Each Alabama church, the State Board of Missions, the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board — all are part of the fabric of Southern Baptist life.
Less visible in the fabric is the SBC Executive Committee.
It has 86 members — at least a third of whom are laypeople — representing 41 state and regional Baptist conventions from across the country.
Alabama members of the Executive Committee are Jim Averett of Birmingham, Benjamin F. Kelly Jr. of Montgomery, Paul S. Hicks of Hayden and Phyllis Ingram and Neal Hughes, both of Pike Road.
Within the Southern Baptist Convention, the 104-year-old Executive Committee is a key point of accountability to churches that their gifts for national and international missions and ministries are rightly distributed through the Cooperative Program.
The SBC’s bylaws assign a range of responsibilities to the Executive Committee. While it has no direct authority over trustees of the IMB, NAMB or other entities, it is assigned an “advisory capacity on all questions of cooperation” between the convention’s entities, as well as between the SBC and state convention partners.
Last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Executive Committee was part of the decision to call off the convention’s annual meeting in Orlando, drawing from the SBC constitution’s provision for a “grave emergency.”
It was the first such cancelation since 1945 during World War II.
Otherwise, the Executive Committee carries the lead role in facilitating each year’s annual meeting — from convention and exhibit hall arrangements to meetings of the Resolutions Committee and other committees.
Ministry assignments
Following are added details about the Executive Committee’s work and history and its makeup.
The Executive Committee’s service role is reflected in the two words — “Assist churches” — that frame each of the six ministry assignments that the convention has placed with the body:
- Conduct the work of the convention “not otherwise assigned” to an SBC entity as well as any issues that may arise between convention sessions
- Provide a news service (Baptist Press) to distribute “regular news releases about Southern Baptists” and to provide a news operation during each year’s annual meeting
- Provide a public relations service tasked to: “Interpret the Southern Baptist Convention to internal and external publics,” including the journal SBC LIFE and the sbc.net websites
- Oversee the Southern Baptist Foundation’s work within the SBC and with other Baptist and evangelical bodies and individuals in estate planning and investment management primarily for funds to support Southern Baptist causes
- Promote cooperative giving, setting forth the Cooperative Program as “the basic channel of support for the ministries of the state conventions and the Southern Baptist Convention”
- Develop and distribute resources “applying biblical principles of stewardship” to help Southern Baptists grow in their commitment to Jesus Christ.
Convention finances
To buttress the SBC’s financial integrity, the Executive Committee’s various responsibilities in the convention’s bylaws include:
- Providing a yearly “consolidated and comprehensive financial statement” of the convention and its entities, certifying generally accepted accounting principles for assets, liabilities and receipts during the year
- Recommending to the convention a comprehensive budget for the SBC and its entities. The current year’s Cooperative Program Allocation Budget distributes 50.41% of CP receipts from the states to the International Mission Board; 22.79% to the North American Mission Board; 22.16% to the SBC’s six seminaries; 1.65% to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; and 2.99% to the EC and SBC operating budgets.
History
The Executive Committee was established during the 1917 SBC annual meeting in New Orleans after a year of deliberation by a 14-member Committee on Consolidation of the Boards.
The initiative was sparked by a motion at the 1916 annual meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, by Manson Horatio Wolfe, a Dallas businessman and longtime chairman of the deacons at First Baptist Church during George W. Truett’s pastorate. Wolfe’s proposal: “to create one strong Executive Board which shall direct all of the work and enterprises fostered and promoted by this Convention.”
Though Wolfe chaired the committee, it faced opposition to a centralized convention structure. Its 1917 report affirmed separate entity trustee boards and called for a seven-member Executive Committee “representing different parts of the Convention territory” to act in behalf of the body between annual meetings.
In 1927 — two years after the creation of the Cooperative Program — the Executive Committee established offices in Nashville and restructured to allow for a growing membership.
Seven men have led the body over the years: Austin Crouch, 1927–1946; Duke K. McCall, 1946–1951; Porter W. Routh, 1951–1979; Harold Bennett, 1979–1992; Morris H. Chapman, 1992–2010; Frank S. Page, 2010–2018; and Ronnie W. Floyd, 2019-present.
Current membership
Executive Committee bylaws provide for one member representing the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota-Wisconsin and Montana; two members for state conventions with 250,000 or more church members; three members for 500,000 church members; four for 750,000 church members; and five for 1 million church members.
At least one-third of Executive Committee members must be individuals not employed by a church or denomination entity.
Committee members, who are eligible to serve two 4-year terms, are nominated by the SBC Committee on Nominations and approved by messengers at each year’s annual meeting.
Additionally, the SBC president and recording secretary and president of Woman’s Missionary Union serve on the Executive Committee as ex-officio members.
The Executive Committee meets for two days each September and February and meets twice in conjunction with the SBC annual meeting.
The following links provide more information:
- The Executive Committee’s bylaws can be accessed at sbc.net/about/what-we-do/legal-documentation/bylaws
- EC ministry assignments can be found at sbc.net/about/what-we-do/legal-documentation/organization-manual
- A roster of its current members is available at sbc.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/SBCEC.pdf
- A staff listing is at sbcec.org
- CP allocation monthly reports are posted at sbc.net/cp.
A book on the first six decades of the Executive Committee by the late Albert McClellan, titled “The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1917–1984,” is available at Amazon.com.
Difficult discussions play out at February EC meeting
Meeting in person for the first time in a year, about 80 percent of the 86-member SBC Executive Committee gathered in Nashville, Feb. 22–23. Most of the others joined the committee meetings virtually but did not have opportunity to vote.
While TAB anticipated tense conversations dealing with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and others, it was a surprise topic — related to Southwestern Seminary — that captured most of the attention.
Southwestern recently settled a lawsuit involving two of its trustees, which resulted in those trustees resigning. But before the lawsuit was settled Feb. 8, the trustees were suspended because of alleged “misconduct.”
The SBC EC attorneys argued that only messengers to an annual meeting can take that action. Southwestern officials pushed back, and the in-person discussion Feb. 23 became heated.
The result? An EC task force was formed to study the issue.
A separate task force focused on ERLC concluded its work Feb. 23 with a report basically noting:
“ERLC is functioning within the bounds of its ministry assignment, how well is up to the board of directors (and it is) undeniably, yes, impacting CP funds,” said task force chairman Mike Stone.
While no vote was taken on the report, the action items will be considered by EC officers and staff, according to Stone.
In other news, four churches were disfellowshipped. For more information, click here. (TAB)
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