SAN ANGELO, Texas (ABP) — Texas Baptists Committed, formed as a political organization two decades ago to resist a “fundamentalist takeover” of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, soon will be seeking a new executive director and relocating its office.
David Currie, a San Angelo rancher who has led Texas Baptists Committed since its inception, will be named executive director emeritus, and the organization will move its office to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The organization’s board will appoint a committee to search for a new executive director and will seek a church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to provide office space.
Currie announced the move in his “Rancher’s Rumblings” e-mail newsletter, also posted on the Texas Baptists Committed website.
“Much of (Texas Baptists Committed’s) work involves working with the Baptist General Convention of Texas — keeping folks informed about the work of BGCT institutions, agencies, and universities, and also acting as a watchdog in relation to BGCT policies and actions,” he wrote. Moving the offices to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, he said, would improve access to the BGCT Executive Board offices.
Announcing that he would “step down as executive director,” Currie said he will continue to write his column, travel and speak on behalf of Texas Baptists Committed.
“However, I will give up day-to-day oversight of the (Texas Baptists Committed) office and operations, and I am thrilled about this,” he wrote.
Texas Baptists Committed “continues to have a vital ministry in Baptist life, but … (the organization) needs to move forward on initiatives that meet the new challenges of 21st-century Baptist life, and much of that work is the type of work for which I don’t have the training or — to be honest — even the desire to do,” Currie said.
Currie said he would continue in the executive director’s position until a new leader is chosen and on the job. “At that point, I will move to emeritus status, and the new executive director will then hire his or her own support staff,” he said.
At its apex of influence, Texas Baptists Committed succeeded in mobilizing thousands of messengers from churches around the state to attend BGCT annual meetings to elect a series of candidates endorsed by the organization. Those candidates included the state convention’s first Hispanic, African-American and female presidents.
Last year, Texas Baptists Committed agreed to refrain from endorsing any candidates for BGCT office.
In recent years, as the organization has experienced financial hardship and endured questions as to its continued reason for being, the group has tried to shift from its previous role of political organizing to a new identity as promoter of BGCT ministries and institutions, as well as a voice for historic Baptist principles.
Currie served from 1988 to 1990 as field coordinator for Baptists Committed to the SBC, a national organization of Baptist moderates that developed into Texas Baptists Committed. Since 2000, he has worked as a consultant with the national Mainstream Baptist Network.
Prior to that, he worked as a special projects coordinator with the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission in Nashville, Tenn., as pastor of First Baptist Church in Mason, Texas, and as a special assistant to the director of the Texas Department of Agriculture.
He has been a managing partner of a 2,700 sheep and cattle ranch in Concho County since 1968. Since 1995, he also has been president of Cornerstone Builders, a custom home building company in San Angelo.
Currie is a graduate of Howard Payne University, and he earned master of divinity and doctor of philosophy degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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Ken Camp is managing editor of the Baptist Standard.