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Church planting, strengthening churches forefront of restructuring plan
Shawn Hendricks, BR Managing Editor
April 12, 2013
8 MIN READ TIME

Church planting, strengthening churches forefront of restructuring plan

Church planting, strengthening churches forefront of restructuring plan
Shawn Hendricks, BR Managing Editor
April 12, 2013

The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina’s (BSC) Executive Committee approved a plan April 11 to “tear down silos,” streamline the organization and better assist churches in making disciples, evangelism and church planting among people groups of every ethnicity and cultural context.

The plan includes equipping churches to take ownership of collegiate ministries, and also sending strategy coordinators to work with churches and associations to penetrate “concentrated areas of lostness” through eight “population centers” around the state.

The new structure would eliminate 16 positions – 10 of which would come from campus ministries. But the convention also would add 11 positions, which would leave a net loss of five positions. While Cooperative Program giving in N.C. is off to a slow start – nearly 20 percent below budget – Hollifield noted that the restructuring plan was not a result of economic challenges, but a genuine desire “to stop the bleeding of the loss of people [who are] being led to the Lord, but they’re not being discipled.”

“There’s been a disconnect between evangelism and discipleship,” said Milton Hollifield, BSC executive director-treasurer, in an interview.

“[Discipleship] is the mandate for every church member. … In the large degree, we’ve missed it.”

“We’ve been satisfied with some programs and some efforts” added Brian Davis, BSC executive leader, “but there’s a philosophy of disciple making that’s got to pervade what we’re doing.”

The Executive Committee’s approval will go before the Board of Directors during their meeting in May. If approved by the Board, the strategy will be presented to N.C. Baptist messengers during their annual meeting in November. The new structure wouldn’t go into effect until January of 2014.

What’s different?

The following is summary of recommended changes in the proposal.

– Brian Davis, BSC’s executive leader, would become associate executive director-treasurer.

– Russ Conley, who is senior consultant for Leadership Ministries, would become team leader for eight strategy coordinators who will work with churches and associations through the “population centers.” These areas that have a high concentration of “lostness” include Asheville, Hickory, Charlotte, the Triad and Triangle areas, Fayetteville, Wilmington and Greenville.

– Michael Sowers, senior consultant for the Office of Great Commission Partnerships (GCP), would serve as a strategy coordinator for the Triad area. The senior consultant position for GCP will remain open and could be filled in the future.

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– Frank White, senior consultant for Anglo/African American Church Planting, would be a strategy coordinator for the Charlotte area. His current position will be eliminated.

– Rick Trexler, team leader for Campus Ministry, would become team leader of Collegiate Partnerships. The Campus Ministry team would no longer exist under the new structure, and a newly designed team would work more closely in partnership with churches. In addition to Trexler, the team would include: Sammy Joo, who would work with international students in the Triangle area; and Tom Knight would work among international students in Charlotte. Two positions remain open for the western and eastern parts of the state.

– Lynn Sasser, executive leader of Congregational Services group, would become the executive leader of a new group called Evangelism and Discipleship. The Congregational Services group and Evangelization group will no longer exist under the new structure. The new group would be divided into a Disciple-making Team and Church Strengthening Team.

– Brian Upshaw, team leader of the Church Ministry Team, would lead the Disciple-making Team. His team would include: Ashley Allen, Embrace and Women’s Evangelism and Discipleship; Merrie Johnson, Youth Evangelism and Discipleship; Marty Dupree, Adult Evangelism and Discipleship; Rick Hughes, Adult Evangelism and Discipleship; Guillermo Soriano, Hispanic Evangelism and Discipleship; Cheryl Markland, Childhood Evangelism and Discipleship; Eddie Thompson, Family Evangelism and Discipleship.

– Antonio Santos, senior consultant for Hispanic Church Development, would become the team leader for the Church Strengthening Team. His team would include: Neal Eller, senior consultant for Stewardship; David Moore, senior consultant for Pastoral Ministries; Ken Tan, senior consultant for Leadership Development; Bob Foy, senior consultant for Church Renewal; Donnie Wiltshire, senior consultant for Special Ministries; Kenny Lamm, senior consultant for Worship and Music.

Though many of the roles mentioned will remain similar, for some they will change significantly. Of the five main groups within the convention – Administration & Convention Relations, Business Services, Congregational Services, Church Planting & Missions Development, and Evangelization – the plan would trim them to four, which would include the new team led by Sasser. Of the 22 ministry teams, the new plan would drop those to 18.

“It’s a significant streamlining of the organization,” said Davis, who chaired the strategy committee that developed the strategy upon which Hollifield has built the new structure.

Campus ministry

One of the most visible changes would involve equipping churches to help make more disciples on N.C. college campuses, while reducing the Baptist State Convention’s presence on campuses.

Under the new structure, Trexler would lead Collegiate Partnerships to build a “network of churches working together” and empower them to build a presence on more campuses.

“We believe this is the best way to increase ministry on campuses,” Hollifield said. “There are churches I know [that] will take the lead on this. I want … students to be in those churches … that are surrounding the campus.”

“Our job is going to be to provide training, leadership … still doing some of the summer things where we offer them the missions opportunities and that type of thing,” added John Butler, executive leader of Business Services and a member of the strategy committee.

With more than a 100 campuses in North Carolina, there are many churches with a strong desire to get involved in campus ministry, said Davis.

“We’ve had calls from churches where they’ve said, ‘We have a college in our town. How can you help us? How can you train us? How can you resource us?” he said. “And the response has been ‘Sorry, we don’t have a position that we can fund there.’ That’s the wrong response.

“We exist to serve the churches, to help resource, to help train them, to help prepare them. And this … arrangement of structure allows us to do that.”

Population Centers

The other more visible change will involve sending out strategy coordinators through eight “population centers” to help develop strategies to get the gospel to unreached people groups.

“North Carolina has changed,” Hollifield said, according to his written report for the Executive Committee. “Over 230 languages are spoken in our public schools; but there is not a gospel witness in each of these languages.

“The convention, and I mean the convention in its fullness – churches, associations, convention staff, auxiliary, institutions, and agencies – must recognize that simply serving the white English speaking residents of our state is a dying proposition.”

Davis contended some may view the new strategy as a smaller version of NAMB’s Send North America campaign that focuses on reaching cities. But it’s not the same.

“A major distinction between what we’re doing and what NAMB is doing … [is] they’re focusing primarily on church planting,” Davis said. “We’re focusing on strengthening existing churches in those areas and planting new churches."

In recent years, Davis said there have been some who have contacted the BSC looking for assistance in planting a church and needing advice on the best location.

“Our response has been, ‘We’re not telling you. … You need to discern where God would have you to go,’” Davis said. “Now we’re gong to say we have eight areas where we are concentrating some of these efforts.”

And the plan will involve churches of all sizes in all areas of the state.

“I think about these eight concentrated areas of population in North Carolina [and] how much it would impact spiritually the rest of the state if we could be more effective in evangelizing and discipling those people in those areas,” said Hollifield.

“We want to help strengthen churches across the entirety of the state,” added Davis. “But we [also] can’t ignore where we have these concentrations. It’s not either or; it’s a both and approach.”

Read the Impacting Lostness Through Disciple-making strategy.

View the proposed group structure chart within BSC

View the proposed staff organizational chart