After lengthy and often passionate debate over the future of White Oak Conference Center near Winnsboro, the Executive Board of the South Carolina Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly to “authorize the Properties Committee [of the board] to work with the executive director-treasurer to pursue finding buyers for White Oak Conference Center.”
The discussion and vote occurred during the April 26 meeting of the SCBC Executive Board at the Baptist building in Columbia. Board chairman Duane Greene, a member of Pickens First Baptist Church, used a PowerPoint presentation to outline the need to do something regarding the conference center.
Speaking on behalf of the Properties Committee and the Budget, Finance and Audit Committee, Greene offered four options to board members: 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.
Here are highlights of his 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.
- An average of $614,000 is given each year to White Oak from the convention’s fund balance, beyond budgeted money.
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 of half South Carolina Baptists and half non-SCBC members, allowing the center to raise money from non-SCBC sources.
The SummerSalt ministry for students, which has been housed at White Oak, was cited as one of the positive ministries occurring at the facility. Greene stated that there were no plans to eliminate SummerSalt. If White Oak is sold, he said, the camp could be moved to another venue, possibly one of the three Baptist universities in the state.
Newly elected SCBC executive director-treasurer Gary Hollingsworth noted that while the discussion about White Oak did not start “on my watch, I accept the responsibility to lead during this time.”
“The most significant word of witness we can give a lost and dying world will be how we conduct our business and spend our money,” Hollingsworth said. “We must be missions-driven in all we do.”
White Oak Conference Center includes 140 motel-type 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.