DALLAS (ABP) — Otto Arango's lavish lifestyle — living in an expensive home in an exclusive neighborhood and driving luxury cars — raised questions among some pastors in the Rio Grande Valley about the sources of his income. Their suspicions helped trigger an investigation that revealed Texas Baptist church-starting funds were misused in the region.
When pressed by investigators acting on behalf of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board and its officers, the investigating attorneys said Arango replied he “had made a lot of money promoting his vision of planting churches.”
Arango asserted the BGCT paid him at least $500,000 in honoraria and reimbursement expenses for consulting between 1997 and 2003, investigators reported.
In addition to his $64,000 salary as pastor of Iglesia Bautista Getsemani in McAllen, Arango claimed he also received $4,400 per month from the BGCT and an additional $9,100 in consulting fees from four Baptist associations with whom he contracted his services — Del Rio-Uvalde (identified in the report as Eagle Pass Association), Tri-River Area, Dallas and Cooke (identified as Gainesville).
He did not provide an estimate of payments received from alleged contracts with Union, Johnson, Gulf Coast and Coastal Bend associations. However, he told investigators he received $14,000 per month from associations — an amount that may have included the $9,100.
However, associational leaders paint a different picture of their relationship with Arango.
Tim Randolph, former director of missions for Tri-Rivers Area and now a BGCT congregational strategist, said his association initially talked with Arango about a one-year working arrangement, but it never developed.
“We were going to pay him $1,500 or $1,700 a month, and he was supposed to give us four days a month working with our Hispanic churches in teaching methods to start new churches,” Randolph said, noting the association set a goal to start four churches a year.
But before Arango's scheduled first visit with Hispanic leaders in the Gatesville area, he called to say he was “too busy” and to ask if an associate, Gusvato Lopez, could serve in his place, Randolph recalled.
“Otto Arango never met with our pastors. It was Gusvato,” he said. For the first couple of months, Lopez fulfilled his commitment — the pastors of small Hispanic churches who had felt unequipped to start congregations began to see the possibilities, Randolph said.
But before long, Lopez failed to keep his scheduled appointments, and the association canceled its agreement.
Arango also claimed Dallas Baptist Association paid him $3,200 a month, the investigators reported.
Bob Dean, who assumed the associational director of missions position in August, checked with the former director of missions and the former associate for church planting. Neither recalled any relationship with Arango. Dean also asked the association's accountant to check employee records, and no payment to Arango was discovered.
However, further queries of another former staff member confirmed Arango was on retainer for one year to help lead Dallas Baptist Association church-starting training. But Tim Ahlen, the former associate with Dallas Baptist Association, told Dean the payment was “not anywhere near $3,200 a month. He could not confirm the exact amount.”
Many of Union Association's records go back only to 2001, when the office was flooded. But Director of Missions Tom Billings said according to his recollections and the records on hand, the only financial relationship the association had with Arango was purchasing
copies of his training materials on a one-time basis.
The investigators reported Arango told them the association in Gainesville paid him $2,200 a month. But J.L. Williams, former director of missions and current treasurer for Cooke Association, said that kind of payment would have been far beyond what his association could afford. He said he was unaware of any contract between the association and Arango. However, he noted, until about five years ago, Cooke Association was part of North Central Baptist Area, and that could have accounted for some confusion.
Milton Ertelt, director of missions for Southwest Metroplex Baptist Association, confirmed Arango met once or twice in 1999 with leaders of Johnson Baptist Association, as it was then known. But the association declined to enter into any financial or contractual relationship with him.
Donald Hintze, director of Gulf Coast Association, reported one meeting with Arango several years ago.
“David Guel introduced us,” Hintze recalled. Guel, the regional church-starting representative for the BGCT in South Texas, resigned one day after the investigators presented their preliminary findings to BGCT Executive Board officers, convention officers and administrative staff.
Gulf Coast Association bought multiple copies of Arango's training materials, but it had no ongoing contact with him, Hintze said.
“We had one visit — no contract, no relationship other than ordering books. Nothing,” he said.
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