ATLANTA (ABP) — The coordinating council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship approved four schools as identity partners Oct. 13 in the second day of its annual meeting, which focused on affirming partnerships with the organization.
In a unanimous vote proceeded by no floor discussion, council members approved Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology, Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, and the Campbell University Divinity School as identity partners. The relationship allows selected schools to receive high levels of institutional funding, scholarships and initiative support from the Fellowship.
Terry Hamrick, CBF's coordinator for leadership development, said the organization fills a different role in the lives of theological schools than it has in the past. He called the partnerships “more than just an exchange of dollars.”
“One of the things we've come to see … is that our role has gone from funding schools to training leaders,” he said. “We are very committed to finding ways to fund and effectively train leaders for the 21st century.”
The council approved nine schools as leadership partners, which may allow students to apply for CBF leadership scholarships. Schools in that category include the M. Christopher White School of Divinity at Gardner-Webb University; Central Baptist Theological Seminary; the Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons University; the Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School; the Baptist Studies Program at Candler School of Theology; Wake Forest University's Divinity School; the Baptist Studies Program at Brite Divinity School; Baptist Seminary of Kentucky; and the Baptist Studies Program at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.
Baptist University of the Américas and International Baptist Theological Seminary were recognized as global partners of CBF.
Guy Sayles, chair of the leadership development team, said his committee evaluated the nine schools that applied for identity partnership based on geographic location, historical connection with CBF, the number of students at the school, the amount of graduates serving in congregations connected to the Fellowship, and the strength of the application.
Sayles, pastor of First Baptist Church in Asheville, N.C., said the decision to form identity partnerships with four schools came after much deliberation. The committee could have chosen up to six schools for the partnership.
“We want the support we have for them and the partnership we share with them to be meaningful,” Sayles said. “In my view, we will still regard all [the] schools as strategic partners with us.”
The changes will be implemented over the next three years. Each partnership will be reevaluated after five years.
In other business, finance committee members reported a budget deficit for the first three months of the financial year starting July 1. The Fellowship reported $2.6 million in receipts against a projected $3.1 million, or 86 percent of the projection for total revenue for the first quarter. And while projected revenue for the year's total operating budget for initiatives and support functions is $17,050,000, the likely budget will be closer to $15,915,000, officials said.
For the Global Missions fund, the finance committee reported a shortfall of more than one million dollars for the year ending June 30, 2006. Actual receipts of undesignated funds for the mission fund were $5.29 million, although planners had projected a total of $6.32 million.
To counteract the shortfall, the CBF staff has implemented a 90-percent spending plan for the 2006-2007 year. The Fellowship also has money in reserves to ease the deficit, according to the report.
“This is a cause for concern but not panic,” Doyle Sager, chair of the finance committee, said. “The organization is healthy, and we are addressing these challenges head-on.”
In other actions:
— The council approved a blessing on the intent of five states to form a new CBF Midwest region. Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota want to form the new group, which would require bylaw changes to be voted on at the council's next meeting. Changes would then be submitted for approval to the general assembly in June 2007. The legal committee proposed bylaw changes to the CBF Constitution Article 6, Section 4 and Section 5e.
CBF has never created a new region. While it has two partnering churches in Iowa and one in Nebraska, it has no partnering churches in Minnesota or the Dakotas.
— The personnel committee proposed a new graph in the description of committee duties that calls for committee consultation during the budgeting process to provide input concerning personnel salary allocations. A recent personnel committee report found CBF staff salary increases well behind the national average for annual cost-of-living increases.
The committee also proposed a “flexible policy that enables us to have a way by which someone can transition from one position to another” for spouses of re-assigned missionaries. The new policy will provide off-field assignments lasting 12 months when a spouse is moved to an office job.
Both personnel committee propositions were approved.
— CBF's Global Missions initiative unanimously approved continued relationships with Buckner Baptist Benevolences and Kentucky Baptist Fellowship in the Together for Hope rural poverty initiative.
— The council unanimously committed to continue partnerships with Associated Baptist Press; Baptist Center for Ethics; Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty; Baptist World Alliance; Baptists Today; Bread for the World; the Center for Congregational Health; the Center for Family and Community Ministries at Baylor University; and Passport.
The council's next meeting will be Feb. 15-16, 2007, in Decatur, Ga.
-30-