Rumblings and Ramblings

Well the Baptist Standard is now reporting that the report has been turned over to authorities and exactly who has it (thank you Ken). 

http://www.baptiststandard.com/postnuke/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&pid=6801 

It is comforting to know that the report is in the right hands and at least an investigation by federal authorities has been initiated according to the reports.

This week David Montoya was believing that the report had not been turned in due to a letter he received from the Chief of the Fraud Investigation of the Southern District of the U.S. Attorney’s office.  We now know that the material was turned into the Brownsville office and then given to the appropriate authorities from there.

This flare up, I believe, could have been avoided if the BGCT would just give us some updates. The last update that I can find was in the Baptist Standard dating back to May 25.  If I’m reading this story right, this update was given to the Executive Committee when it last met.  I believe that if the BGCT would give us more regular updates the speculation on what is going on would go down.  Communication is the key.  Remember that you serve the churches, not just the Executive Committee.  With something so big, us little people need to stay informed.

There are still some other things that are sounding fishy.  Maybe they can be cleared up in an appropriate manner.  Credibility needs to be restored in Dallas from the administration.

It’s amazing what misuse of money will do to a church.  It is also amazing the kind of work to clean up the mess.  Last night I mentioned to the Finance Committee “Valleygate”.  Most of them did not know what had happen and what was going on.  So I did my best to explain it to them the best way I could.  After I finished, they voted to withhold our funds to the state convention untill we are satisfied that this is taken care of.  Then I got to explain it again to our church body during our business meeting.  It wasn’t very fun, but I made it through.

Now I get to figure out these things.

1.  How much money we need to send to Dallas so that we can still have messengers at the convention?

2.  Is there a way that we can give to give to our state ministries that are not messing things up?

One thing that I hate is holding money that could be used for ministry.  But we do not want to give our money to the state if it is not going to be used responsibly.  We realize that we don’t give a lot, but we give what we can and we want it to be used right.  So our current course of action is to hold on to our 30% untill things get straightened out in Dallas.  It sure would be easier if some people would admit their negligence and just resign/retire now so that we can get someone in who we can trust.  Maybe that will happen by February 2008.  If not, I know that my frustration will continue to grow.

If anyone has any answers to my questions I’ll be happy to hear from you.

Till next time!