SAN ANGELO, Texas (ABP) — 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 West Texas rancher who has led TBC since its inception, resigned Sept. 28, effective immediately, reported Debbie Ferrier, chair of the group's board of directors.
About a week earlier, he announced he was stepping down to become executive director emeritus in an e-mail newsletter. At that time, he reported the organization would move its office from San Angelo, where Currie lives, 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 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 TBC board will appoint a committee to search for a new executive director and will seek a church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area 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 [TBC'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.
TBC “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 moderate or centrist 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 existing, TBC 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 Baptist 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 a master's degree in divinity and a Ph.D. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.
-30-
Ken Camp is managing editor, and Marv Knox is editor, of the Texas Baptist Standard.
Previous ABP story:
Texas Baptists Committed to seek new leader (9/23)