a local farm to incorporate locally grown produce into the meals. The Wake Forest chapter also will be adding this element to its kitchen through a campus garden.

Hersh said her experiences volunteering have helped her to see the need in the local community surrounding campus.

“It has enabled me to see beyond the ‘Baylor Bubble.’ … It really opened my eyes to what the need is out there and how much food we waste—or would have wasted if we threw away this food from the dining halls.”

In the case of Waco, it’s a community that could really use the help. According to Yancey, Waco has a 27.5 percent poverty rate among adults. “Baylor is a part of the Waco community. … This is something that we can all get involved in,” she said.

Outside of serving food and providing nutrition education, both Baylor and Wake Forest’s kitchen projects encourage students to sit and eat meals with the people they are serving.

Yancey described the program as “not just a thing of serving food, but building relationships … sitting and talking with people over food, over a meal is one of the most effective ways to build relationships.”

Breaking bread and getting to know someone over a meal is “something pretty biblical,” Yancey said.

WACO—The tense relationship between Baylor University and the Baylor Alumni Association may have reached a potential turning point—or boiling point—Sept. 19 when the university presented the alumni association a proposal asking the group to give up its independent nonprofit status and come under the authority of Baylor administration.

The proposal would consolidate the alumni association’s independently produced Baylor Line—which has sometimes taken positions critical of university administration and the board of regents—and the university-produced Baylor Magazine into a single publication, with the school maintaining editorial control.

In exchange, Baylor would cover operating costs for the alumni association, provide a seat on the board of regents to a member of the current Baylor Alumni Association’s board of directors, make the executive director of the alumni association vice president for alumni affairs and give the association’s current employees the option of working for the university.

Baylor Regent Bob Beauchamp presented a detailed proposal from Regent Chairman Dary Stone and Baylor University Interim President David Garland to the Baylor Alumni Associa-tion board.

Alumni association to study proposal

The association’s board passed a motion to create a study committee composed of alumni and faculty to examine the proposal.

The alumni association’s board “will strongly consider the merits of the proposal received from the board of regents and interim administration,” according to a statement by Baylor Alumni Association President David Lacy and CEO Jeff Kilgore.

The alumni association “has always given any request from the Baylor administration full consideration in keeping with the responsibilities with which it is entrusted,” the statement said.

Even so, the statement noted the request for the Baylor Alumni Association to give up its independence and become a department within the university “raises questions with many

alumni, considering that only two years ago, both (the alumni association) and the Baylor board of regents agreed upon and expressed their commitment to the independence of (the alumni association), strategic plans that support the mission of the university and a harmonious relationship.”

Kilgore noted the proposal from the university generated “a degree of shock” among some alumni association board members, who had anticipated their meeting would focus on events related to the association’s 150th anniversary, including the launch of a “United for Baylor” five-year plan to increase scholarship giving to children of alumni and raise money for Baylor University.

Regents emphasize national ‘best practices’

The written proposal presented to the alumni association board acknowledged “conflict of purposes” between the university and the association, and it called for the Baylor Alumni Association to become part of the school’s division of university development.

“Baylor needs a vibrant, nonpolitical, supportive alumni organization communicating with its alumni around the world,” the proposal stated.

In separate interviews, Beau-champ and Stone both characterized the proposal as an offer by the university to bring the alumni association into line with “best practices” of other major universities around the nation.

Baylor officials have insisted the number of universities with independent alumni associations is small and getting smaller, and Baylor’s relationship with its alumni association is unique among private universities.

“We must have a thriving, growing alumni association,” Beauchamp said, noting that while Baylor has graduated about 25,000 alumni in the last decade, membership in the Baylor Alumni Association has declined. In contrast, the Baylor Network—the university’s in-house alumni program—has been “thriving and growing” both in the number of events it has sponsored and the number of individuals involved, he added.

Baylor University is “carefully considering best practices in all aspects of the school,” from its governance to administration to alumni affairs, Stone added.

“Every other private school in the country” comparable to Baylor “has a well-constituted, well-organized alumni affairs effort that is a part of the school,” Stone said. The “outdated model” of an independent alumni association results in discordant messages, he noted.

“When you have two voices, two organizations, there are going to be bumps,” he said.

Different perspectives

While differences between the alumni association and the university’s administration and regents cannot be denied, Kilgore countered that the Baylor model—an independent alumni association outside the university structure—worked well as long as both parties valued each other as willing partners.

“The model in itself is not as important as how you work together,” he said.

Baylor Alumni Assoc-iation—formed 150 years ago—has functioned as an independent entity for about 30 years, when Baylor incrementally began decreasing its funding for the group by mutual consent.

But the organization’s relationship with the university has been strained for about the last seven years, when Baylor developed its own alumni services office—the Baylor Network—and began publishing its own magazine mailed to alumni and donors.

Earlier this year, the university removed the alumni association from its toll-free phone line, alumni association staff lost their university e-mail addresses, and the alumni association lost its link on the “Alumni and Friends” page of Baylor’s website.

A timeline of events distributed by Lacy and Kilgore to the Baylor Alumni Association also recounted a series of other actions demonstrating the breakdown of the relationship between the association and the university.

“For the past three years, (Baylor Alumni Association) officials have continued to request direct discussions between the board of regents and the (association’s) leadership to improve communication, including both private conversations and appearances before the full board of regents during its official meetings to address any concerns and misunderstandings,” the documents said. “To date, the board of regents has not invited (alumni association) officials to any of its official board meetings since … May 2007.”

John Barry, vice president for marketing and communications at Baylor University, said: “We take exception to a number of things in their timeline, but we are focused on the proposal that we have made and we are eager to learn of their response to it. Regardless of the inaccuracies in the timeline, what it represents is a look backward. What we are interested in, and what the Baylor family is interested in, is the future of Baylor University. That’s what the proposal represents and that’s where we want to focus.”

Kilgore insists the alumni association wants to advance the best interests of Baylor University. He noted a survey of alumni association members and non-member alumni in 2007 conducted by an independent, third-party professional researcher revealed 83 percent of the respondents believe the Baylor Alumni Association’s independence enables it to be a strong partner with the university while providing alumni their own voice.

That survey also showed 96 percent of the alumni polled believed the Baylor Alumni Association should serve as an organization that responsibly and candidly represents the values and interests of Baylor alumni, and it provides a forum for Baylor supporters to address issues regarding the wellbeing of the school, he added.

Regents and administration want to bring current leaders and supporters of the Baylor Alumni Association into the fold, not alienate them, Stone emphasized.

“We don’t want to disenfranchise one single Baylor Alumni Association leader, supporter or officer,” he said. “We want to give them a better platform within the university.”

Perceived sense of urgency

Kilgore noted the association would seek to appoint a study committee comprised of “people whose reputations in the Baylor community are beyond question.” The association will move deliberately in putting together the committee and beginning the process of study “with no preconceived notions of its outcome,” he said.

Still, he noted, some in the alumni association felt they were being pushed to accelerate the process of studying the proposal by the “media blitz” launched by the university after the meeting.

Stone denied the proposal carried any sense of urgency or deadline. He also insisted Baylor’s search for a president was “not a driver,” and the proposal was not a move to settle matters with the Baylor Alumni Association before a new university president is selected.

“There is not a timeline established. There’s no deadline. They can take as long as they need to consider the offer,” he said. At the same time, he added, “The university has to go on and conduct its business.”

Checks and balances

The document presented to the Baylor Alumni Association board said positioning the alumni association in a “watchdog role” or as the “loyal opposition” should not be the organization’s primary mission.

“It is not in the charter, nor in best practices, and not good for Baylor,” the proposal stated. “Baylor alumni as a whole do not envision the alumni association as a ‘checks and balance to the administration and the governing board of the university.’”

Baylor University’s unique history and mission created the need for the unique relationship between the school and its alumni association, the public statement by Lacy and Kilgore said.

“Baylor University is unique as an institution of higher education, maintaining a delicate balance between learning and faith while being governed by a self-perpetuating board of 21 individuals who have limited checks and balances to their authority as far as determining the future course of Baylor,” the statement said.

“Because of that special status, and for hundreds of other reasons, many alumni and the strongest supporters of Baylor have believed that the university is best served by an association that is self-governed and endowed with an independent voice—an association whose uniqueness in the world of private higher education matches the uniqueness of the institution it serves. We must carefully study whether or not this mission holds true today as we consider this new proposal.”

Proposal outlined

The document offered 12 specific proposals:

•Baylor Alumni Associa-tion would terminate its status as an independent nonprofit entity, become a unit within the Baylor structure and assume the responsibility of “involving, reaching and energizing the entire alumni base of Baylor.”

The university maintains its ability to communicate with about 120,000 out of 140,000 Baylor alumni. The Baylor Alumni Association has about 19,000 members.

•The university would provide the new Baylor Alumni Association with “appropriate resources and funding to enable its effective communication with all Baylor alumni.”

•Current employees and staff of the Baylor Alumni Association would be offered the option to become employees of the university and work within the new structure.

•The alumni association would have office space in the university-owned and maintained Hughes Dillard Alumni Center.

•The alumni association “shall coordinate all fund-raising, marketing, branding and communication efforts with the administration.”

•Consolidate the Baylor Line and Baylor Magazine, with editorial control in the hands of the university.

•Baylor regents would elect one regent in 2010 from the current Baylor Alumni Association board of directors.

•Baylor’s board of regents would amend the university’s bylaws to provide for the annual selection of an ex-officio regent from Baylor alumni, starting in 2011, to serve a one-year term.

•The alumni association may transfer its board of directors and executive committee into a new associational board of advisers that will coordinate its activities with Baylor’s administration.

•The alumni association’s executive director position would become vice president for alumni affairs and report to the vice president of development. The vice president for alumni affairs may serve on Baylor’s executive council and attend regents’ meetings, except for executive sessions of the board.

The vice president for alumni affairs would nominate qualified candidates for the board of regents from the alumni base.

•Money raised by the Baylor Alumni Association as an independent entity—after all outstanding financial obligations have been met—would become part of Baylor’s endowment, designated as an endowed scholarship fund.

•Beginning Jan. 1, 2010, the university would begin awarding recognition to distinguished alumni, and those individuals will be chosen in consultation with the new alumni association.

“If you accept our proposal, the new BAA will be well funded and will flourish,” the document presented to the alumni association board said.

The written proposal expressed the “fervent hope” of Baylor regents and administration that the alumni association would accept its offer. However, it also acknowledged the possibility the association might choose to maintain its independent status.

“If so, we will continue to assist you in maintaining your independence which is virtually unique among private university alumni associations. Baylor will likewise move forward in furthering Baylor’s efforts to engage and energize support from our outstanding alumni,” the document said.

Specific elements of the proposal are “definitely subject to further discussion,” Beau-champ said, adding, “We’re open to new ideas.”

What makes Baylor unique?

The Baylor Alumni Associ-ation seems to understand the unique character of Baylor University better than the school’s regents or administration, asserted Marie Brown of Aubrey, president of the Baylor Black Alumni Club.

“Baylor’s administration continues to promote how Baylor is different from most private institutions of higher learning. The administration also continues to promote Baylor as a Christian university that fosters unity, morality and strong Christian values in order to produce well-rounded graduates who will be prepared to accept any challenge life has to offer. However, it is evident that in the past several years, the administration as well as members of the board of regents have lost sight of Baylor’s mission and core values in their campaign to dismantle” the Baylor Alumni Association, she wrote in an opinion article submitted to several media outlets.

Baylor’s administration and regents should direct attention to problems deeper than the university’s relationship to the Baylor Alumni Association, said Brown, who serves on the alumni association’s board.

“The issues of attracting and retaining a stable administration, after a period of great turbulence in the president’s office, should be the main focus of the board of regents,” she said. “Baylor University is different than other schools, and that is why students choose to attend Baylor. However, if the board of regents as well as the interim administration continue their campaign to be in total control of the one organization that represents all alumni, then you will also lose a part of what makes the university so unique.”

Brown noted the contributions the Baylor Alumni Association has made to minority students. With the association’s assistance, the Baylor Black Alumni Club “would not have been able to award more than $15,000 in scholarships over the past nine years to deserving minority students,” or “host 11 scholarship luncheons to secure funds for its endowment,” she said.

The association also enabled the Baylor Black Alumni Club to support student initiatives such as the Association of Black Students, Baylor NAACP, Hispanic Student Association, and other student organizations, she added.

For more information, see http://www.baylor.edu/pr/news.php?action=story&story=61653 and http://www.bayloralumniassociation.com/news/news.asp?show=VIEW&a=87 .