Unfinished business awaits messengers to the annual meeting of the South Carolina Baptist Convention in Greenville Nov. 13-14.
Last year, messengers gave overwhelming and enthusiastic approval to an 11-point report of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. At the request of the task force, the report was not separated and voted on part by part, but instead was approved as a whole.
With approval of the report, messengers gave a first reading to bylaw changes that would give the CEOs of the convention’s seven ministry partners more latitude in trustee selection by requiring that mutual agreement be reached between the partners and the convention.
Another proposed change would permit selection by the CEOs one-fifth of their board members from residents outside South Carolina.
Pickens pastor Fred Stone, as convention president in 2011, named the task force members, charging them with putting together a workable plan to help South Carolina Baptists increase financial support of international missions.
Last October, after the report of the task force had become public, Stone wrote a piece for the Courier calling on South Carolina Baptists to ‘trust our ministry partners.?
He admitted that the recommendations related to trustee selection had ?generated a lot of discussion,? but pointed out that the new plan for the selection of board members for the ministry partners differed little from the practice of the recent past.
‘the Nominations Committee worked in a similar way with the institutional presidents in 2006 and 2007, when I served as chairman of the Nominations Committee,? he wrote.
Continuing, he said, ?In our meetings both years, we openly spoke about how thankful we were to have seven institutional presidents who were effective leaders, biblically sound, and loyal to the South Carolina Baptist Convention. We expressed our trust in these men and encouraged them to recommend trustees to us who could best serve their institutions.?
After evaluating the recommendations, he pointed out, the committee then ?gave them most of the trustees they asked for.?
Stone called the practice in place during his time on the Nominations Committee a ‘trial run? for what is being recommended, and ?it was found to work well.?
Recommendation 8, then, does not alter the process of trustee selection so much as it ‘simply formalizes the process that has been followed in recent years.?
As for recommendation 9, which would permit board members for South Carolina Baptist institutions who do not live in the state, Stone declared, ?Let’s empower our presidents to strengthen our universities [and other ministry partners] by removing unnecessary geographical limitations.?
Stone emphasized that in each instance, ?all trustees must be approved both by the Nominations Committee and the state convention.?
Giving the ministry partners ? that is, Anderson University, The Baptist Courier, Charleston Southern University, Connie Maxwell Children’s Home, Ministries for the Aging, and North Greenville University ? this measure of influence in the trustee selection process will strengthen, rather than weaken, the bond that exists between the partners and South Carolina Baptists.
All who are grateful for, and supportive of, the efforts of our institutions to advance with their different ministries the cause of Christ can give a resounding ?yes? to the final reading of recommendations 8 and 9.
A question before South Carolina Baptists is this: Are the leaders of our institutions, and the institutions themselves, really partners in ministry with South Carolina Baptists? If so, said Fred Stone in his pre-convention Courier article in 2011, ?let’s demonstrate it by including them in the process of selecting qualified trustees who can best help our institutions.?
Yes, let’s.
In the past, proposals similar to recommendations 8 and 9 were met with strong opposition by those who feared a ?loss of control? over the direction of the institutions and their ties to the convention.
Control is not the issue. Cooperation is. And this is not about the past; it’s about the future.