Second Song, partial verse

I am a man who can live for a little while with partial answers to questions I did not ask.

I did discover in my search for understanding of the $27,000,000 that slipped quietly away from Texas Baptists under the last administration several things. First, I discovered what I already knew was something I already knew. The budget we passed at our last convention was unsustainable and the administration knew it when they presented it to the Executive Board which allowed itself to be coerced and cajoled into passing it on to us. Hence some of the reasons for my motion of censure for the Executive Board which was stopped by a parliamentary trick by a board member of the Free and Faithful Baptists of Texas (Texas Baptist Committed). Their battle cry has been, "Baptists have been free to discuss and decide." What I have learned over the past year is that just like the fundamentalists, they decide what is discussed and when it is discussed--if ever" Which, in my beady little mind make them another kind of spiritual tyranny I don't much care for. Spiritual tyranny is spiritual tyranny no matter what the flavor. In Texas, we don't have the Page Patterson kind, we have the TBC kind. I don't much care for either.

I also learned what I most feared and that was another causality of the last administration was a rather robust Minister's Counseling program. During the previous administration, ministry families were helped in great and small ways. Families in crisis found assistance for counseling. Terminated ministry families found help for moving and insurance and just basic needs when such a tragedy befell them.

I knew that the ministry was shrinking because I followed their budget allocation as best I could. The shell game made that somewhat daunting, but I tried. When the BGCT finally terminated the couple in that area, the broad, robust ministry was down to one couple in Dallas available to anyone who could reach them. The list of referring counselors had not been updated in years, and the curtain came down on what once was a great help and was now a hollow shell of a sham.

So, not only was money wasted in the Valley and who knows where else (I am waiting for the report) but hurting families were ignored or worse--pushed off on sympathetic counselors who would continue to see the family after the piddling BGCT reimbursement ran out ($40 for four sessions for a yearly family total of $160).

I cannot begin to express my disgust over the mismanagement that was permitted to take place over the last few years in our convention of churches. The results of that failure to face, contain, and stop the misuse of tithes and offerings will continue to bear the most toxic of fruits for years to come. It will not just be in trust lost but ministry families destroyed because enough assistance was not available. Gone are the ministry marriage retreats, gone the terminated minister's retreat, gone the emphasis on minister's mental health, gone, all gone! And why?

The administration was too busy robbing the treasury to help anyone with anything.