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HOUSTON—A long-term commitment to church planting in Texas will be strengthened by a new endowment approved Nov. 11 by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Executive Board, anticipating double the number of new plants to 100 churches per year. More immediately, a $1 million grant will fund Reach Houston church planting and revitalization efforts by former IMB missionaries who are voluntarily returning to the States and qualify to serve in those roles.
SBTC Board Chairman David Fleming noted that many of the returning missionaries worked with people groups that exist in Houston. “These are talented, skilled and very trainable individuals, and it’s important for us as a convention to provide opportunities for them,” Fleming said.
SBTC Board members accepted a plan to move away from annually funding the Southern Baptists of Texas Foundation (SBTF) through grants and endowment contributions. By allowing SBTF incremental access to the endowment corpus, staff and operations can be expanded, growing the foundation past the necessity of convention funding.
SBTF Executive Director Bart McDonald explained the compelling motivation of the change is “to shift from being a consumer of resources from the convention to a provider of resources to the convention,” He said SBTF will have “operational independence with functional dependence” as SBTC’s Executive Board continues to elect SBTF board members.
Approval of that plan allowed the board to shift the allocation of convention reserves in excess of six-months of operation costs, freeing up use of reserve funds for the church planting endowment.
New requests from 35 churches seeking affiliation with the SBTC were approved as the convention continues to grow. The number of affiliated churches stands at 2,544 with five removed, three of which had disbanded, one merged with another church and one disaffiliated.
Chief Financial Officer Joe Davis reported that Cooperative Program receipts are $400,000 ahead of 2014 receipts with a net operating income of $1,164,000 through October.
Contributions from SBTC churches to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions amounted to $2,734,287 for reporting year that ended in September, $179,336 less than the previous year. With four months reported for giving through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, receipts are significantly higher at $1,019,287 as compared to $533,171 for the same period last year. Giving through the Reach Texas Offering for state missions was slightly higher than last year at $72,397 for the first month of reporting.
Anticipated year-end reserves in excess of the six months goal allowed the board to approve funds for the $1 million grant to Reach Houston church planting and revitalization efforts by former IMB missionaries; a vehicle to be used in connection with the ministry in El Paso; revitalization conferences, labs and resources; and two Disaster Relief trailers for a bunk house and a laundry unit.
Connection Church in Spearfish, S.D.—a four-year-old plant that has baptized 51 people, planted two churches, developed ministry among students at Black Hills University, and is in the top five Cooperative Program-giving churches in the Dakotas Baptist Convention—received a grant to fund the church’s missions and ministries in Spearfish and Sturgis.
Grants were also approved to fund costs related to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, including SBTC reception and exhibit space and assistance in sponsoring the Pastors’ Conference at which two pastors of SBTC-affiliated churches are serving as officers. Other grants address information technology, additional support staff expenses and line item overages.
Board members re-elected David Fleming of Houston as chairman and Kie Bowman of Austin as vice-chairman. Robert Welch of Brownsboro was elected secretary.
The board welcomed new members including Kelvin Foley of Plano, Bill Gardner of Henderson, Damon Halliday of Hurst, David Lamascus of Uvalde, John Powell of Hamlin, J. C. Rico of El Paso, Bernie Ritzert of Dallas, Eric Shin of Houston, Lucas Vaughn of Euless, and Bill Vernon of Moody. Newly elected SBTC officers President Nathan Lino of Humble and Juan Sanchez of Austin serve by virtue of their positions.
