DALLAS (ABP) –The Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board has approved revised bylaws that would reduce the board's size by more than half.
Messengers to the BGCT annual meeting Nov. 7-8 in Austin will vote on the amended bylaws — part of an overall reorganization process in the convention.
The Executive Board approved the proposed bylaws without opposition. Some board members had criticized an earlier proposal, which they said was unfair to rural Texas Baptists, particularly churches in sparsely populated parts of West Texas.
Currently, each of the BGCT's 114 associations has at least one member on the 234-member Executive Board. The new system divides the state into 30 sectors, with each sector having three board members. An earlier proposal would have created sectors based solely on church membership, while the new proposal also considers the number of churches and financial contributions to the convention.
If BGCT messengers approve governance changes in November, it would represent the most sweeping reorganization of the convention in more than four decades.
The existing system includes eight Executive Board committees, two coordinating boards, two commissions, four boards, five nominating committees, five convention committees and a missions network board. While that complex system has served Texas Baptists faithfully, said Wesley Shotwell of Azle, chairman for the governance committee, it is “so complex and disconnected” that it provides little coordination or accountability.
In other business, the Executive Board approved plans to appoint a task force to encourage Hispanics to pursue higher education. A study in 2000 found 52 percent of Texas' 3.4 million Hispanics age 25 or older lacked a high school diploma.