In 2008, the Executive Board of the South Carolina Baptist Convention had a decision to make: improve White Oak Conference Center, or close the facility.
White Oak Conference CenterTwo years later, after investing about $2 million in facility upgrades, focusing on staff development, and implementing guest service initiatives, White Oak Conference Center, located near Winnsboro, has significantly increased its usage by South Carolina Baptists.
Usage for South Carolina Baptist churches and related groups grew by 13 percent between 2009 and 2010, and overnight stays by all groups increased by 6 percent – to more than 32,000 “guest days.”
Seth Buckley, minister to students at First Baptist Church, Spartanburg, said the improvements spurred him to bring a youth group to White Oak after an absence of several years. “The renovations have brought the retreat center to such a top level that I wouldn’t want to look anywhere else now,” he said.
“There’s also an attitude of ‘We want you here, now, and we want you to want to come back,’?” Buckley said. “That really makes a difference.”
The transformation began in 2008 when Jim Austin, SCBC executive director-treasurer, asked Dennis Wilkins, a former resort developer and retired pastor who was serving as chairman of the Executive Board’s budget, finance and audit committee, to “go to White Oak, look around, look for ways to cut costs, and bring back a report,” Wilkins said.
“I spent about a month up there and came to the conclusion that we either had to close it or make it better. To keep it open, we had to upgrade the facility and create a need for people to come there.”
At the same time, the Executive Board’s properties committee was hearing a presentation from a land-use planning company regarding White Oak, Wilkins said.
Eddie Fulmer, a member of Bethel Baptist Church, Prosperity, was vice chairman of the properties committee and served as the committee’s chairman in 2010. “Our study revealed that what we had done historically was great, but we had to continue facility improvements,” Fulmer said. “Closing down was never a real option. White Oak is not just a place to sleep and eat, it’s a ministry environment.”
John Charping, a member of Oakdale Baptist Church, Townville, who served as chairman of the properties committee in 2009, described White Oak as a place where people meet Jesus and grow spiritually. “Dr. Austin shared his vision with me, seeing White Oak as – a real asset to reach souls for Christ,” Charping said. “I came to realize that Dr. Austin – wanted South Carolina Baptists to use facilities as tools to reach the lost.”
Master plan objectives were presented by Tim Hughes, director of White Oak, at the Executive Board’s October 2008 board meeting. The board approved $1 million from convention reserves and $500,000 from White Oak reserves toward completion of the objectives. Hughes and Roger Orman, associate executive director, SCBC communications and mission development team, were assigned implementation, with oversight from Austin and the properties committee.
The master plan objectives included recreation expansion, places for guests to gather, campus mobility, single-sleep units, guest services, food and beverage upgrades, general appearance, and targeted marketing.
In April 2010, an additional $530,000 from Executive Board reserves was allocated to install 326 single-sleep units in 163 of the center’s motel rooms. Half of the expenditure will be paid back over a five-year period from operations and from timber harvests at White Oak’s 830-acre campus.
Checking e-mail at the new Internet cafThree Christian concerts at White Oak attracted 3,500 people and generated $85,000 in revenue, and canteen sales doubled over a two-year period.
White Oak’s Cooperative Program allocation request has been reduced by 23 percent since 2007, with the retreat center slated to receive $531,199 in CP funding in 2011.
Wilkins said White Oak’s two-year turnaround hinged on planning and cooperation. “This came about, first, because of the cooperation between two distinct Executive Board committees,” he said. “We had a facilities plan and we had a business plan. Everyone had ideas and everyone had input. All the ideas went on the wall, and some stuck.”
One of the initial decisions was to implement a policy giving management the ability to negotiate with users based on group size and on seasonal considerations, and to reward groups for return visits, a move that “immediately put us on a competitive basis with other conference centers,” Wilkins said.
He said the master plan also “married” guests with the sprawling acreage of White Oak, providing “a place to enhance man’s spiritual walk in the totality of God’s environment, from classroom to woodlands.”
“The one thing we can say about White Oak is that everything that goes into it focuses on an individual’s spiritual development,” Wilkins said. “If it isn’t going to contribute to spiritual development, it isn’t something for us to do.”
Onsite leadership and employee recognition were essential to the turnaround, as well, Wilkins said. “We had to infuse leadership with the flexibility to meet the needs of the guest, and then go to whatever lengths necessary to make that happen. We have that now.”
Tom Swilley, pastor of Cedar Grove Baptist Church, Conway, was chairman of the Executive Board in 2008. “I wanted [White Oak] to be more financially secure, and I wanted it to be more attractive [in order] to communicate Baptist ministry to others who visited from beyond the convention.
“I am very, very grateful for what has taken place there, and it is a beautiful place for all South Carolina Baptists,” Swilley said.
– Compiled from a news release from the South Carolina Baptist Convention, with additional reporting by Butch Blume, managing editor.