Rumblings and Ramblings

I had an opportunity, with pastors from the Tx. Panhandle to meet with our interim Executive Director yesterday at Temple Baptist Church in Amarillo.  It was 90 minute meeting that was a mix between a listening session/goal session for the interim period.  Here is what I got from the meeting.

1.  Jan will do his best to start the healing process within the building.  He has opened up the Executive Directors office as a prayer room for all the staff of the BGCT for a lengthy time each day.  There will be times for them to write down their prayer requests and concerns and hopefully promote healing and restoration in the building.  This was welcomed news to our group of pastors.

2.  Jan asked us what we would want to see in the first 100 days of the new Executive Directors administration.  We talked about the need for building trust with the churches.  We also voiced our concern that all departments of the BGCT needed to be open to us and help us.

3.  One of our area DOM’s talked about the disconnect he has expereienced between the DOM’s and the BGCT.  Apparently the DOM’s have not been listed to all that well in the past.

4.  The call center was brought up and what a waste of time and money it was.  One great question was, “Why did they have a retreat?”

5.  Jan mentioned that he will do some sort of personel review and present it to the new Executive Director.  He was not happy, (my obervation) about those who lost their jobs in November were in non-managerial positions in the BGCT.  He seemed to indicated this had a lot to do with the low moral in the office.  He mentioned that it would be wrong to fill these positions again when we just let those people go.  Don’t know what that means if we need those positions, but I understand the point he was getting across.

6.  One pastor mentioned how many of the churches in our area of the state are sitting on the fence waiting to see what was going to happen next in the BGCT.  If the churches don’t like what they see or if they feel like they are not being listened to there could be an exodus from the BGCT.

7.  Jan mentioned that there seems to be a problem of communication within the state office.  One part of the office does not know what the others are doing.  One part thought another part was working on something but that part never got the message, that sort of stuff.  Just wondering have we heard this before?

8.  There was talk about how the latest reorganization created something that was not intended.  There was talk about all invovled on how that needed to change.

9.  There seems to be frustration within the Execuive board for the lack of opportunity for the Executive board to discuss matters openly and freely.  There has been some improvment in recent meetings but there needs to be more.  Seems like there is only a few minutes where the Executive Board can disuss with the Executive leadership of the office about things they are concerned about.  I can’t help but wonder if that is planned that way?

Overall I was optimistally encouraged by the meeting.  Everything that was said, Jan personally wrote down.  He seemed to learn some things from us and he seemed to be concerned about what we had to say.  There was also one of our BGCT elected officials present (I just realized that a few moments ago when I scanned that page of the BGCT website).  He too was taking notes on what was said.  What come out of this is the big question.  I tend to trust Jan that he will communicate what we have said to the new Ex. Director.

Realize that I have put down what I can remember.  Hopefully I have remember correctly.  If you were there and want to add anything, please do so.  I want to that Charles Davenport our regional consultant for putting this together.  I know that he and Jan were headed to Plainview and Lubbock to do these meetings there as well.