College proposal has merit
By Milton A. Hollifield Jr.
BSC Executive Director-Treasurer
I could feel the entire room inhale at the same moment when John Butler told the Executive Committee it has cost "millions of dollars" for our colleges, universities and Baptist State Convention to study, debate, vote and restudy their governance and funding issues over the past 50 years.
Butler, executive leader for business services at the Convention, and former board president and North Carolina pastor, made that statement at the March board meeting at Caraway Conference Center during discussion of the colleges' latest proposal coming through the Council on Christian higher Education concerning those two issues.
The Council on Christian Higher Education proposes on behalf of the colleges, that over a four-year period beginning January 2009 the schools will elect all their own trustees and give up Convention funding of $6.2 million. They're asking the Convention to establish and administer a scholarship program using all or part of that money to help students from North Carolina Baptist churches attend the schools.
After earnest discussion, the Executive Committee endorsed the proposal to pass on to the full board for consideration. Let me add my endorsement as well and say that I am pleased a half-century of deliberation and contention over funding and governance could be drawing to a close.
This proposal allows us to develop a new relationship, something much more welcome than other possibilities North Carolina Baptists feared might occur.
By this action, our schools declare they want to continue to bear our family name and pedigree. But they are also saying they are ready to be on their own. Already Campbell and Gardner-Webb's budgets exceed that of the Convention. The money the Convention provides to our schools varies from a relatively small two percent of Campbell's operating budget to almost nine percent of Chowan's budget.
Our schools want to stay affiliated with the Convention. They ask the privilege to continue to report at our annual session, and they commit to "continuing to have a significant portion of trustees who are members of churches in friendly cooperation with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina."
With this proposal, the colleges will determine the level of relationship they desire with our Convention through the trustees they enlist, through the faculty they employ, through the spiritual climate they cultivate, and through the students they graduate.
I accept the spirit and intent of this proposal and endorse it whole-heartedly. This action would resolve a recurring issue that makes it appear at times as if the Convention and our colleges and universities are at odds with each other. We are not at odds. We have just been working to resolve issues that arise in families as members grow, learn, mature and find new ways to expand their territories.
This new affinity would move us from a relationship of obligation to a relationship of trust.
Several things must happen from here. Because these changes would involve a severing of the current relationship between the colleges and Convention, and the beginning of a new relationship, Convention action will be required. Pending board approval, messengers would first consider the proposal in November 2007. If it passes then, final approval could come in November 2008.
In the proposal our schools commit to advancing "Christian principles and beliefs as reflected in traditional Baptist doctrine."
This proposal has merit. It is bold, brave and creative. It exhibits a healthy trust and presents an important opportunity for the Convention to consider new possibilities in missions and ministry.
