1998 BGCT WRAP-UP
Texas Baptist convention reaffirms officers, approves amendments, budget, resolutions
By Ken Camp, Scott Collins and Dan Martin

Messengers to the 113th annual Baptist General Convention of Texas reelected officers, approved a constitutional amendment regarding messenger qualifications and passed a record $49.7 million budget for 1999.

The 5,382 convention messengers that met in Houston approved by acclamation second one-year terms for the three incumbent officers: president, Russell H. Dilday, distinguished professor at Waco’s Truett Seminary; first vice president, Jaclanel McFarland, attorney and member of South Main Baptist Church in Houston; and second vice president, Ed Hogan, pastor of Houston’s Jersey Village Baptist Church.

In a news conference soon after his reelection, Dilday stressed the independent, autonomous nature of the BGCT and other Baptist bodies.

Regarding the relationship between the BGCT and the Southern Baptist Convention, he said, “I think there will always be cooperation in the future. It may change in nature and extent, but it will always be there and we will continue to participate in programs the messengers of the BGCT feel they can still support.”

Dilday said the BGCT will “become more of a full-service convention. By that I mean we provide for our churches a whole range in which we can help them obey the Great Commission. But that doesn’t mean we would become some kind of national denominational entity.”

Messengers approved 3,342 (70.73 percent) to 1,383 (29.27 percent) a constitutional amendment linking messenger participation to giving, more than the required two-thirds majority. The change, introduced last year by the convention’s Effectiveness/Efficiency Committee, provides two messengers for every church, regardless of size or giving record. The church qualifies for two additional messengers for its first $250 given during the previous fiscal year to the Texas convention budget. Then, it is entitled to one messenger for each additional 100 members (or major fractional part thereof) and each additional $1,000 given to the Texas budget, up to a maximum of 25 messengers.

Charles Davenport, pastor of First Baptist Church of Tulia, and chairman of the BGCT Administrative Committee, called the proposal to tie messenger participation to giving the “fair thing to do.”

Budget Approved

Convention messengers approved a record $49,735,401 total budget for 1999, a 4.4 percent increase over the 1998 budget. In the process, messengers defeated a proposed amendment to the 1999 budget that would have eliminated funding for the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs and reallocated $63,000 to new church starts.

Of the total $49.7 million, $45,835,000 will come from the Cooperative Program unified budget, an increase of 3 percent over the 1998 Cooperative Program budget. The remainder of the operating budget comes from the Mary Hill Davis Offering for State Missions, endowments and other sources.

Resolutions Approved

Texas Baptist messengers approved eight resolutions, including a response to a controversial amendment to the Baptist Faith and Message approved by the Southern Baptist Convention in June.

In a resolution titled “Biblical Equality,” messengers stated their belief in “the freedom and responsibility of women and men to respond to the call of Christ to serve as they are gifted by God,” and affirmed the “priesthood of each believer in discerning God’s truth as revealed in Scripture and led by the Holy Spirit.”

The resolution also affirms “the freedom of each local Baptist church to commission for service all persons regardless of race, socio-economic standing, age or gender who are called of God to model servant leadership.”

The resolution comes on the heels of an amendment to the Baptist confessional statement approved by the SBC last summer. The amendment drew national attention by calling on “a wife to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband.”

Texas Baptists countered what was interpreted by some as a one-sided statement by resolving that “male and female alike are created in the image of God and God gave to both the responsibilities of caring for their children and being stewards over all creation.”

Messengers debated wording in the resolution which some argued was sanctioning the ordination of women as senior pastors. But Resolutions Committee Chairman Ellis Orosco said the intent of the resolution as proposed by the committee was only to address the priesthood of each believer and the autonomy of each church.

Prayer for SBTC

Messengers ended their miscellaneous business session Tuesday morning by praying for leaders of the Southern Baptists of Texas, scheduled to form a rival convention later in the day. Bubba Stahl, pastor of First Baptist Church of Boerne, made a motion Monday afternoon asking for a “time of prayer … for the leadership of the SBT as they make their plans for their constitutional convention.”

Mary Humphries of San Marcos, chairman of the Sesquicentennial Committee, led the prayer. She asked for leadership and guidance, “the proper attitude and love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.”

After a moment of silence, she prayed for Texas Baptists, Southern Baptists and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. She commented that “Texas Baptists are diverse people. Though our methods and strategies and administrations reflect that diversity, we are united in believing in God … and in Jesus Christ.

“We lift up the leaders that feel they can no longer cooperate with this group,” she added, referring to the SBT leadership.

December 1998/January 1999