Texas Baptists Elect First Hispanic President in History
The Baptist General Convention of Texas tentatively approved a new restructuring plan that would increase minority representation from 15 percent to 30 percent of the board, and elected its first non-Anglo president
The Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) elected its first non-Anglo president in history gave tentative approval to a major restructuring policy that would extend representation to its minority members, during the 2004 BGCT annual meeting, in San Antonio, Texas, on Monday, Nov. 8.
The outgoing president Kenneth Hall predicted a bright future for the 2.5-million member denomination, which he said was becoming more and more diversified.
“I don’t think there’s any question that as we project the future we have to be inclusive,” said Hall during a press conference at the annual meeting, who added that nearly 2,200 of the 5,700 BGCT churches are non-Anglo congregations.
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Newly elected President Rev. Albert L. Reyes agreed with Hall, saying, “Texas is more culturally diverse than ever before, and we are seeing people from every corner of the globe make their way to the Lone Star State.”
“I sense as we as Texas Baptists are becoming aware that the world around us is changing, we are changing,” added Reyes.
Reyes, who was elected without opposition, is also president of the Baptist University of the Americas – a seminary in San Antonio for primarily Hispanic ministers. Reyes is the grandson of migrant workers who became Christians through Texas Baptist missionaries in the 1930s.
In addition to Reyes’ appointment, Hall said the new reorganization structure greatly extends representation to the minority groups in the denomination. The proposed reorganization, which must be approved again in 2005 to be codified, would reduce the size of the BGCT Executive Board from 234 to 90 members. The streamlined board would be elected from 30 population-determined districts; the new board would increase minority representation from 15 percent to 30 percent.
Several delegates, many of them from West Texas and less population-dense areas, said they were alarmed that the new structure would cut their representation at the board. Other delegates also said they feared the streamlined board would prevent it from adequately representing all the churches in the state.
Hall, however, rebuffed the worries as the incorrect approach to the new future of the BGCT.
“My bias is that we’re not going to get there through governance,” he said of better church representation. “We’re going to get there through getting our staff closer to the churches. We need a new staff structure, and we need a new governance structure to hold the staff accountable to the churches and deliver ministries to them,”
“We must look at our state. If we want to reach Texas for Christ, we need to be sensitive to where the population is, who Texas is. What we’re doing now is not working. We’re losing ground,” Hall said, explaining again the need to reach the minority populations.
“If you postpone [the vote] you’re talking about 2006, maybe 2007, before implementation,” he said during the discussion on reorganization. “We live in a changing state; we are a changing convention. Make a step of faith in some of us who are working hard. You’ll have more to see in the coming year. And if you don’t like it then, you can vote it down next year.”
By the night’s end, almost 82 percent of the delegates affirmed the structural changes.
The annual meeting is set to close on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004. The BGCT is one of two conventions in Texas with ties to the 16-million member Southern Baptist Convention, the other being the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention (SBTC). The BGCT, unlike the SBTC, does not maintain close ties with the SBC over theological differences.
