Hialeah First donates church property for use as Convention’s South Florida hub

By Barbara Denman and Don Hepburn

Sept. 28, 2007

LEESBURG—(FBC)A tornado that struck downtown Eustis in the early morning hours Sept. 21 cut electrical power throughout the region, yet did not deter the State Board of Missions from conducting their meeting at Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center located five miles from town.

Board members persevered through the inconvenience of no electricity, which resulted in a lack of lights and air conditioning, working through a streamlined meeting agenda.

Although the conference center experienced minor damage to trees, the absence of electrical service meant Board members awoke in the morning darkness and showered and dressed in the dark. The conference center’s kitchen facilities were inoperable forcing the staff to serve Danishes and fruits planned for a mid-morning snack in lieu of a hot breakfast.

The Convention’s Disaster Relief team brought generators to the center to provide minimal electric service in some general use buildings. Temporary electrical lines were laid in the Raintree conference building to support portable lighting in the windowless restrooms. And sufficient power was generated to operate large industrial fans and the sound system in the Board’s meeting room. Attempts to provide temporary lights proved to be impractical because they generated more heat in the meeting room than the several fans could dissipate. Board members were forced to read their notebook of recommendations with the indirect sunlight streaming through windows.

The major item considered by the Board was a proposed property gift by the First Baptist Church, Hialeah. The church facility, located on approximately three acres in downtown Hialeah, was offered to the Convention as a mission development center to foster evangelism, church starting, theological training and church leader development training in south Florida.

The congregation voted July 29 following discussions between Pastor Mark Fischer and Cecil Seagle, director of the Missions Division, Florida Baptist Convention, to transfer the property to the Convention. In exchange for the property donation valued at $6.3 million, the congregation will be permitted continued use of the church facilities for as long as the congregation exists.

The 81-year-old church composed primarily of Anglo members is located in a community that has transitioned from a majority Anglo population to a majority Hispanic community. The church, established in 1926, has experience a decline in membership during the past ten years, reporting 200 resident members in 2006 down from 584 members in 1997. Worship attendance has dropped to less than 50 present each week. The small congregation no longer needs nor can care for the facilities.

Since January 2006, the Convention-sponsored theological education program in South Florida has been holding classes at the church. With this gift, the Convention will relocate its Urban Impact Center offices from the Horeb Baptist Church in Hialeah to the First Baptist Church facility.

A day earlier during the meeting of the Convention Properties Committee, the Convention’s Executive Director John Sullivan characterized the property gift, as a “God-given opportunity.”

Seagle, who had represented the Convention in nearly three months of on-going negotiations with church leaders, stressed the value of the location as a potential mission center for South Florida. “We must train indigenous leaders in the setting where they serve.”

During the full Board meeting, Sullivan told the Board that the property was “a dream come true. When the search committee approached me in 1988 about becoming the state executive director, I told them we must establish a presence in South Florida to reach the tremendous growth and ethnicity in the area. God has blessed us with this piece of property.”

He assured the Board, “We will treat the church kindly and fairly” in response to their request for on-going use of the church property without charge or interference with church business.

The Convention plans to renovate portions of the property to accommodate the Urban Impact Center offices and conferences room, theological education classrooms and other urban mission-centered activities.

The Board approved the expenditure of funds up to $200,000 to underwrite specific repairs mandated by the Miami-Dade County Building Code’s 40 year re-certification of the church facilities. Another $200,000 was earmarked for necessary renovation and cosmetic improvements of the facilities to accommodate the Urban Impact Ministries office. Funding for these physical improvements will come from the Convention’s South Florida Assembly fund.

Sullivan stressed to several committees and the full Board that “we expect to spend more on this building to get it to the level it needs to be. This is not the end of the funding we will request.”

With only one question of clarification raised, the Board unanimously approved accepting the property gift and the beginning of negotiations to work out the transfer details.

In other financial matters, the Budget-Allocations Committee presented a proposed revision to the three-year Budget Plan which divides the budget between Southern Baptist Convention causes, 40 percent; Florida Baptist Convention causes, 52.75 percent, and priority items, 7.25 percent. The revision sought to change the percentage allocations on the two priority items--church annuity and pastoral assistance for new churches.

During the discussion, Board member Joel Breidenbaugh of Panama City Beach questioned the percentage allocation to the Southern Baptist Convention. He asked if steps could be taken to raise the percentage from the current 40 percent to a 50/50 split between state and national needs.

Sullivan responded by promising that staff would seek to “find a way to get more money for SBC agencies, but we also know that we cannot jeopardize what we are attempting to do in Florida. This is a vital state to everything that happens in the SBC.”

After the meeting, Breidenbaugh explained that the orginal concept of the Cooperative Program was a 50/50 split between state and national mission concerns, rather than the division currently used by “our state Convention which retains 60 percent.”

“I realize we are a great mission field in Florida, but at the same time there are many more opportunities nationally and globally,” said Breidenbaugh. “Some other state conventions already do the 50/50 split. We are one of the leading state conventions and I would like for us to model the 50/50 split to other conventions.”

When the voice vote on the three-year budget plan was taken, Breidenbaugh registered the only negative vote. He said he will continue to raise his concerns in the future. “I realize I am only one voice, but I hope to plant the seed.”

The subsequent recommendation on the 2008 Cooperative Program budget of $41,023,007 was greeted with no comments by Board members. When the voice vote on the budget was taken, again Breidenbaugh registered the lone negative vote.

Sullivan noted that the 2008 proposed budget represents a slight decrease from the previous year’s budget, reflecting a slow down in giving within the churches. Because of this decline in receipts, the 2008 budget does not include salary adjustments for Convention employees. Board members authorized Sullivan at his discretion to make a two percent cash gift to employees in July and another two percent gift in December if funds are available in 2008.

Messengers to the Florida Baptist State Convention in Daytona Beach Nov. 12-13 will consider the proposed budget for final approval. (See the Aug. 28 issue of the Florida Baptist Witness for a breakdown of the budget.)

In personnel matters, the Board created two new staff positions and filled a third with a former employee and two current employees during its Sept. 21 meeting at Lake Yale Conference Center.

Al Fernandez, who has served the Florida Baptist Convention since 2004, was transferred to the newly created position of director of the South Florida Urban Impact Ministries, effective Oct. 1. The 49-year-old had served as associate director of the Urban Impact Ministries since 2006. Prior to that position, the Miami native had served as a Convention church planting field missionary for the southeast Florida region.

The Board also created the Haitian Church Development Department to focus more specifically on church growth among the 293 Florida Baptist Haitian congregations and promoted Joseph Gaston, 52, to that position, effective Oct. 1. Since 2002, Gaston, a native of Port Au Prince, Haiti, has served as associate director for the Language Church Development Department with responsibilities in the area of ministry to Haitians. With this move, his previous position was eliminated.

Former Convention employee Deris Coto, who worked with the Convention for seven years in the Language Church Planting Department from 1997-2004, was elected as director of the Language Church Development Department, effective Oct. 1. The Havana, Cuba, native will fill the position left vacant with the Sept. 30 retirement of Daniel Paxaio. The position description was also revised, transferring the Haitian church development assignment to a separate department.

During the time between his Convention employment, Coto, 42, planted a new church in Miami, Iglesia Bautista Nuevo Comienzo.

All three staff persons will live and maintain offices in South Florida.

In other action, the Board:

—granted church-at-large status to West Pointe Baptist Ministries in Gainesville and agreed to begin the application process for church at large status for Northside Baptist Church in Brunswick, Ga., which will be dually aligned with the Georgia Baptist Convention;

—approved a number of bylaw changes including one initiated by the Convention’s auditors as an accounting procedure requiring the Executive Director-Treasurer’s travel expenses to be reviewed by the Board president and another that authorizes a Board investment sub-committee;

—extended the international mission partnership between the Convention, the International Mission Board, SBC, and Brazilian Baptist Convention to continue projects in the cities and areas along the Amazon River through the Amazon Vision Ministries;

—passed resolutions of appreciation for three retiring staff members—Paixao; Hugh Cater, effective April 30, 2008; and Robert Mounts, effective Jan. 14, 2008.

The next Board meeting is scheduled for Nov. 11 in conjunction with the Florida Baptist State Convention in Daytona Beach.