Updated Monday, April 14, 2008

BSC bylaw changes could remove BRH

By Steve DeVane

BR Managing Editor

Upcoming revisions to the Baptist State Convention (BSC) Article and Bylaws could remove Baptist Retirement Homes (BRH) as a BSC institution.

The BSC Executive Committee voted unanimously on April 10 to give the Articles and Bylaws Committee the go-ahead to make major revisions to the BSC's governing documents.

Shannon Scott, chairman of the Articles and Bylaws Committee, and pastor of Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Raleigh asked the Executive Committee for direction.

"We're willing to redo the whole thing if you want us to," he said.

Brian Davis, the BSC executive leader for administration and convention relations, said that when the BSC incorporated in 2004 there were some "structural issues" that needed to be addressed. But then, and in each year since, the Articles and Bylaws Committee has had other issues to handle, keeping them from devoting the time necessary to address the needed revisions.

Davis said there are "numerous examples" of repetitions in the bylaws. With revision the number of bylaws could possibly be reduced from 13 to as few as five, he said.

"How many trees do we consume printing the same thing over and over?" he said.

John Butler, the BSC's executive leader for business services, said the revisions could include removing BRH. Such a move would have to be approved by messengers to the BSC annual meeting.

BSC Executive Committee members discussed a letter BRH sent the BSC, dated March 19. The letter was a response to a Dec. 20 letter from the BSC to BRH asking BRH to respond to actions taken by messengers to the BSC annual meeting in November.

Messengers adopted a report that asked BRH to follow the process outlined in the BSC bylaws "to officially sever its relationship" with the BSC and then seek to establish a new relationship.

In its March letter, BRH mentions a Dec. 3 open letter by BRH trustees. The letter was printed in the Dec. 22 issue of the Biblical Recorder. The BRH trustees' Executive Committee says in its March 19 letter that the trustees believe the Dec. 3 letter speaks for itself in response to the messengers' actions.

The Dec. 3 letter says BRH will continue its ministry and hopes to continue its partnership with "North Carolina Baptists," but does not mention formally severing the relationship.

The March 19 letter says BRH does not expect to receive additional funding from the BSC.

At the BSC meeting on April 10, Davis said the March 19 letter indicates that BRH has no intention to act as the messengers requested.

BSC Executive Director-treasurer Milton A. Hollifield Jr. said BRH functionally left the BSC because the BSC governing documents say the BSC elects BRH trustees. BRH trustees voted in 2005 to elect its own trustees.

"There needs to be some sense of closure," Hollifield said.