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DENTON—With the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s 20th anniversary coming in 2018, executive board members has approved the formation of a research committee to determine future methods for strengthening “the convention’s relational strategy with its churches and the next generation of church leaders.” During their spring meeting at Camp Copass in Denton, April 19, the board also approved a new collegiate ministry leader and a missions partnership with the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention in addition to other business.
“We want to celebrate where we’ve come from; we want to always remember what God has done; but we also want to be drawn to the story of our future, what God has for us next,” said Nathan Lino, SBTC president and pastor of Northeast Houston Baptist Church, in his recommendation for the creation of the “Strategy Research Committee.”
Lino believes the SBTC’s organizational structure is streamlined and positioned for success, so the focus will be on updating the convention’s branding. The board approved the committee to work with a consulting firm to develop and implement a new relational strategy, beginning in 2017, which includes creation of a new logo and “updated materials to tell the story of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.” Funding for the work will come from financial reserves, as approved by the board’s administrative committee.
“What we need to think about is the matter of how we explain ourselves to those who are not us,” Lino said. “How do we tell our story? How do we cast our vision? How do we help people in the coming years to understand who we are and what we are about?
“We will get the leaders we need in the future because we tell our story well.”
The newly formed committee will be comprised of Lino; board chairman David Fleming, pastor of Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston; board vice chairman Kie Bowman, pastor of Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin; board secretary Robert Welch, pastor of Rock Hill Baptist Church in Brownsboro; and Kenneth Priest, SBTC director of convention strategies.
Collegiate Evangelism Associate
The board affirmed the appointment of Mitch Tidwell as collegiate evangelism associate for the convention. Tidwell, a member of First Baptist Church in Colleyville, has served at the SBTC since 2012 as a ministry assistant in the church ministries department and for a year prior as the coordinator for the Engage ministry, which sends college students on revival teams around the state each summer.
Tidwell shared his testimony with board members, noting his own conversion to Christ in his early 20s and his desire to see college students commit their lives to Christ.
“What I experienced on that night is what I hope everyone on this earth experiences. You don’t experience the holiness of God and walk away unchanged. I want college students across Texas to experience that,” Tidwell said.
Pointing to the 2 million students on nearly 450 university campuses in Texas, Tidwell said, “I believe the college campus is the most strategic mission field in the world.”
Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention partnership
The board affirmed a new missions partnership with the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention to connect Texas churches with church planting and church revitalization needs on the islands. While partnerships do not typically require board approval, the peer-to-peer nature of the partnership between two state conventions and the fact that Hawaii is a destination location caused missions staff to request the board’s affirmation.
“This may sound like an alluring situation, but it will prove to be trying and taxing; it’s a long way over there, and it’s expensive,” said SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards. “We wanted total transparency and your affirmation that this is something positive. It’s a tough work and a challenge, and we won’t be going there for a vacation.”
SBTC currently has existing partnerships, which generally last three to five years, with NAMB’s SEND Seattle, the IMB in Ecuador, and Reach Houston. Missions staff are also working on a possible partnership in Indonesia.
Other items:
- The board amended an approved motion from its April 2015 meeting regarding the gifting of a convention-owned property to a ministry in Laredo, Texas. The property, located at 3124 Potomac Ct. in Laredo, was given to Laredo Baptist Network Ministry. The amendment allows “the 501c3 exemption to be obtained at any time prior to the conveyance of the property, rather than requiring the IRS exemption to be obtained within twelve months from the original motion.”
- New requests from 38 churches seeking affiliation with the SBTC were approved along with 13 churches removed—eight of which had disbanded, four merged with another church, and one disaffiliated. The number of affiliated churches now stands at 2,569.
- The board received a clean audit review of 2015 financials from outside accounting firm PSK.
