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ARLINGTON—For the first time in its 17-year history, the Southern Baptists of Texas Foundation owns its own office space. The Foundation plans to move into its new north Arlington location in mid-March.
“When God opened the door for this building, it was an affirmation of the plan he gave me eight years ago for the development of the SBT Foundation,” SBTF Executive Director Bart McDonald said. “I probably looked at a half-dozen properties, and then God just dropped this one in our lap.”
At its founding, the SBTF shared offices in the SBTC’s building in Grapevine. As its staff grew, the foundation moved into rented space in Arlington. While those solutions served for a time, there are advantages to the new building. In addition to leaving room for growth (staff office space is full in their current building) and getting out of the business of leasing property from others, McDonald sees possibilities for expanded ministry in their new headquarters.
“When we work on delivering value to our churches,” he said, “this model of inviting pastors in for specialized events or training—we’ve doing that in the field—is enhanced if we have a place to bring them. Our new place has conference space, kitchen space, and room to cater meals in. I think we’ll be able to do a lot more onsite training events than we were doing formerly.”
The SBTF currently manages $147 million in assets. Its loan portfolio, as well as other services provided to churches and state conventions, has enabled it to contribute $250,000 to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention general budget during 2022. Although this is an unusual action on the part of state foundations, it is one that makes sense to McDonald.
“We set financial and operational independence as a goal, a shift from being a consumer of convention resources to being a contributor to the work of the convention,” he said. “While it’s not unusual for a foundation to contribute to different ministries out of an endowment they received for that purpose, we’re giving it out of our surplus. The money we realize from our different services, after expenses, becomes surplus.”
McDonald speaks of the state convention as the “parent” entity for the foundation. He sees the two institutions working together to accomplish the mission statement of the convention.
“What we’re [the Foundation and the Convention] doing is what I call a unified strategy of how to deliver value to our churches,” he said. “The foundation must be subordinate to the convention’s ultimate calling. Our charter should be to support the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention through the delivery of everything we do.”
The foundation plans to dedicate its new building during the regularly scheduled meeting of its board in May.
