by Paul White, Chairman
BMA of America Coordinating Council
I am sharing the following information to try and explain what will be proposed for consideration at this year’s national meeting concerning the breakup of the various DiscipleGuide ministries. Although several recommendations will be presented this year, we have been blessed to experience exceptional cooperation from everyone who is involved.
While change is often difficult to understand, it is sometimes necessary for the good of the whole. One of our greatest challenges is to keep you, the people, informed about what is actually taking place.
At the national meeting in April, we will be voting on recommendations concerning five areas of ministry. The areas that we will deal with are Publications, Daniel Springs Camp, Conferences, News Services and the BMA Service Team. Please keep in mind that this explanation is a synopsis, and is by no means exhaustive or an exact wording of the actual recommendations.
Publications & Daniel Springs
When we, as an association, step out on a new and untried venture, it is normal to have reservations in doing so; but what will be recommended concerning Publications and Daniel Springs Camp is something we lived with for many years before the formation of DiscipleGuide. In fact, if you go back to the 2004-2005 Statement of Principles of Cooperation, you will find that this year’s recommendations concerning our Statement of Principles of Cooperation for Baptist Publishing House and Daniel Springs Camp are nearly the same as they were back then. If the recommendations presented concerning the first two are adopted by the body, it will not be something new. It will be going back to a tried and proven way that will serve us well into the future. These were stand-alone departments then, and certainly can be again. For these departments to stand on their own will not weaken nor diminish their ministries’ structures, nor change their core values.
Conferences & News Services
Last year, the association voted to move the responsibilities of these two entities to the BMA Service Team (formerly referred to as the LLC) for one year. After visiting with the department leaders involved, their overwhelming conclusions were that the BMA Service Team was the perfect location for these two important ministries. Therefore, there will be a recommendation for these two ministries to be placed under the BMA Service Team.
BMA Service Team
Neither the BMA Service Team nor LLC is directly tied to DiscipleGuide. Sometime back, the association voted to create what was then known only as the LLC (Limited Liability Cooperation) to assist in streamlining operations in the Conway office through sharing employees and assets, thereby minimizing costs and maximizing return on investment for support services and functions.
While the term LLC tells of a way of organizing your business, it woefully fails to reveal what it does. So we will be voting on making the BMA of America Service Team, its purpose, governance and special duties part of our Statement of Principles of Cooperation to help inform our people of what it is and what it does. You will be hearing the title BMA Service Team a lot in the future if this proposal passes.
The position of BMA Service Team director is a hired position in cooperation of those executive directors who work out of the Global Ministry Headquarters in Conway. These departments share the cost of the BMA Services Team, and the directors have hired John Meriweather to serve as director of the BMA Service Team and be the go-to man concerning these responsibilities.
