Editorial: Dealing with institutional complexity

The BGCT is a complex institution. Those who want to maintain it have no choice but to deal with the complexity.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board meeting this week was the most substantive and complex Executive Board meeting I have covered in my eight-plus years as editor of the Baptist Standard. Processing that amount of substance and complexity requires a great deal of attention over an extended period of time. It was taxing for all involved.

Complexity seems to be the order of the day. By “complexity” here, I really mean “complicated.” I regularly hear people, including myself, complain about how so many things have become so complicated. It’s everywhere we turn. It’s taxing to all involved. We need a break.

Feeling pressed to the limit by ubiquitous complexity, it’s no wonder fewer and fewer people seem interested in adding more of it to their plate. Those new to the institutional complexity of the BGCT got a heaping plate of it during the last two days.

They passed some of that complexity along to messengers to consider during the 2026 BGCT annual meeting in Waco, Nov. 15-17. Which gives rise to this editorial.

If you already have all you can say grace over, how are you to deal with even more?

Delegate the complexity

There’s an underlying assumption here. That assumption is you want to deal with the BGCT’s institutional complexity. That’s not a safe assumption and hasn’t been for a long time. Many have either grown tired of institutional complexity—wherever they encounter it—or they do not have sufficient margin left in themselves to take on any more complexity.

The BGCT has been a complex entity for most of its 140-year history. The Executive Board is a response to that complexity. Since the full membership of the convention does not have the time or ability to deal with every convention-related matter, a smaller representative group has been entrusted with addressing some of those matters.

We understand this. Our state and federal governments work the same way.

Just how much should be entrusted to that smaller representative group is a question BGCT messengers will have an opportunity to decide during their upcoming annual meeting.

Sometimes, substantive points get lost in the complexity. In this case, the proposed constitutional and bylaw amendments messengers will consider this year during annual meeting business, if approved by the required number of votes over two years, will affect who gets to vote at annual meetings and what they get to vote on.

Since we can’t take on everything ourselves, we have to entrust others to handle what we can’t because of our limited time and capacity. We understand that, even if we don’t always like what others decide.

Focus on fewer things

There’s another underlying assumption, that we’re supposed to deal with all the complexity ourselves. This is also not a safe assumption, but in a different way. Operating under the assumption each of us is supposed to deal fully with everything presented to us is a good way to die young and unhappy. It’s an assumption that doesn’t take human limitation seriously.

The BGCT Executive Board is itself composed of smaller, representative groups with particular assignments. Dealing with institutional complexity is made much easier when you are assigned to focus on a smaller part of the whole institution. Even if you don’t want or like your particular assignment.

Not all of us have someone else assigning our focus areas to us. So, we have to decide for ourselves what limited number of things we will give our best attention to, and then we need to do our best to give those things our best attention.

Part of human limitation for many of us, however, is our inability to say, “No.” We think we are more capable than we really are or will have more time than real life affords. As a result, we drop the ball or take shortcuts. Which doesn’t just hurt us. It also hurts the people around us, the people trusting us to take our commitments seriously.

It’s easier to take our commitments seriously when we commit to fewer things. Commit wisely.

One of the questions this raises amid institutional complexity is whether the institution can maintain all of its commitments. Messengers to the 2026 BGCT annual meeting will have the opportunity to weigh this question, too, when they consider the proposed 2027 BGCT budget.

Institutions, like us, are also limited things. Not even the Roman or British Empires conquered the entire world. Or even most of it. And the BGCT is nowhere close to being an empire.

We are often embarrassed when we have to let go of commitments. We don’t want to let people down. We don’t want to leave a project half-finished. We don’t want to look like failures. We said we could; the real world proves we can’t—at least, not everything, always.

Texas Baptists recent organizational restructuring and the proposed 2027 BGCT budget are expressions of a need to focus on fewer things. There need not be shame in this, even if there is disappointment. Focus often improves our situation, even if it is only the first step.

Bottom line

The BGCT is a complex institution. Those who want to maintain it have no choice but to deal with the complexity. Messengers to the 2026 BGCT annual meeting in Waco, Nov. 15-17, will have the opportunity and the responsibility to do just that.

They should start informing themselves now, so they can determine what they need to give their best attention to during the meeting. Shameless plug: Our reporting on the September BGCT Executive Board meeting is a good place to start. You can read it here and here, as well as officer nominations here, here, and here.

And in case you think I’m only talking about the BGCT, I’m not. I’m talking about you and me, too. We need to deal with the complexity around us by focusing on fewer things and trusting others to help us. There’s a Sunday school answer in there.

Jesus.

Eric Black is the executive director, publisher, and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.