Texas Baptists Will Vote in Waco on Who Counts as a Cooperating Church and Who Decides

Texas has two big Baptist state conventions, and both are spending this fall answering the same question: what does it mean for a church to belong?

Next week the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention meets in Forney to vote on limiting the pastor’s office and title to men. Three weeks later, messengers to the Baptist General Convention of Texas, known as Texas Baptists, will meet Nov. 15-17 at the Waco Convention Center. They will take up the first rewrite of their constitution in a decade, the Baptist Standard reported.

Three big changes

The BGCT constitution was last updated in 2015, and its bylaws in 2014, said John Litzler, the convention’s general counsel. A task force chaired by Suzie Liner, a retired physician from First Baptist Church in Lubbock and chair of the BGCT Executive Board, drafted the changes. The Executive Board amended and approved them in September.

Liner described three major changes:

• A clearer definition of cooperation. A church would be considered in "harmonious cooperation" if it identifies with, aligns with and generally endorses the convention’s purposes and work, and gives to the Texas Baptists Cooperative Program during any of the three previous years.

• New rules for messengers. Churches would need to meet a minimum financial contribution to send messengers, and the number of messengers would depend on the church’s level of giving.

• The board decides. The Executive Board would determine whether a church is in harmonious cooperation and would receive or remove churches by a vote of at least two-thirds of members present. Receiving churches was previously a staff function.

Why move it out of the big room

Task force members were candid about the reason for the third change.

"Floor challenges to messenger seating can be emotionally charged and there isn’t enough time to conduct fact-finding and ensure due process for the challenged churches," said Chad Edgington, an attorney and pastor of First Baptist Church in Olney.

Steve Wells, pastor of South Main Baptist Church in Houston, put it more bluntly. "The world outside the church seems to know much more about what Baptists are against than what we are for," he said. Voting churches out at the annual meeting, he said, means "dealing with difficult family business in public."

Edgington said the threshold for a church to send two messengers is $300. "If a church doesn’t contribute, it doesn’t get a say in the budget process," he said.

Joseph Adams, BGCT first vice president and pastor of First Baptist Church in Mount Pleasant, said the three-year window helps tell "the difference between a church that used to cooperate with Texas Baptists and one that currently cooperates with Texas Baptists." "It’s not about how much they give, but if they are willing to cooperate with our convention," he said.

Two years, two-thirds

Nothing changes this year. Constitutional amendments must pass by a two-thirds vote of eligible messengers present at two successive annual meetings, Litzler said. If messengers approve this fall, they would vote again, along with bylaws changes, at the 2027 meeting in Tyler, Nov. 14-16, 2027. The changes would take effect at that meeting’s close.

Messengers can debate and amend the motion when it comes before them at the business session on Monday, Nov. 16, Litzler said. The task force will hold a workshop that morning at 8.

A smaller budget and voting by text

Executive Director Julio Guarneri wrote in an Oct. 15 column that messengers "will consider a reduced budget for 2027," along with the constitution, officer elections and trustees for Texas Baptists institutions.

The business page also lists a revised relationship agreement with Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas and a motion to hold the 2028 Family Gathering in Round Rock and the 2029 annual meeting in Galveston.

New this year, some votes will likely be taken by text message. Each messenger needs a unique cellphone number, and messengers who opt out of texts will not be able to vote on motions that require an electronic ballot. Churches mailing messenger request cards must send them by Friday, Oct. 30. Online pre-registration closes Sunday, Nov. 15, at 8 p.m. Questions go to 888-244-9400.

What to watch

Guarneri asked Texas Baptists to pray for "unity of mind and spirit around the mission of God." He also wrote that at least half of Texas’ population "does not know Jesus."

That is the right place to start. Churches have every right to say who they are and with whom they will partner. Clear rules, applied fairly, protect both the convention and the congregation in question. If messengers keep the gospel at the center and do their business with open Bibles and charity, the rules will serve the mission rather than replace it.