HOUSTON (ABP) — The Nov. 16-17 2009 Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in Houston attracted the fewest messengers in at least 60 years, but a series of evangelistic events prior to the meeting marked the greatest involvement and the largest number of professions of faith in Christ of any similar event in recent history.
More than 20 City Reach evangelistic events associated with the convention drew 19,000 participants and resulted in 3,000 decisions for Christ, including 1,917 professions of faith. A multi-site outreach to prisons throughout Southeast Texas — conducted in partnership with Bill Glass Champions for Life — involved 14,000 volunteers and produced 2,429 commitments to Christ by offenders, including 1,405 seeking salvation.
However, the Houston annual meeting itself drew only 1,493 elected messengers and 626 registered guests, down from the 1,891 messengers at the 2008 meeting in Fort Worth and the lowest number since 1,667 messengers attended the 1949 meeting in El Paso. While the messenger count for several years in the 1930s and 1940s was not available, the lowest participation on record was 1,445 in 1937.
In contrast, the largest meeting in BGCT history — the 1991 annual meeting in Waco, when the convention was dealing with controversy surrounding a charter change for Baylor University — drew 11,159. Excluding that year, the average number of messengers at annual meetings in the 1990s was 5,941.
After the 2000 annual meeting in Corpus Christi, which drew 6,713 messengers, the numbers dropped to 3,317 in 2001 and 3,327 in 2002. The convention hasn’t reached reached the 3,000-messenger level since then, and the numbers have declined every year since 2004.
In response to that trend, messengers to this year's annual meeting approved a motion introduced by Paul Kenley, pastor of Grace Fellowship Church in Lampasas, on behalf of the committee on convention business. It recommended a committee be created to study changes to the BGCT annual meeting's format to “enhance interest and participation from a broader spectrum of participating churches.”
The recommendation called for a committee limited to 11 members appointed by convention officers by the end of the 2009 annual meeting, with instructions that the committee report to the 2010 meeting in McAllen.
Other business
In other business, messengers to the annual meeting approved a reduced budget for the second consecutive year, adopted recommendations presented by the BGCT Future Focus Committee — including creation of a committee to study the convention's unified Cooperative Program budget — and re-elected the convention’s first two-term president in recent years.
They also passed a resolution on sexual ethics. It noted previous statements from 1982 to 2005 and resolved the BGCT “maintain the consistent position of past convention statements and actions which affirm the biblical sexual ethic of fidelity in marriage and celibacy in singleness and also affirms the biblical image of marriage as the union before God between a man and woman.”
A motion to postpone indefinitely a vote on the resolution failed.
The statement reaffirmed a 1992 resolution encouraging all people to uphold a lifestyle of biblical sexual ethics while affirming “the gospel provides forgiveness and restoration for all persons through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.”
It also reaffirmed the 1998 Executive Board statement that “churches should seek to minister to all persons” and that “the love of God embraces all persons and instructs all Christians to share God’s love with others.”
No controversy over Broadway
The resolution marked the only reference to homosexuality at the meeting, in spite of widespread pre-convention conversations about an anticipated challenge to messengers from Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth. In June, the Southern Baptist Convention severed its longstanding relationship with the congregation over the church’s perceived toleration of homosexual members.
Broadway Baptist leaders determined in the days immediately prior to the annual meeting that choosing not to send messengers to the meeting would be “in the best interests” of both the BGCT and the church.
Messengers approved a $44,029,505 budget for 2010. The total budget calls for $38,865,000 from Texas Baptist cooperative giving and $2,135,000 from investment income, with the balance in revenue provided by conference and booth fees, funds from the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board, product sales and other sources. The budget marks a 9.8 percent decrease, after adjustments for organizational realignment that occurred in recent months.
The convention’s Future Focus Committee presented its final report to the annual meeting. The committee, formed in response to a motion at the 2007 annual meeting in Amarillo, submitted a series of findings and recommendations — including some that already have been implemented.
Findings and recommendations by the committee centered on:
- Name change. The committee concluded the body's formal historic name — Baptist General Convention of Texas — “did not speak to a new generation of Baptists,” and it recommended at last year’s annual meeting the name be changed to “Texas Baptist Convention.” After the motion was referred to the BGCT Executive Board, the group decided to retain the legal name but register and use “Texas Baptists” as the convention’s trademark.
- Strategic realignment. After evaluating the BGCT Executive Board staff structure, the committee recognized the need for a simplified structure built around three emphases — evangelism/missions, Christian education/discipleship and advocacy/care. BGCT Executive Director Randel Everett realigned staff in May, and the committee endorsed the action. The committee also endorsed “future moves to eliminate duplications within the organization.”
- Cooperative Program promotion. The committee found the number of BGCT-related churches giving through the Cooperative Program dropped from 4,942 in 1997 to 3,789 in 2008, and funds received for BGCT ministries declined from more than $44.1 million in 1997 to about $37.9 million in 2008. The committee recommended creating a Cooperative Program study committee to formulate a plan for marketing the unified giving program, and it recommended requiring all ministry partners that receive BGCT funds to acknowledge that in their publicity.
- Financial policy changes. The committee discovered the convention “was operating in the recent past on financial initiatives that were not fiscally sound.” It recommended the BGCT adopt a comprehensive budget inclusive of all revenue sources — Cooperative Program, mission offerings, investments and other operating funds received for special purposes. The committee called on designated funds to be invested in non-speculative accounts such as certificates of deposit or money-market funds until they reach the appropriate time for expenditure as provided in the designation. The group also recommended the Texas Baptist Missions Foundation increase the endowment to underwrite costs of infrastructure and administrative BGCT operations.
- Collaborative relationships. Pointing to collaboration as “a biblical concept,” the committee instructed the BGCT Executive Board to explore ways affiliated churches can develop collaborative relationships with other BGCT-related churches, institutions, and ministry partners inside and outside Texas.
- Hispanic work in Texas. Reaching Hispanics offers “one of the keys to reaching Texas in the years ahead,” the committee found, and the committee joined the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas in asking the Executive Board to recommend a committee to work with the Hispanic group's representatives to write a new unification agreement between the two conventions.
- Mission initiatives. The committee discovered lack of support for the WorldconneX missions network — which subsequently was dissolved in May — and urged that elements of WorldconneX be absorbed into the BGCT organizational structure. The committee also recommended development of a comprehensive missions-education program for the BGCT, called for increased cooperation with associations of churches and recommended funding for new church starts be a high priority for the BGCT.
- Educational partnerships. Graduates of BGCT-related colleges and seminaries often have “a woeful ignorance” of the Cooperative Program and the support it provides, the committee found. The group recommended that in order for a school to receive funds for ministry students, it be required to teach about Baptist heritage, the work of the BGCT and the Cooperative Program.
- Advocacy/care collaboration. The committee recommended the BGCT Advocacy/Care Center create a meeting place for all institutions that are advocates for the marginalized in Texas.
Messengers to the annual meeting re-elected for a second one-year term David Lowrie, pastor of First Baptist Church in Canyon. Ed Jackson, a layman from First Baptist Church in Garland, was elected first vice president, and John Ogletree, pastor of First Metropolitan Baptist Church in Houston, was elected second vice president.
In addition to the resolution on sexual ethics, messengers also approved a resolution encouraging “lawmakers and public officials to cooperate in efforts to ensure adequate health care for all members of society.”
Another resolution expressed grief over the tragedy at Fort Hood and by the suffering of all people in times of war, noting concern over “the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the continued threat of terrorism.” It called on Texas Baptists to pray for “just and lasting peace for all people,” for national leaders and “for men and women in uniform,” particularly singling out Baptist military chaplains.
Other resolutions emphasized the Baptist commitment to religious liberty and church-state separation, encouraged Texas Baptists to engage in ministry to people affected by substance abuse and called for responsible financial stewardship.
-30-
Ken Camp is managing editor of the Texas Baptist Standard.
Related ABP story:
Broadway Baptist decides not to send messengers to BGCT meeting (11/15)