SBC This Week is a great site. It is described as “a weekly news roundup from around the Southern Baptist Convention” and has “guest interviews from today’s top church leaders.” The podcast is hosted by Amy Whitfield, Director of Communications for SEBTS, and Jonathan Howe, Director of Strategic Initiatives for LifeWay which, I suppose, makes it at least a semi-official SBC site.
On their home page, lower right panel is a place where you can view current SBC entity trustees, all of ’em. This is available elsewhere but not so conveniently. An address for each trustee is given. Sometimes it is a church address, sometimes a business, sometimes home.
You will find ol’ Chris Barber of Farmersville, TX as a SWBTS trustee (listed as “Christopher B. (Bart) Barber”) along with his church address. Other folks found here may be trustees as well.
Oddly, Georgia has two Executive Committee members who pastor in the same south Georgia city. I thought with a few million SBCers in our state you wouldn’t have to locate two in the same mid-sized city.
Hmmm, Jason Allen of Missouri is a trustee of SEBTS. Oh, not that Jason Allen.
Well…those interested can take time to look ’em up. They are our folks. We elected them.
The listings are copied from the 2016 SBC Annual. Presumably, when the 2017 Annual is published the lists will be updated. Guess I just didn’t notice this resource before. It’s a lot easier than downloading the annual and looking up trustees. The various entity websites sometimes make it difficult to get this information.
Over the years, usually when some entity is in hot water, folks start asking how to contact trustees. Here you go.
THANKS for the info…It demonstrates a major pblm with considering SBC Trustees as legitimate overseers of our entities…the sheer size of the Trustee Boards. How can a Trustee board with so many members function as anything other than a rubber stamp?
I’m not sure how accurate the addresses are. For instance, it lists ExComm trustee Shane Hall as residing/pastoring in Lawton, OK but he’s been at First Southern Del City (OKC) for at least 3 years (as best I can recall). I wasn’t scouring for inaccuracies but I accidentally ran across this one since we’re old friends. I don’t suspect there are too many more like this, but its worth double checking.
Jason –
The contact information is supplied in the form submitted by the trustees themselves and is updated as and when they supply it. Certainly, there will occasionally be anomalies (because it is, after all, a human endeavor) but for the most part the addresses will be accurate. In Shane’s case, either address will work, and I know that this year his office address at First Southern will be printed.
I’m the one who made the motion at the meeting to have each entity publish this info online. This info is from the 16 annual, as you said, and it not always up to date as trustees move, die, resign, or whatever. Some of the SBC entities make no mention on their site of their trustees at all. To me it’s ridiculous that we have to rely on someone besides an entity to make it easy to contact trustees. The EC has the list of trustees on their website, also, but site is difficult to navigate and in need of… Read more »
Luke – As the EC’s Exec. VP, I head the division of the EC that supplies the Convention’s website resources (Policy and Operations), so I guess the buck stops with me with regard to any deficiencies. I can tell you frankly, though, that I concur with your sentiment about the trustees representing the people and that contacting them should be easier. Of course, I also appreciate the fact, as apparently you also do, that privacy concerns present certain challenges. I have suggested that each entity supply a simple way for any Southern Baptist to contact its board. At the Executive… Read more »
Thanks for the response Dr. Boto. I tried to word it in such a way that it would get sent to each entity and not be ruled out of order. That was the outcome I expected and hoped for. I trust that the trustees will give it a fair hearing. I think your email idea is an excellent one, and would cost little to nothing to implement. It’s difficult to balance privacy and availability, but with enough thought it can be done. It’s easy for me to cast stones, and I apologize if I offended. A overhaul of the EC… Read more »
Augie,
I greatly appreciate your service to the SBC. You’re an invaluable resource and mentor to many, and thank you again for personally guiding me through how to best present my motion and recommendation to change the SBC calendar to adopt and orphan & widow care Sunday. Just wanted to give you a word of encouragement my friend.
James
Luke – I assure you that I was not at all offended. Again, I agree with your sentiments, and was just attempting to add more light to the issue. (And I am “just Augie”, I am not a “Dr.”, but thanks for the honor. James -Thanks a ton. All – I overlooked the fact that NAMB has a similar way of contacting their trustees. Perhaps others do too, but if so, be sure to add that piece of info here. NAMB’s email address to get to any of their trustees is “Trustees@ NAMB.net” If you message is to a specific… Read more »
“To me it’s ridiculous that we have to rely on someone besides an entity to make it easy to contact trustees. The EC has the list of trustees on their website, also, but site is difficult to navigate and in need of updating, in my opinion.”
Amen. Good motion, thanks for making it… I said to friends sitting near me as soon as the words left your lips… “That will be referred to each entity to do with as they wish, and will then die.”
Hit submit too soon….
But I think we should make the motion every single year until they do it. It’s common sense.
I actually would like a way to contact by email, and someone smarter than me could figure out a way to do that. The question is do the entities see the trustees as representing the people, or just as a rubber stamp to the plans put forth by each entity. If they are representing people then we need to be able to contact them easily.
It’s a little unfair to presume that trustees don’t take their jobs seriously or merely and perfunctorily approve leadership proposals.
Your motion will get a response. They always do. A formal motion always gets a response.
No presumption here. Just saying those are the two most basic ways to look at trustees. As with most all matters in the SBC, there is divided opinion on the matter I’m sure. The trustees that I know of personally serve admirably with the spread of the gospel as their highest goal. Still, everyone needs accountability.
The only solution I have for contacting them is to google their name/city and see if their church has a website with contact info – particularly their official email address.
William,
Thanks for the kind words about the site and the podcast (everyone needs to subscribe). We added these back in the fall when the 2016 lists came out. And YES, we will update them when the 2017 annual is released. Until then…we wait.
I’m a new at-large addition to the ERLC board this year. In my experience, Bart Barber tweets about you, and no one really has a problem finding you. 🙂
But, just in case some don’t have it, I’m: whiteheadlawllc.com, Jon at. Trustees always have the job of listening, so if you feel strongly enough to write, I’m game to read. Any reply e-mail isn’t likely to be ground-breaking, but its fine by me if Southern Baptists feel more comfortable reaching out to trustees by email.
Thanks.
I once contacted the chairman of the trustee board of one of our entities. My request was that he share a letter I had written with the other trustees on the board. Within a few hours I had an email from the president of the entity. That was problematic for me because the letter I had written was about the entity president. When I responded to the chairman to express my frustration with him forwarding my email to the president, he told me that was common practice. He said he always forwarded emails he received to the entity president. Regardless… Read more »
Above, in my response to Luke’s post, I said “I will try elsewhere in this thread to explain where trustee info can be found.” I will do that in seven numbered paragraphs at the end of this comment, but before I do, I want to explain that my earlier comments should have mentioned Chris Chapman as the appropriate person to contact with any suggestions for SBC.net or its family of websites. Chris serves admirably as our Director of Information Systems. My decisions about what should be “done next” make me the appropriate person to blame for what hasn’t been done… Read more »
I know that many here know Augie Boto but for those who do not he is the SBC Executive Committee’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel.
I appreciate the considerable effort here to be helpful to Southern Baptists. One thing I have found over the years is that SBC leaders and staff are willing to answer questions and help SBCers. I have no better current example than this one. Thanks.
The EC’s site is sbc.net. I consult it often for statistics.