WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (ABP) — The Baptist Retirement Homes of North Carolina has adopted bylaw amendments that allow the corporation's trustees to elect their own successors.
Previously the bylaws called for trustees to be elected by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, which also had the power to remove trustees.
Some observers expect other agencies to distance themselves from the convention as conservatives gain increasing control of the country's second largest state Baptist convention.
The move echoes those taken by other agencies related to Baptist state conventions whose leadership has begun to move rightward. In 2000, trustees of the Missouri Baptist Home removed themselves from the control of the Missouri Baptist Convention as a fundamentalist group began gaining control of that body. Four other Missouri Baptist agencies followed suit in 2001, and the convention sued to regain control of all of them in 2002. The lawsuit remains unresolved.
A letter informing the North Carolina convention of the changes was delivered to acting executive director-treasurer Mike Cummings Jan. 18.
“I deeply regret to see this action taken, and I hope there will be opportunity for us to have some important dialogue with [BRH president] Bill [Stillerman] and his board in regard to this decision,” Cummings said.
Convention president Stan Welch also learned about the decision Jan. 18. “We will need to get our legal counsel to look at the legality of what they want to do,” he said, noting that the matter would be discussed during the upcoming convention Executive Committee and Board of Directors meetings Jan. 24-25.
“I don't think North Carolina Baptists are going to let them just break away in this particular way after having invested so much in them over so many years,” Welch said.
But Stillerman told the Biblical Recorder of North Carolina that the Baptist Retirement Homes have always used the funds received from the convention for benevolent care only.
Baptist Retirement Homes, founded in 1951, operates retirement communities in Albemarle, Asheville, Concord, Hamilton, and Winston-Salem. When founder Jimmy Hayes petitioned the convention in 1950 for aid in beginning a ministry to the elderly, he was given encouragement but no money, Stillerman said.
The convention did not contribute funds or participate in choosing trustees until 1957, Stillerman said. The corporation has always raised its own funds and borrowed money in its own name, he said.
And, Stillerman said, trustees do not consider the action to constitute a break from the convention. In a Jan. 18 press release, Stillerman insisted, “The changes made to our organization's bylaws document have no theological overtones but are related strictly to matters of governance and finance.”
“We have every intention to continue to maintain significant ties with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina,” Stillerman said, “and our long-standing tradition of offering long-term care services to North Carolina Baptist older adults.”
“An autonomous, stable governing board is essential” to ensure the financial viability of the organization in the future, he said.
A letter mailed to more than 9,000 Baptist leaders, Homes residents, and others said the criteria for choosing trustees has not changed: they still must be Baptists, with at least three-fourths holding membership in North Carolina Baptist churches.
The changes were approved during a December meeting of the Baptist Retirement Homes trustees, after earlier efforts to accomplish the same goal were sidetracked by convention attorney John Small.
On August 16, Stillerman asked the convention's Executive Committee to approve a plan by which Baptist Retirement Homes would begin electing its own trustees in 2006 and phase out convention funding. Baptist Retirement Homes would continue to receive the annual offering for the aged and make an annual report to the convention.
At the time, Small said the change was not allowed because it would constitute a severance of the relationship. Stillerman then asked the Executive Committee to table the earlier request.
Baptist Retirement Homes was scheduled to receive $938,500 in 2005, all slated for benevolent care. About 40 percent of the Homes' 700 residents do pay for their care.
Stillerman said a change was needed because banks and financial institutions are increasingly unwilling to invest in organizations that do not have independent boards that ensure future stability, and the inability to borrow money at good interest rates could compromise care of the elderly.
BRH was not asking for a severance from the BSC, he said, only a change of relationship in which the Homes would remain affiliated as before, with the exception of choosing its own directors and forgoing direct convention funding.
The December action by BRH trustees effectively bypassed the need for convention approval.
According to documents posted on a Web site hosted by the N.C. Secretary of State, in May 1994 BRH trustees amended the corporation's governing documents to move provisions for the election of trustees from its articles of incorporation to its bylaws.
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