by Sandy » Thu Sep 01, 2011 12:31 pm
Montoya is talking about state convention administration, and not necessarily the people who work in the trenches there. I know some very good, committed, dedicated church program consultants and facilitators that work at the BGCT, are underpaid, but are committed to ministry rather than lifestyle. The big bucks go to an overloaded, overstuffed administration. Last time around, when Charles Wade stepped down, they brought in an interim exec, though they have a six figure (with full expense account and several administrative assistants) associate executive director whom I have had trouble figuring out exactly what keeps him busy during an eight hour day. This time around, they are letting the day to day administrative duties fall to the associate, who doesn't appear to be working overtime to get his work, and the exec director's work, done. The associate position was one that could easily have been completely eliminated when it was last vacated, and it wouldn't be missed, but they kept it in place as a reward for the political service done by the current occupant of the position (he's a Currie appointee and TBC flagwaver), and unlike most of the "trench" positions at the BGCT, which have seen salary caps and cuts, and layoffs, the salary wasn't touched, even though the budget contributions have fallen 35% in five years. That's the kind of thing he's talking about.
I've heard that Buckner's exec "has" to receive the salary he does because it is required for their certification or membership in some critical organization related to the work they do. I got soured on Buckner when we discovered that a big chunk of the price they charge for international adoptions, more than twice as much as other agencies we looked at, is payment for their provision of "services" guiding you through the process, and that they offer no financial assistance to Baptists, or anyone else for that matter, in spite of the fact that they raise millions from the churches for themselves by appealing to the heart-strings of people through the "ministries" they perform. Essentially their attitude is, "If you're rich enough, you can adopt internationally. If not, don't come through our door."
You can say what you want to about Montoya, but it appears that a lot of Texas Baptists feel the same way, given the direction their Cooperative Program giving has taken over the past decade. THe drops they are experiencing go way, way, way beyond the effects of recession. Every dollar that they don't collect, and every percentage from previous years that they drop is confirmation of Montoya's accuracy.