RICHMOND — Baptist General Association of Virginia governing structures are “too large, cumbersome and disjointed to be efficient and effective” and must be “modified or replaced,” says a committee authorized last fall to propose changes in the way the 190-year-old organization oversees its operations and fiduciary responsibilities.
In a white paper released April 12, the 14-member committee identified five of “the most glaring problems” in the BGAV’s existing system — an essential step, it said, before developing and proposing an alternative.
“Although we have some initial ideas about what our 21st-century governance model might look like, we are reticent to share them at this early stage of our discernment process,” the committee wrote in the white paper. “We have forced ourselves to resist the temptation to invent a structure before we understand fully what must be avoided and what must be incorporated to accurately represent the historical values, biblical ideals and honored traditions of the Virginia Baptist family.”
The Virginia Baptist Mission Board held its spring meeting recently in Richmond. (VBMB photo)
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Among those values and traditions are broad-based participation, inclusion and egalitarianism — all features of the current system which the committee said it is determined to “incarnate” in a new or modified structure.
The governance study committee was recommended by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board and approved by the BGAV at its annual meeting last November. BGAV president Carl Johnson appointed the panel, which is chaired by Jim Baucom, pastor of Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church, Va.
“Members of the committee are meeting with several groups of influencers and receiving any feedback concerned Virginia Baptists want to offer us,” Baucom told the Herald. “We hope to have a blueprint for a new model in late August, which will also be released publicly, presented to the Mission Board, then proposed to the General Association in November.”
In identifying deficiencies in the BGAV’s governing apparatus, the white paper focused on five areas:
The 100-member Virginia Baptist Mission Board, which conducts business between annual sessions of the BGAV, is too large to “effectively sustain accountability and perform its fiduciary responsibility.”
“Virginia Baptist leaders with any history in the General Association have seen numerous instances in which budgetary decisions have not been thoroughly vetted by the Mission Board, the board has been unable to set clear strategic directions, or full deliberations of particularly difficult or divisive issues have been impossible for such a large body,” the committee wrote. “In many cases, the General Association officers or the smaller executive committee of the Mission Board have been forced to operate as a microcosm of the broader board, sometimes to the dissatisfaction of Virginia Baptists.”
The method of selecting members of the Mission Board doesn’t ensure diversity or competencies.
About 75 percent of board members are nominated by 42 district associations — “a strangely connectional apparatus for an avowedly non-connectional denomination,” the committee noted. Although the BGAV approves the nominations, associational recommendations are rarely challenged.
“While this system ensures some geographic diversity, it actually serves to discourage other diversities of gender, race, background and the like. … Those elected to the board in the present system have likely demonstrated competence within their local churches or associations, but there is no guarantee that they are prepared to govern an organization of the General Association’s size and complexity. Thus, the Mission Board frequently lacks the expertise and experience necessitated by its core governance task.”
Key governance functions are assigned to several bodies and strategic connections among these groups are weak.
“To some, this may seem an advantage, since power is not concentrated in one group,” wrote the committee. “In reality, our structure produces disjointed governance that easily becomes politicized.”
Jim Baucom
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As an example of “poor organizational alignment,” the white paper cited the BGAV budget committee. The 15-member committee, which recommends allocations for all BGAV ministries and partners, is appointed by the BGAV and, while the Mission Board may suggest changes in the final proposal, it does not approve it before presentation at BGAV annual meetings.
“This process is controversial nearly every year, with each new budget committee setting its agenda apart from the strategic guidance of the Mission Board, supposedly the ultimate governing board in Virginia Baptist life,” noted the white paper. “Neither our Mission Board staff nor our mission partners are ever really able to plan effectively, because they have no way of predicting what each subsequent budget committee may decide to do, and a tremendous amount of power becomes vested in a group other than the elected governing body.”
Mission Board governing structure is organized to mirror the structure of the board’s staff; each staff team has a corresponding Mission Board committee with which it works.
“On paper, this appears a neat arrangement, and Mission Board members enjoy working in areas about which they are passionate,” noted the white paper. “In practice, this structure presents some significant problems, among them that few on the Mission Board ever get an accurate picture of the entire working organization. Mission Board members frequently become more advocates for and/or micromanagers of their areas (and staff) than strategists relative to the direction of the whole organization.”
The BGAV’s “stake-holding” churches are underrepresented in the present structure.
“Because Mission Board members are usually nominated based on their work in their local associational structures, churches who give considerable percentages of all General Association funds, but may be less active at the associational level, are unlikely to emerge in the present model,” the committee wrote. “While we celebrate the fine work of many local associations, we do not think it wise that the governance of the General Association be so dependent on their viability.”
Since large churches are increasingly likely to partner outside local associations, the committee wrote, congregations which together represent more than 60 percent of the BGAV’s income often represent less than 10 percent of the Mission Board.
“Without these significant players in the room when pivotal issues arise, it is far less likely that real buy-in can be achieved when it matters most,” noted the white paper. “Many of the leaders of these key stakeholder churches are reporting to our executive staff that they are so frustrated with an ineffective governance model that they are less willing to put their faith in the General Association. We are convinced that this problem, in itself, is a fiscal crisis in the making for the General Association.”
Challenging task but not new
Developing solutions to governance inadequacies will be a challenging task but not a new one, the committee wrote.
“We know that the General Association has utilized a number of governance structures throughout its history, and that good governance has always been a moving target requiring constant maintenance,” it said. “Ours is the task of solving this riddle for our generation without abandoning the strongest values consistently actualized by the General Association throughout the years.”
In addition to Baucom and Johnson, a retired denominational executive and member of First Baptist Church in Richmond, other members of the committee are Steve Allsbrook, executive director of missions of the Dover Baptist Association; Dick Bidwell, BGAV parliamentarian; Pat Bloxom, a former president of Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia; Ann Brown, immediate past president of Virginia WMU; Dan Carlton, pastor of Downtown Baptist Church in Alexandria, Mark Croston, pastor of East End Baptist Church in Suffolk and immediate past president of the BGAV; Don Davidson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Alexandria and a former BGAV president, who serves as the committee’s vice chair; Darrell Foster, a retired attorney and former BGAV president; and Tommy McDearis, pastor of Blacksburg Baptist Church and current BGAV first vice president.
Ex officio members are John Upton and Eddie Stratton, executive director and treasurer, respectively, of both the BGAV and the Mission Board, and Glenn Akins, assistant executive director of the Mission Board.
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.