DALLAS (ABP) — A church-planting institute founded by Otto Arango — the central figure in a scandal involving misuse and mismanagement of Texas Baptist church-starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley — will cease to exist at the end of this year.
At a special meeting in Dallas Nov. 14, the board of directors of the Piper Institute for Church Planting voted unanimously to dissolve the corporation, effective Dec. 31.
“The board recognized that the institute's ability to raise future funds has been significantly and negatively impacted by the [Baptist General Convention of Texas'] recent Rio Grande Valley investigative report and the subsequent negative Baptist press,” chairman Bill Nichols said.
“The board also voted to express their sincere appreciation to the Piper family, who for years has generously supported BGCT missions projects including church-planting.”
Arango has served as president of the 2-year-old nonprofit corporation that evolved from the Institute for Church Planting he founded in South Texas. E.B. Brooks became executive director of the Piper Institute after he retired as leader of the BGCT's church missions and evangelism area.
Brooks declined the opportunity to comment on the board's action. Arango did not respond to an e-mail request for a statement.
A five-month, independent investigation initiated by the BGCT executive director and executive board officers revealed evidence that 98 percent of the 258 church starts reported by Arango and two of his protégés in the Valley no longer exist, and some were “phantom churches” that existed only on paper. The BGCT gave at least $1.3 million support to those church starts.
Dexton Shores, director of BGCT Border/Mexico Missions, presented evidence of a similar pattern in northeastern Mexico. His survey last December of 43 pastors in North Tamaulipas — reported by the Piper Institute to have started 75 percent of the new congregations in the area — found only 12 percent, at most, could be verified.
Brooks called the survey “incomplete, inaccurate and unaudited.” But Shores said leaders of the North Tamaulipas Regional Convention confirmed a significant number of churches reported by the institute remained unknown to them.
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