SCBC seeking buyer for White Oak Conference Center

White Oak Conference Center

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A South Carolina Baptist Convention official will hold three “informational sessions” in June for state Baptists who want to know more about the SCBC Executive Board’s recent decision to find a buyer for White Oak Conference Center.

Duane Greene, a member of Pickens First Baptist Church and chairman of the SCBC Executive Board, told the Courier he will schedule public events in Spartanburg, Columbia and Charleston. The dates will be posted at BaptistCourier.com and at SCBaptist.org when they are set, he said.

“Everyone is invited to become more informed and to express any thoughts or ideas related to this,” Greene said.

On April 26, after lengthy and often passionate debate, the SCBC Executive Board, which conducts the business of the state denomination between annual business meetings, voted overwhelmingly to “authorize the Properties Committee to work with the executive director-treasurer to pursue finding buyers for White Oak Conference Center.”

During the discussion, Greene, speaking for the Properties Committee and the Budget, Finance and Audit Committee, offered four options concerning the future of White Oak: 1) do nothing; 2) spin White Oak off as a separate, self-supporting entity; 3) spend the money necessary to complete the required maintenance; or 4) sell the facility.

Highlights from Duane Greene’s report:

  • 90 percent of SCBC churches do not use the facility.
  • 73 percent of usage revenue comes from sources outside the state convention.
  • SCBC ministries and affiliates use the facility 27 percent of the time it is occupied.
  • There exists an estimated deferred-maintenance cost of $3-$4 million. (A new sewer/disposal plant would cost approximately $2.2 million.)
  • Additional costs for improving the facility (including building a new hotel) total at least $2 million.
  • Over the past 15 years, an average of $614,000 has been given annually to White Oak from the convention. Last year, $247,000 in additional funds was given from the convention’s fund balance for maintenance.

If a buyer for the 841 acres of property and buildings is found, the Executive Board would meet again to approve the sale.

Thomas Truitt, director of camps and conference centers for the SCBC, spoke before the board. “I am passionate about camp ministry,” he said. “White Oak, like all the other ministry partners, was not designed to be a self-sustaining business, but a ministry.”

Truitt proposed allowing White Oak to become a more independent entity with a board of trustees composed half of South Carolina Baptists and half of non-SCBC members, allowing the center to raise money from non-SCBC sources.

SummerSalt, a camp ministry for students, was cited as one of the conference center’s most positive ministries. Greene responded by saying there were no plans to eliminate SummerSalt. If White Oak is sold, he said, the camp could be moved to another venue, possibly to one of the three Baptist universities in the state.

SummerSalt represents the largest convention use of White Oak, Greene said. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston is the largest non-Baptist user of White Oak.

“There is a disconnect [with] the housing at White Oak,” Greene said. “A conference center needs to have class-A housing, and White Oak’s housing is an outdated structure, resembling a cheaper hotel. Rooms have bunk beds, because it is set up as a camp for SummerSalt. If you have a married couples retreat or a senior adult retreat, those users are looking at rooms with bunk beds.

“Is White Oak a camp or a conference center? If we improve the housing to make it a conference center, then we take away from SummerSalt capacity, and that affects revenue. So, to be a conference center, we will have to build another class-A hotel.

“Does White Oak help us fulfill the Great Commission? Yes, but it is very expensive and very underutilized. So, we have to go out and find other non-Baptist sources of income, and is that our mission? Is White Oak the most strategic and efficient use of our efforts? No. We cannot as a good steward go backwards; SummerSalt can move to another venue, perhaps [to] our universities.”

White Oak Conference Center includes 140 motel-style rooms, a group-house capable of accommodating 64, a 400-seat dining hall, 23 classrooms, an auditorium/gymnasium capable of seating 850, a 230-seat lecture hall, a 25-acre lake, a swimming pool and other facilities.

— From reporting by Courier editor Rudy Gray and Scott Vaughan, interim communications manager for the South Carolina Baptist Convention. For more news from the April 26 Executive Board meeting, visit https://baptistcourier.com/?p=40099.