The constitutional amendment on messenger representation will be the key vote at this years BGCT annual meeting in Houston, November 9-10, 1998. The vote should occur on Monday afternoon, November 9. It appears the current officers will run for reelection without opposition and TBC is unaware of any other controversial issues to come before this years messengers.

The constitutional amendment was approved for the first time during last years convention in Austin. It must pass a second time by a two-thirds majority in order to become a part of the BGCT constitution.

Passage of the amendment is will bring Texas Baptists back to the practice of historic Baptist polity. Local churches are not really members of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The BGCT is a voluntary organization of autonomous local churches who relate to the BGCT and support the programs of the BGCT via monetary contributions.

The constitutional amendment ties the amount of messengers that a church can have to the yearly convention to a combination of membership and financial contributions, as is the policy of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

The amendment in truth should not be controversial at all. It will affect very few local churches, only churches with a large number of members who give trivial financial support to the BGCT Cooperative Program. It is very fair in its structure and sets messenger representation at a very small percentage of giving to the Cooperative Program.

It will limit the number of messengers a church may have if they are not supporting the BGCT in a meaningful way. A local church is autonomous as is a state convention. The local church and the state convention relationship is based on voluntary cooperation. This amendment says a church must voluntarily cooperate at a minimal financial level in order to have all the messengers it qualifies for via membership totals.

Texas Baptists Committed urges all messengers to support this amendment as a fair way to treat all Texas Baptist local churches in a fair manner and to encourage all local churches to take their voluntary cooperation seriously.

October 1998