Future Focus Committee Report and Motion

Below is a copy of my presentation to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting on Monday, November 10, 2008. This is the manuscript I prepared and had in front of me. The actual words that came out of my mouth were probably a little different.

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Before I present the recommendation from the Future Focus Committee, I want to say “Thank you” to Joy Fenner, Mike Masser, Jeff Raines, John Petty and Steve Dominy for appointing me to this committee. I want to say “thank you” first, because once the discussion begins, I might not feel as grateful.

Leonard Sweet tells a story about a church that extended a call to a new pastor. As the new pastor stood before the congregation to accept the call, he announced: “I am going to lead this church into the Twentieth Century.” The chairman of the search committee corrected the new pastor, “You mean the Twenty-FIRST Century.” The pastor said, “Slow down. Let’s go one century at a time.”

When the Baptist General Convention of Texas was formed in 1886 at the First Baptist Church of Waco, it was the merger of two Baptist bodies—the Baptist General Association and the Baptist State Convention. Our forefathers created the very best convention structure the Nineteenth Century had to offer.

In the Twentieth Century, there were three study committees appointed to study the work of the convention and make recommendations for change—1957, 1966 and 1995. These committees made numerous recommendations to the convention. Some of these recommendations were accepted, and many were rejected. The result was a large, bureaucratic, Twentieth Century convention structure.

The Future Focus Committee is the first study committee appointed in the Twenty-First Century. We believe our task is to move our state convention into the Twenty-First Century. Granted, the rest of the world entered the Twenty-First Century in 2001.

In our first Future Focus Committee meeting, we discussed two possible recommendations we might suggest at the 2009 annual meeting. On one hand, we could spend two years studying the convention and return to you with a recommendation to do nothing—to leave the Twentieth Century structures in place. On the other hand, we could return to this convention with recommendations for change.

We have rejected the first option. We will not return to you next year with recommendations to remain the same.

The circumstances which led to the formation of the Future Focus Committee can be described as a “perfect storm” of external and internal factors. External Factors include: rise of post-denominationalism; decline in baptisms and membership in all denominations; the loss of the World War 2 generation which includes the best stewards in all our churches; a national economic crisis; and the loss of investment income for our convention. Internal Factors include: a ten year decline in Cooperative Program gifts; a reduced 2009 budget that reflects our current economic reality; a loss of trust among our members; and decreased participation in convention activities—specifically a decrease in young adults’ participating in the convention.

However, there is one good Internal Factor we can report. We have a new Executive Director who has come in with a vision for our convention to identify and fulfill our Kingdom Assignment—to share the hope of Christ with every person in the state of Texas by Easter Sunday, 2010.

Our final report will be presented to this convention at the 2009 annual meeting. The final report will recommend changes for our convention. We will present only one change to be addressed at this annual meeting. In the first business session this afternoon, I will present a motion from our committee recommending that we change the name of our convention. This is the beginning of something new—a Twenty-First Century convention for all Texas Baptists.

We have prepared a handout to explain the committee's rationale for changing the name of the convention. You will receive this handout from the ushers as you leave the room--following the business session.

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On behalf of the Future Focus Committee, I move to restate the articles of incorporation to include changing the name of the organization to the Texas Baptist Convention and to amend the constitution to reflect this change.