After lots of discussion, a smaller crowd of messengers than anticipated changed the face of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina during their Nov. 12-14 annual meeting in Greensboro.
Messengers to the 177th annual meeting adopted a 2008-09 budget that includes no funds for Woman’s Missionary Union; accepted the recommendations of a study committee whose chairman said “Baptist Retirement Homes will no longer be a ministry of the convention”; and approved the first of two steps required to relinquish trustee selection at the convention’s five colleges.
Just 2,784 attended the annual meeting which promised beforehand votes more significant than any in recent years. Attendance was just under last year’s 2,832 and was the lowest since the 2,316 who attended the 1985 meeting in Charlotte. Convention leadership was prepared for 4,500.
Discussion on the proposal from the colleges to give up Cooperative Program funding in exchange for electing their own trustees, brought by the Council on Christian Higher Education, centered on assets and Baptist identity.
Messengers speaking against the proposal felt North Carolina Baptists were giving away many millions of dollars in assets and they feared the schools would shed their commitment to be Baptist with the attrition of convention-elected trustees.
Those speaking for the proposal, including Council on Christian Higher Education president Jesse Croom, assured messengers that being “Christian and Baptist is at the heart and core” of the North Carolina Baptist schools.
Campbell University president Jerry Wallace, designated spokesman for the other four educational institution presidents who joined him on stage, assured messengers that the institution presidents “wholeheartedly support” the proposal and “pledge continued fidelity to our Christian heritage and to the Baptist churches of North Carolina.”
Allan Blume, president of the North Carolina convention’s board of directors, reminded messengers that the convention has never owned the institutions, but that “we have a trustee relationship in which they own the institutions.”
Ultimately, messengers responded to Wallace, who pled, “Please support us on this,” and approved the first of two required steps to release control of trustee elections for the four universities and one college.
The final session on Wednesday morning seldom draws a crowd. In fact, there were just 120 in seats when the opening music started, but by the time the budget debate began, there were closer to 1,200 – probably double last year’s final session attendance.
They were there for the two major issues: the budget and the Baptist Retirement Homes study committee report.
Messengers approved a $38.98 million budget for 2008 and $39.28 million in 2009. That represents a 3.13 percent increase the first year and .79 percent the next. But total budget was irrelevant to discussion, which focused instead on allocations for the North Carolina Missions Offering, which included nothing for Woman’s Missionary Union.
WMU, an autonomous auxiliary which has worked voluntarily among North Carolina Baptist churches since 1888, has been a major promoter and the single largest recipient of funds through the NCMO, budgeted to receive $865,000 of a $2.5 million goal in 2007. The 2008 goal has been dropped to $2 million, with nothing for WMU.
Roy Smith, North Carolina executive director-treasurer from 1983-98, moved that the NCMO portion of the budget be increased to $2.5 million with $500,000, or 20 percent, designated for WMU. While opponents of the amendment consistently expressed their appreciation for WMU, they also were obviously concerned over WMU decisions since April 2006 that put their personnel policies at odds with BSCNC policies.
Prior to the annual session, WMU voted to vacate offices it has shared with Baptist State Convention staff since 1947 and give up Cooperative Program-funded logistical support of an estimated $400,000 annually. Its leadership considered this fall, then rejected, initiating a separate offering for its own support, in favor of remaining as an NCMO recipient.
However, the budget adopted by the convention’s board of directors in a special called meeting Oct. 29 included nothing for WMU in the NCMO. At the same meeting, the board endorsed and encouraged WMU to begin receiving a special offering for its own support.
The bulk of the budget increase goes to church planting, which rises from $865,000 in 2007 to $1.3 million in 2008 and $1.43 million in 2009.
Messengers accepted the recommendations of the Baptist Retirement Homes study committee. Study committee chair Joanne Mitchell told messengers that it appears Baptist Retirement Homes “will no longer be a ministry of the convention because the convention will no longer have a voice in choosing the leadership.”
The study committee report recommended that BSC should not sue the retirement homes to reverse any decisions.