Gary Hollingsworth has been elected as the next executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. Hopefully, he and his wife will enjoy a peaceful move and find blessing and direction as he assumes the leadership of our Baptist building ministries.

Coming from the pastorate to this position will certainly be an adjustment. Facing the challenge of leading South Carolina Baptists at a time when, across the nation, denominational favor and loyalism are lower than ever will require wisdom and strength. He deserves our prayers, and we should pray for him daily.

He will face some challenging decisions in the coming years, including the future of White Oak Conference Center, how to best utilize the Baptist building and its resources, the nature of our convention’s relationship with NewSpring Church and others like it, and the challenge of providing funding for both national and state missions and our state convention’s institutions (ministry partners).

What should the convention do about White Oak Conference Center? At the October 2015 Executive Board meeting, Marshall Blalock, chairman of the Budget, Finance, and Audit committee, indicated that White Oak needed at least $4 million worth of maintenance. He noted that our convention’s fund balance is at $4 million. (It is at about $3.5 million now, after our convention sent half a million dollars to IMB from that fund at the end of the year.)

Addressing the need for deferred maintenance at White Oak, Blalock said, “We don’t have the money. We can’t afford it.” When this situation is coupled with the recommendation to the Executive Board from its own Future Vision Committee to develop “a plan in regard to White Oak Conference Center that would reduce the need for CP funding,” the sale of the property becomes an obvious consideration.

As cooperative giving increases and Cooperative Program giving decreases, the need for funding the convention’s ministries and contributing to the financial health of its ministry partners (our three universities, Ministries for the Aging, Connie Maxwell Children’s Home, and The Courier) will become a significant challenge. The Baptist Foundation has voluntarily zeroed out its Cooperative Program allocation beginning this year.

What this convention decides to do about NewSpring Church and churches similar to it will also be a challenge. Pastor Perry Noble said that while NewSpring is affiliated with Southern Baptists, the church is not married to us. The NewSpring issue has generated a great deal of debate. The convention has continued to count NewSpring’s numbers in its statistics (i.e., baptisms), but NewSpring members have not been allowed to serve on committees and boards of the convention.

What will happen to the Baptist building in Columbia? It is a large building that has a great deal of unused space. Should it be sold, and should we opt for a small administrative office in Columbia with other offices strategically located across the state? Will we continue our centralized structural approach, or will we become more decentralized?

There are no doubt more challenges that will arise.

I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I know our new CEO faces some tough challenges right off the bat. He needs our prayers along with all the encouragement we can show him. He will face some tremendous challenges, but he will also find in South Carolina some of the greatest people, the most loving churches and genuinely committed Christians anywhere.

Our state convention at one time was one of the strongest in the country — and it can be great again. Hopefully, Gary Hollingsworth will be God’s tool in leading us forward as we strive to better love our God (which means obedience to His Word), love our neighbor (which implies helping meet the needs of people God puts into our lives), and disciple those we win to faith in Christ.

Welcome to South Carolina, Gary. We pray your new home will be a blessing to you and that God will use you to be a blessing here for His glory.