Coordinating Council Recommends Merger

By Richard W. Smith, Chairman • BMAA Coordinating Council

It is recommended to the churches of the BMAA that the BMA Foundation and the Ministers Resource Services agencies be combined into a single entity known as BMA America Financial Services. The new agency, through its strategic partners, would offer our churches financial services encompassing retirement and benefit programs for BMAA employees, benevolent services, risk management insurance, payroll services, Foundation investment management and estate planning assistance.

The purpose of this amendment is to bring all financial services provided to the association under a single agency. This proposed change will eliminate the need for two executive directors and two separate boards, thus improving overall efficiency and resulting in better stewardship of the church’s resources. The measure should reduce costs while providing economies of scale for the management of the retirement and endowment investment funds.

The amendment change to the Statement of Principles of Cooperation would result in the following revisions with additions shown in red font and eliminations noted with a strike-through line:

Article VII - Officers

Section 3. Department and agency officers are as follows:

E. Ministers Resource Services BMA America Financial Services Agency: Annually, this association shall elect an Executive Director of Ministers Resource Services BMA America Financial Services to supervise and promote the work of this agency in providing various benefits for pastors and other employees of the financial resources to churches, pastors, missionaries, ministers and employees of BMA entities.

G. BMA Foundation: Annually, this association shall elect an Executive Director of the BMA Foundation to supervise and promote the work of this agency.

Article XIV - Ministers Resource Services Agency BMA America Financial Services

Section 1. This association shall elect a Ministers Resource Services BMA America Financial Services board of trustees consisting of nine (9) fifteen (15) members, five (5) nine (9) of whom shall constitute a quorum.

Section 2. The duties of the board of trustees are:

A. To act in its field as an executive of the association performing all entrusted duties.

B. To promote the work of Ministers Resource Services BMA America Financial Services. 

C. To select an executive director to implement the established purpose of the agency as dictated by the association. 

D. To establish and operate associational retirement and benefit programs for ministers, missionaries, and qualifying employees of member churches and other entities wholly owned or controlled by such churches of the association.

E. To conduct the business and activities of the Ministers Benevolent Society (MBS) and the Auxiliary Benevolent Society (ABS).

F. To conduct the business and activities of the Funds to Alleviate Ministers’ Emergencies (FAME).

G. To maintain a foundation to receive endowment funds and provide supplemental funding for the association’s participating departments, agencies and other entities.

H. To develop and institute further programs for the benefit and welfare of BMA constituents.

I. To evaluate the performance and integrity of the executive director and recommend annually to the association a compensation schedule based on tenure, merit, and cost of living increases for the executive director. 

J. To fill a vacancy in the office of executive director that may occur between sessions of the association. 

 Article XVI - BMA Foundation

Section 1. Purpose: The BMA Foundation exists to endow participating departments and agencies of the Baptist Missionary Association of America with supplemental funding by investing gifts to the Foundation and distributing the earnings annually. It is a repository for the endowment of funds invested to produce ongoing support for those ministries.

Section 2. Governance: This association shall elect a BMA Foundation board of directors consisting of nine (9) members with one (1) board seat reserved for a representative, nominated by the executive director, of each of the BMAA departments/agencies participating in the association’s estate planning program. Five (5) members shall constitute a quorum.

Section 3. Board of Directors Duties: The duties of the board of directors are: 

A. To act in its field as an executive of the association between annual sessions, performing all duties entrusted to it by the association.

B. To utilize sound business principles in maintaining professional management of Foundation investments.

C. To fulfill any vacancy between sessions that may occur in the office of executive director.

D. To evaluate the performance and integrity of the executive director and recommend annually to the association a compensation schedule based on tenure, merit, and cost of living increases for the executive director.

E. To fill a vacancy in the office of executive director that may occur between sessions of the association. 

If the proposal is passed, it is understood that all Articles following Article XIV would be renumbered accordingly.