News

Houston Baptist University opens board to non-Baptists

HOUSTON (ABP) -- Houston Baptist University trustees voted March 10 to
allow non-Baptist Christians a minority presence on the school’s
governing board.

The move is designed to help HBU -- the only evangelical university in
the city of Houston -- reach out to Christians of many denominations in
the diverse city by providing them a voice on its governing board.

“As our nation’s fourth-largest city, Houston is enormously diverse, but
at the same time, it also has a rich Christian witness,” said President
Robert Sloan. “Cooperating in this way with the broad Christian
community in the region is absolutely vital to fulfilling the
University’s mission.”

At their regularly scheduled meeting in February, trustees discussed the
issue of allowing up to nine non-Baptist trustees on the 36-member
board and subsequently notified officials at the Baptist General
Convention of Texas about their intention.

BGCT Associate Executive Director Steve Vernon, Executive Board Chair
Debbie Ferrier and Chris Liebrum, director of the BGCT
Education/Discipleship team, met in Houston with Sloan, other
administration officials from the university and pastors from the HBU
board of trustees Feb. 25 to discuss the matter.

HBU relates to the BGCT by a special agreement that allows the
university to elect 75 percent of its own trustees, with the BGCT
electing the remaining 25 percent. Under the terms of the agreement, all
trustees HBU elects must be Baptist but not necessarily from
BGCT-affiliated churches. However, HBU can amend its bylaws by a 66 and
two-thirds vote of the trustees, and BGCT approval is not required.

Trustees polled March 10 approved an amendment to allow up to one-third
of the trustees elected by the university’s governing board --
one-fourth of the total board -- to be “active members of non-Baptist
Christian churches.”

HBU trustees and the BGCT Executive Board had recommended that revised
arrangement last fall, but messengers to the BGCT annual meeting in
McAllen rejected it.

“Houston Baptist did not and does not need the permission of the BGCT to
take this step. HBU went through the process last year as a matter of
courtesy and as a way of discussion of the issue,” Vernon noted in an
e-mail to the BGCT Executive Board.

Last month, Baylor University’s board of regents voted to amend that
university’s bylaws, allowing members who are active in Christian -- but
not Baptist -- churches to comprise up to 25 percent of the Baylor
board. 

However, Vernon said, HBU officials insisted their intended action is not in reaction to the move by the Baylor regents.

“As I understand the process of HBU, this was a discussion that began
after the annual meeting at their November 2010 board meeting,” he said.
“They assured us that it was in no way related to the Baylor University
discussion. As with Baylor, this does not affect the 25 percent of the
trustees that we elect by special agreement with Houston Baptist.”

The proposed change also will not change HBU’s commitment to its Baptist identity, Sloan said.

“We are a Baptist institution. We will remain a Baptist institution. That’s who we are,” he said.

Ken Camp

Ken Camp is managing editor of the Baptist Standard.

All articles »