DALLAS (ABP) — Local churches — not the Baptist General Convention of Texas — command the lion's share of attention in documents that could guide the state convention through the coming decades.
The BGCT's proposed mission, vision, values and priority statements mention churches at least 13 times but reference the name of the convention only once.
Texas Baptists got their first glimpse of the statements Aug. 25, when the BGCT strategic planning committee unveiled them to employees of the convention's Executive Board in Dallas. That was the initial public step in a process that promises to alter both the focus and the structure of the BGCT.
The reorganization movement began last winter. Supported by convention officers, BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade named four revisioning teams — comprised of lay leaders, ministers and convention staff — to talk to their peers across the state, think together and articulate dreams for the convention.
This summer, the strategic planning committee has taken material gleaned by the revisioning teams and has shaped it into concrete recommendations. The first recommendations involve the mission, vision, values and priority statements. The BGCT Administrative Committee considered these statements Sept. 2-3.
In addition, the Administrative Committee received proposals to overhaul the convention's governance process. Next the Executive Board will consider all these proposals, plus core strategies for directing the convention's work, Sept. 28.
If the Executive Board approves, all the recommendations for change will be presented to focus groups statewide and then to messengers who attend the BGCT annual session Nov. 8-9.
Finally, if BGCT messengers approve, Wade will spend the next couple of years implementing the overall strategic plan. This will involve restructuring the convention's staff organization and budget.
The proposed mission statement declares: “The Baptist General Convention of Texas encourages, facilitates and connects churches in their work to fulfill God's mission of reconciling the world to himself.”
“The mission statement explains why you exist,” said Sherrill Spies, an organizational consultant who has helped Wade guide the strategic planning process. “It tells the world what you do, who you do it for and why you do it.”
The mission statement “means we recognize the churches are our primary focus,” Wade said in an interview. “The convention cannot win Texas to Christ. The churches can win Texas to Christ. We're focusing on churches, the biblically mandated organisms that engage the culture and lead people to Jesus.”
Wade pointed specifically to the verbs in the mission statement. “'Encourage,' 'facilitate' and 'connect' describe what our churches have told us they want and need,” he said. “The churches need encouragement — stimulation to know about possibilities. They need a partner to help them facilitate or bring about appropriate action. And they want to be connected.”
The proposed vision statement — “what you want to become,” Spies said — describes the BGCT, in part, as “a fellowship of transformational churches sacrificially giving ourselves to God's redemptive purpose.”
The vision commits the convention to “engage culture to reach the people,” embrace diversity, become “change agents,” and “recognize that we belong to the larger body of Christ's church.” “Together, we advance the kingdom in ways that individual churches cannot do alone,” the statement says.
The proposal calls for the BGCT to embrace seven values — the transformational church, the Bible as divinely inspired and authoritative, spiritual formation, servant leadership, the worth of all persons, Baptist heritage and integrity.
But the values are not a comprehensive faith statement, Wade stressed. The 1963 “Baptist Faith and Message” is the statement that best characterizes doctrinal convictions of Texas Baptist churches, he said.
The strategic planning committee also suggests five priorities, including starting churches, meeting human needs, developing leadership, providing a strategy of “giving and going,” and providing research.
The proposed priorities will guide the BGCT as it develops strategies for accomplishing its work, Wade predicted. “Our staff will be organized and trained so they can be the best friend a church can have if it wants to be a transformational church….”
“The question I am trying to address is this: When we stand before our Lord, will he be able to say the BGCT made a real and Christ-like difference or that we simply took up space?”
Ken Hall, president of the BGCT, said he is “enthusiastic” about the recommendations, particularly the priorities and core strategies. “They put the central focus of the BGCT on our churches and not on the denomination and its institutions and agencies,” said Hall, who leads one of those BGCT agencies, Buckner Baptist Benevolences, which operates ministries to children, families and the elderly across the state.
A key outcome of the strategy committee's recommendations will be accountability, Hall predicted. As the convention follows the new church-focused strategy, every component of the convention structure will be evaluated by how well they help the convention and the churches meet their priorities, he said.
“The convention is going to hold us accountable for how well we encourage, facilitate and connect churches to do their work,” he stressed. “That is the central difference in what the convention is and what it will be. It's not subtle; it's dramatic.”
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