DALLAS (ABP) — For the second time in less than a year, the Baptist General Convention of Texas is looking into alleged misuse of church-starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley.
BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade reported to the Executive Board Sept. 25 that an internal auditor will examine questions raised regarding $26,550 in church-starting funds the BGCT provided to First Baptist Church of Weslaco, Texas. The BGCT Missions Funding Committee had approved $21,000 for the church in 2005 and 2006.
Documents indicate the church paid the money to Jonathan Becker, who was at the time pastor of both the sponsor church and listed as pastor of a new congregation, The Family Fellowship.
But while Becker reported to the BGCT that The Family Fellowship was a new church temporarily meeting in the facility of the sponsor church, most members of First Baptist Church apparently viewed it simply as a new worship service with a different format — not the start of a new congregation.
Becker did not reply to messages asking for a response to the allegations.
The funds all were disbursed before the BGCT adopted new church-starting guidelines and policies in response to a funding scandal that came to light last year. At that time, BGCT leaders enlisted two attorneys and a certified fraud examiner to investigate allegations that church-starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley were mismanaged and misused.
The investigators reported to the Executive Board they discovered up to 98 percent of the 258 churches allegedly started by three pastors in the Valley — Otto Arango, Aaron de la Torre and Armando Vera — no longer exist, and some were “phantom churches” that never existed except on paper. The BGCT gave more than $1.3 million in start-up funding and monthly financial support to those 258 churches.
The BGCT Executive Board enacted several reform measures in response.
In addition to adopting new church-starting policies and putting new record-keeping systems into place, the BGCT also followed the investigative team's recommendation to enlist an internal auditor to assure accountability and better internal control over disbursements.
“We have contacted the firm that performs our internal audits and asked them to look into this matter in order for us to further evaluate our processes and procedures,” Wade told the board. “We expect to begin within the week, and a report will be given during the next Executive Board meeting stating any findings and recommendations that result from this study. Also, if any issues of illegality are discovered, we will pursue appropriate action.”
The BGCT entered an agreement with First Baptist Church of Weslaco, Texas, in June 2005, Wade told the board after first reporting his findings to the Missions & Ministry Committee and the Audit Committee.
“It called for the church to begin a new work called The Family Fellowship that would start as a new worship service at the church and develop into a fully autonomous congregation — the second English-speaking BGCT church in Weslaco,” Wade said, reading from a prepared text.
“The covenant indicated Weslaco First had approved the new work during a church conference, but that apparently never occurred. As a result, it appears the church did not clearly understand the intended purpose of the funds or of the new service itself.”
When Becker moved from Weslaco to First Baptist Church in McAllen, Texas, he reported his income in negotiations with the search committee and indicated he had received a “salary subsidy” from the BGCT for three years.
Church-starting funds are not paid directly to a pastor; they are paid to a church, Wade explained. And Becker did not report to the BGCT any salary related to church-starting.
The “so-called salary subsidy amount” Becker reported — $46,000 over three years — “exceed both the amount of money actually given to support The Family Fellowship and the duration of those gifts,” Wade added.
Reports Becker submitted to the BGCT church-starting office listed “0” on the salary line for several months. Later reports he submitted did not follow the standard reporting procedure, and they omitted the question about salary altogether.
“The covenant was ended in June 2006 after Pastor Becker failed to meet with the BGCT church starter, and a final monthly payment was made in July 2006,” Wade said.
However, the BGCT church-starting office provided an additional one-time $3,000 gift for The Family Fellowship and $1,000 each for two Hispanic missions sponsored by First Baptist in Weslaco Sept. 13, 2006, after Becker came to Dallas to visit Wade in his office.
“The pastor sought more financial help for The Family Fellowship and two other new works started by Weslaco First, since he was anticipating a call to another church and felt Weslaco First needed that help to complete the phase-out of the BGCT support and give the three churches the help they needed to survive during transition,” Wade said.
“I was not aware until a few days ago that $2,800 of that money was paid by Weslaco First to Pastor Becker. Apparently, the church was paying Pastor Becker out of these mission funds to be the pastor of the new mission start meeting in the same building.”
The vision of The Family Fellowship as originally presented by Becker “appeared to be a worthy endeavor,” Wade continued.
“I do, however, have serious concerns with what was done. My primary concern is that the church apparently was not aware of the vision articulated by the pastor in his proposal to the BGCT church-starting staff and the BGCT Missions Funding Committee. Furthermore, to our knowledge there was no accountability to a missions committee or finance committee as to how the mission funds contributed by the BGCT would be disbursed.”
Wade stressed that the BGCT made payments to First Baptist Church in Weslaco before new church-starting guidelines were put into place.
“Those new guidelines already are helping us to establish better processes for starting churches,” he said. “Of course, we are always trying to improve, and as a result of the particulars discovered in the Weslaco situation, I have instructed our finance and accounting office to include with every check that goes to a sponsoring church a statement in which we clearly state each time the purpose and expected use of the funds.
“We will do everything possible to solidify the integrity of the system, while at the same time seeking to encourage ever-increasing efforts in starting new churches.”
-30-