DALLAS (BP)–In the wake of revelations that a vast majority of $1.3 million in church-starting funds for the Rio Grande Valley from 1999-2005 was obtained under false pretenses, the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ executive board was presented with a plan to improve oversight and accountability.
BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade laid out a five-point plan to remedy the situation during the board’s Oct. 31 meeting in Dallas.
“First, this year a task force performed a study of our entire church-planting process,” Wade said in a statement. “This group of staff members, directors of missions and pastors has prepared new principles and guidelines for our church starting efforts in conjunction with our accounting department so that financial safeguards will be integrated into the very fabric of our approach.”
The new principles and guidelines will be implemented Jan. 1, Wade said.
The second part of Wade’s plan, reflecting recommendations from BGCT-commissioned investigators, will enable leaders to evaluate church-planting efforts by region and type.
“Decision-makers had few tools with which to evaluate the effectiveness of a given church-planting methodology,” lead investigator Diane Dillard of Brownsville said. “The data needs to be available by region and by sponsor…. Such a utility would have sent up a red flag when one sponsor church started 28 church starts at one time, as was the case in one instance.”
The third part of Wade’s plan to prevent abuse and waste of BGCT church-starting funds is to create the position of internal auditor within the BGCT. Wade said the executive board already had considered such a move during their meeting in September.
Fourth, Wade said in his written statement, the BGCT would use a variety of means to build a culture of trust between the convention and the churches while still maintaining accurate and searchable records.
“We will implement ways to ‘inspect what we expect,’” Wade said. “We will continue to trust one another, but we will also verify. We have spoken of the importance of accountability, and we will revisit that theme again and again. Our new computer system will allow us to integrate our work so that we can better evaluate our ministry to congregations.”
Fifth, Wade said, the convention would work to find and keep staff members who believe in and enjoy supporting BGCT ministries.
“They have been through a very difficult time the last 24 months as we have reorganized our governance and restructured the staff organization,” Wade said of the BGCT staff. “We are beginning to see the early fruits of this reorganization and we are eager for next year.”
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