DALLAS — The Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) Executive Board adopted a new agreement with the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) North American Mission Board (NAMB) regarding church starting in Texas and approved the initial reserve investment, officers and board for the Texas Baptist Insurance Program.

Last May, BGCT Executive Director Julio Guarneri told the Executive Board NAMB no longer would fund church starts in Texas of congregations uniquely aligned with the BGCT, since the state convention did not affirm the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. The 2000 version of the SBC confession of faith limits the role of pastor to men.

In response to a question from a Texas Baptist pastor at the 2024 SBC annual meeting last June, NAMB President Kevin Ezell reiterated NAMB would not fund church starts in partnership with the BGCT unless Texas Baptists changed their statement of faith.

When a messenger to the 2024 BGCT annual meeting in Waco made a motion for the convention to affirm the BF&M 2000, messengers soundly defeated it.

After the annual meeting, BGCT and NAMB leaders met to negotiate a new agreement regarding church-starting in Texas. The NAMB board approved the agreement two weeks before the BGCT Executive Board met.

The approved agreement states:

• NAMB will make available church planting materials, training resources and coaching identified in other states as “Send Network” resources in a “white label” format.
• NAMB will provide a $300,000 a year grant to the BGCT exclusively for church planting and will consider the application of any SBC-affiliated church in good standing. Church planters who receive funding will complete an approved assessment process. The church plants will be expected to affirm the BF&M 2000.
• NAMB and the BGCT will explore the possibility of conducting planter pathway training events.
• NAMB and the BGCT will work together to “make sure that pastors, churches and associations have reliable, true and updated information as to how BGCT churches can relate to NAMB.”

Guarneri pointed out NAMB funds represent about 10% of what Texas Baptists invest in church planting. The BGCT wants to double the number of church starts in 2025 from 2024, he added.

The agreement means if a Texas Baptist church that affirms the BF&M 2000 wants to start a church with NAMB funding, they can do so as a congregation singly aligned with BGCT.

Guarneri said he wanted to “go on record stating that when I started this inquiry, it was not necessarily about asking for more money, but about making sure that our BGCT churches had access to resources without having to join another state convention.”

BGCT still a ‘big-tent’ convention

In a related action, the BGCT Executive Board reaffirmed its existing practice of “receiving into harmonious cooperation churches that affirm traditional Baptist beliefs as generally stated in either the 1963 or 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, or similar confessional statement.”

In his report to the board, Guarneri noted concerns he’d heard after the BGCT annual meeting vote against affirming the BF&M 2000. Some wondered whether it might mean the BGCT was moving toward the left. Others worried BF&M 2000 churches would no longer be welcome in the BGCT.

Guarneri said he could give a “resounding no” to both of those concerns, asserting the BGCT is still a big-tent convention that serves all Texas Baptist churches.

So, it was important for the Executive Board to affirm the BGCT practice of welcoming churches that affirm various Baptist confessions of faith.

Guarneri also noted a recommendation approved at the 2010 BGCT annual meeting that Texas Baptists review the Baptist Faith and Message in 2020 and every 10 years, in order to keep it “relevant” or “fresh.”

The review did not happen in 2020 because of COVID-19, he noted. Also, some concerns have been voiced about whether the document could be changed or whether it was proprietary to the SBC.

But the preamble affirms Baptists making faith statements as they see fit, Guarneri said, even if the decision is to call it something other than the Baptist Faith and Message. The preamble states “any group of Baptists, large or small, have the inherent right to draw up for themselves and publish to the world a confession of their faith whenever they may think it advisable to do so.”

“It’s a delicate matter,” he acknowledged, saying he felt no urgency to act, but did not want to ignore something BGCT messengers already approved.

“I would like to suggest at the appropriate time that we study what that recommendation means for our day and time,” he said.

Taking steps to make church insurance accessible

In another significant action, the Executive Board approved a recommendation from its executive committee regarding a means to make property, casualty and liability insurance available to Texas Baptist churches.

After receiving the findings of a feasibility study, the executive committee recommended the BGCT Executive Board proceed with forming a captive insurance corporation.

In response to previous action by the Executive Board last September and a motion approved at the BGCT annual meeting in November, the board authorized investing up to $12 million from the convention’s undesignated investment fund in the Texas Baptist Insurance Program to fund the necessary insurance reserve.

The board elected as initial officers of the corporation Craig Christina, associate executive director of the BGCT, as president; Sergio Ramos, director of the GC2 Network, as vice president; and Ward Hayes, BGCT treasurer-chief financial officer, as secretary-treasurer.

The nonprofit corporation’s board will consist of the BGCT associate executive director and treasurer-chief financial officer; one additional BGCT executive leader; the pastor of a BGCT-affiliated church; and the director of missions of a partnering Texas Baptist Association.

The initial board includes Christina as chair; Ramos as vice chair; Ward as secretary; Dennis Young, pastor of Missouri City Baptist Church; and David Bowman, executive director of Tarrant Baptist Association.

The Texas Baptist Insurance Program will be a corporation separate from but controlled by the BGCT. The program hopes to begin taking applications in June or July and will be open only to churches affiliated with the BGCT.

When asked where the initial $12 million would come from to fund the needed insurance reserve, Hayes said investments from 2020 COVID-relief in the form of Payroll Protection Plan funds and an employee retention tax credit, along with having stayed under budget in recent years supplies those funds.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — This article originally appeared in the Baptist Standard.)