IMB trustee Bill Sutton of Texas calls for a motion requesting all new trustees to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message at the board’s meeting in Tampa, Fla.International Mission Board trustees formalized a new process for approving missionary candidates and adopted a formal document explaining trustee responsibilities and relationships during their meeting March 20-22 in Tampa, Fla. Trustees also passed a motion requesting new trustees to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.
One significant board action formalized a new process that involves all trustees in examining and approving candidates for long-term service. The new procedure, implemented on a trial basis during the past two board meetings, will now be continued for the foreseeable future.
“There always is the need for refining the process we have for (the missionaries’) approval for their appointment,” said trustee John Floyd of Tennessee concerning the mission personnel committee motion. Trustees approved the recommendation.
During regular board meetings, personnel subcommittees – made up of at least two regional committees – will review missionary candidate applications for their specific regions, Floyd said. The subcommittees will recommend candidates for appointment to the personnel committee, which will recommend them to the full board.
Formerly, only trustees on the personnel committee reviewed material related to the missionary candidates. This board action opens the candidate-review process to all the trustees.
Trustee responsibilities, relationships
Trustees also developed and adopted a formal document explaining trustee responsibilities and relationships.
Trustee Mike Smith of Texas, chairman of the orientation subcommittee, presented the new policy. The policy, presented to trustees from that subcommittee and the administration committee, includes five areas: general responsibilities, specific responsibilities, legal status and duty, standards of conduct and disciplinary action. Three trustees voted against the new policy, which adds to, but doesn’t replace, the older policy, dubbed the “Blue Book.” The board has 89 members.
Discussion on March 21 focused on broader trustee accountability to include relationships and not just board actions or decisions. The orientation subcommittee met with the administration committee to add trustees’ comments to the document. When the document was introduced in the March 22 plenary session, it incorporated trustees’ requests for broader accountability to include relationships, not just board actions or decisions.
“We’re just trying to look at each other and hold each other accountable, and to be really Christlike and to conduct ourselves in that kind of a spirit and attitude as trustees,” Smith said. “That’s really the spirit behind this document – that we follow Matthew 18 and serve in that capacity.”
The document represents two years of work for a three-member subcommittee, but its release follows a controversy over the use of “weblogs,” particularly the one by IMB trustee Wade Burleson of Oklahoma.
Trustee Allen McWhite of South Carolina spoke against the recommendation, specifically the document’s provision that says “individual IMB trustees must refrain from public criticism of board-approved actions – . Freedom of expression must give way to the imperative that the work of the kingdom not be placed at risk by publicly airing differences within the board.”
McWhite voiced concern that any trustee who felt a board action was not in the best interest of the larger Southern Baptist constituency would not be able to express that concern to fellow Southern Baptists.
“I want to draw a great distinction between being critical of this board, which I would never do, and expressing disagreement, honestly, based upon personal conviction with a board policy or action,” McWhite said. “I would hope no trustee would ever want to be put in the position where he or she could not share with the larger constituency … . The possibility exists that this may really tie our hands in some matters.”
McWhite also said, “I believe my trusteeship primarily is to the Southern Baptist Convention. They are the ones who have given me that trust. Out of trust, I must relate to my other trustees in a trustworthy manner.”
But trustee Randy Davis of Tennessee, referencing the ability to speak out against board policy, said, “When we become trustees, we give up some things, and that’s one of the things that we give up … . The first thing we learn is that we do not campaign against the board that we are serving on … . I especially appreciate the accountability built into (the document). That’s new, and that’s different, and that’s been needed for a long time.”
Another comment in favor of the motion came from trustee John Schaefer of Georgia. He said trustees have opportunities to voice concerns or disagreements at the time a board action is being discussed.
“The key point we all need to recognize is that once this board has voted and spoken that your personal opinion or preference or concern does not go to the head of the line,” Schaefer said. “Our … missionaries are far more important than your one mindset. And we have to put the greater good of our mission force before your own personal opinion. You have an opportunity to voice your concern or criticism prior to that approved policy, so I suggest you pay attention to proposed policy changes and make yourself heard.”
Motions on BF&M, information flow
The trustee board dealt with two motions in its final plenary session March 22. A motion from trustee Bill Sutton of Texas called for all trustees to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.
“Somewhere between where it was last signed, and where I am, there are a group of trustees who have never signed the Baptist Faith and Message,” Sutton said. “I just think if we are going to lead and we ask missionaries to do something, we need to do something.
“So my motion is I appreciate what was done (in 2000) but for those of us who have come on (the board) and not signed, it’s time for us to step up to the plate.”
The motion passed, and board chairman Tom Hatley of Arkansas said the forms would be mailed to every trustee who has come on the board since 2000 so they can sign the document and bring it with them to the next meeting, May 22-24, in Albuquerque, N.M.
That concern was also included in the new policy on trustee responsibilities and relationships passed during the meeting. A statement was added to the “General Trustee Responsibilities” section that read: “Trustees of the International Mission Board are to covenant with the Southern Baptist Convention by wholeheartedly affirming the current edition of the Baptist Faith and Message, as the standard for carrying out the programs and ministries of the board. Annually, the new trustees will be given the opportunity to express this covenant by signing a statement affirming the BF&M at orientation.”