Constitution and By-Laws Of The Texas Baptist Bible Fellowship As Amended April 21, 2009 Article I. Name The name of this organization shall be the Texas Baptist Bible Fellowship, herein referred to the TBBF (a duly incorporated body in the state of Texas, U.S.A.). Article II. Purpose The purpose of the Texas Baptist Bible Fellowship shall be for: Encouraging our Brethren The TBBF will meet regularly for the purpose of edifying and strengthen one another through fellowship, teaching and the preaching of the Word. Establishing our churches The TBBF Church Launch Programs purpose is to serve as a secondary resource to assist Texas BBF churches in helping their new church plant purchase property and buildings in Texas. See article VIII. Extending our vision The TBBF State Missionary Launch Program will be the vehicle used to accomplish this. See article VII. Exalting our Lord The TBBF will purpose to exalt our Lord through all of our endeavors. Article III. Meetings The Texas Baptist Bible Fellowship shall meet three times a year. The meetings will be in the months of January, April, and August. The location of each meeting will be determined by the directors upon previously submitted request. Invitations will be submitted to the Chairman who will submit the request to the directors, who will make recommendations to the Fellowship. January meeting The January meeting will be planned by the Board of the TBBF with the assistance of the sub-committees with specific meetings for their ministry interest. The recommended sub-committees are: Music Pastors Student Pastors And other ministry related committees as the need arises. 1
Article IV. Officers, Qualifications, and Duties Section 1 All elected Officers and Directors of the Fellowship shall be pastors/co-pastors of Texas Baptist Bible Fellowship churches who attends and financially supports the TBBF. The Executive Officers and Directors at Large shall lead their churches to financially support the various mission projects and the general fund of the TBBF. Further, they must be financial supporters of the Baptist Bible Fellowship International through regular, monthly support of individual missionaries, fellowship-approved schools, and annual special offerings such as the Mission Projects Offering and the May College Offering. This would not apply to local fellowship chairmen who are only required to meet the qualifications of their local fellowships. Section 2 The officers of the TBBF shall be Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, and Treasurer, and Directors as designated in this article. The Officers and Directors shall be elected during the annual business meeting in April. The Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, and Treasurer shall each be elected for a two year term of office with staggered tenure, two officers being selected annually for two years. The Officers are eligible for reelection for one additional term. The Chairman and Vicechairman stagger terms and the Secretary and Treasurer stagger terms. There shall be four Directors elected from the fellowship at large to serve a term of two years with staggered tenures of office, two Directors being elected annually for two years. There shall also be one Director to represent each local TBBF that includes any part of the state of Texas, which shall be the Chairman of said local fellowship or any designated representative. His term in office shall be dictated by the by-laws of his local fellowship. Nominations for the offices of Chairman, Vice Chairman, and Secretary-Treasurer shall be made from the floor of the local fellowship any time preceding the January meeting of the TBBF. Each local fellowship shall authorize its Chairman to present one nominee for each respective office to the Officers and Directors of the TBBF at the January meeting. Nominations for Director at Large shall be made from the floor of the state meeting in January. Each nominee submitted will then be placed on a ballot and presented for election at the April meeting by a majority vote of those pastors present and voting. Section 3 The Chairman shall preside at all business meetings of the Fellowship and shall act for the Fellowship according to the delegated power given him by the By-Laws of the Fellowship. He shall serve as State Representative to the Baptist Bible Fellowship International concurrently with his term as State Chairman. He and the Vice Chairman shall be considered ex-officio members of all committees, agencies, and subsidiaries of the TBBF. 2
Section 4 The Officers (Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary, and Treasurer), and the Directors, shall in a regularly-called meeting, appoint qualified men to fill the terms of the Officers and the Directors at Large as the need arises. They shall fill the unexpired term of the Officer or Director. Section 5 Duties of the Officers A. Chairman the duties of the chairman 1. To carry out the vision of the constitution and by-laws of the TBBF. 2. He is to provide vision and inspiration to carry out the stated purpose of the TBBF 3. To moderate all directors meetings and business meetings of the TBBF. 4. To protect and maintain the integrity of the TBBF. 5. To be the representative of Texas as a National Director of the BBFI. B. Vice-Chairman 1. To assist the Chairman in the execution of the vision of the constitution and by-laws of the TBBF 2. To fulfill the duties of the Chairman in his absence. 3. In the event the Chairman s position is vacated the Vice-chairman shall assume all duties as Chairman and a new Vice-Chairman would be appointed by the Board according to Section 4. C. Secretary 1. To record and maintain all minutes of directors meetings and TBBF business meeting. 2. Supervise and update the TBBF website. a. Post current and upcoming events of local fellowships b. Reports from previous regional and state meetings 3. To communicate with Fellowship churches of upcoming meetings. D. Treasurer 1. To receive and record all funds 2. To maintain monthly and quarterly financial reports 3. To sign on all bank accounts 4. To provide financial reports of the director and TBBF business meetings. *The directors will appoint additional signers on the account. E. Local Chairmen 1. It is recommended to be an active participant of both local and State directors meetings, business meetings and Fellowship meetings. 2. To promote and carry out the vision of the State and National BBFI. 3
3. Help raise the special offerings for State and National BBFI. 4. To communicate with the local Fellowship the goals and objectives of the State and National BBFI. F. Directors at Large 1. Be an active participant of both local and State directors meetings, business meetings and Fellowship meetings. 2. To promote and carry out the vision of the State and National BBFI. 3. Help raise the special offerings for State and National BBFI. 4. To communicate with the local Fellowship the goals and objectives of the State and National BBFI. Article V. Membership Membership in the Texas Baptist Bible Fellowship is open to any pastor/co-pastor of a Baptist church believing in and adhering to the Word of God, on the basis of the Articles of Faith of the BBFI. Each senior pastor or his co-pastor shall have one vote in the election of officers or other business transactions. Each member is expected to participate financially in the work of the TBBF. Article VI. Relationship To Churches All New Testament churches are autonomous and self-governing; therefore, no article in this Constitution and By-Laws shall ever be interpreted in any way as to infringe upon or jeopardize the absolute sovereignty of any local church. The property rights, missionary policies, and practical procedures of autonomous, selfgoverning churches shall never be endangered in any way by the Texas Baptist Bible Fellowship, its agencies, or subsidiaries. Article VII. Missionary Launch Program Texas State Missionary Launch Program Purpose: The Texas Baptist Bible Fellowship desires to take a concrete step in shortening deputation time for some newly approved missionaries by soliciting support funds from participating churches at regular state meetings, thus jump-starting the deputation process. Criteria: 1) Preference will be given to BBFI missionaries. Missionaries for consideration should be either recently approved (within 120 days) BBFI missionaries or scheduled to come up for approval as BBFI missionaries within 120 days after the meeting in which they are presented to the state. Non-BBFI missionaries meeting 4
the same recent approval requirement with their missions agency, may be considered at the discretion of the board of directors on a first-come, first-served basis. 2) Given the stated purpose of this program, only newly approved or to be approved long-term missionaries will be considered. Missionaries accepted for the State Missionary Launch Program before BBFI approval will be promoted conditional upon their BBFI approval. Other missionaries will be promoted contingent upon their approval by the sending agency. 3) Consideration will only be given to Missionaries from the state of Texas, defined as: a. Having a sending church whose pastor is active in the Texas BBF and; b. Having served internship in a church whose pastor is active in the TBBF 4) For the purposes of this program, a pastor will be considered an active participant in the TBBF if: a. He participates in giving through the TBBF on a regular basis either through: i. The state general fund for at least six months or; ii. Participation in TBBF projects offerings (at least twice over the last year) or; iii. The Texas Can offering for at least six months b. And/or he regularly attends TBBF meetings 5) Preference will be given to church planting missionaries. Procedure: 1) The pastor of the sending church will make application on behalf of his missionary to the directors of the TBBF at least 45 days before the missionary would be promoted through the Texas State Missionary Launch Program. a. This application will be made using the application form provided by the Secretary of the state through the consent of the state Chairman. b. The application should be submitted through the mail, by way of electronic correspondence, or in person to the State Chairman within the time period stated. c. The State Chairman will invite the sending pastor and his missionary to appear before the state board of directors in a regularly scheduled or specially called meeting before the state fellowship meeting in which the missionary will be considered. 2) Pastors of the TBBF should be notified that there will be a missionary promoted at the state meeting a. Pastors and churches should be strongly encouraged to plan ahead in order to participate. 5
b. Attention should be given to this program in all mailings and other communications sent out about the meeting by the host church and by the state. c. If possible, the name and field of the missionary to be promoted should be included, along with pertinent biographical information. d. It should be emphasized that this does not take the place of regularly scheduled state projects, but is in addition to whatever building project is being considered in that meeting. 3) Upon the recommendation of the state directors, the missionary will be presented before the state fellowship as follows: a. During the business meeting, the chairman will introduce the sending pastor, who will then introduce his missionary to the pastors. b. The missionary will be given a maximum of 15 minutes to give his presentation and field any questions the pastors may have. A video presentation is recommended. c. The Chairman will then give the recommendation of the directors and will attempt to raise commitments for monthly support from the pastors present. i. All support raised will be channeled through the BBFI and not through the TBBF treasury. ii. The secretary or other individual taking notes on the meeting should keep an accurate record of those who commit support in order to give a copy to the missionary as well as keeping a copy in the minutes of the meeting. iii. It will be the responsibility of the pastors promising support and/or the missionary seeking support to book a service or conference, or otherwise allow the churches involved to become personally acquainted with the missionary and his work. iv. Pastors are strongly encouraged to start the promised support immediately. Article VIII. Church Launch Program The purpose TBBF Church Launch Program is to establish Baptist Churches, by serving as a secondary resource to assist the sponsoring church in helping their new church plant purchase property and buildings in the state of Texas. Core Requirements 1. The Person The church planter must meet the scriptural guidelines (found in I Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:6-9; I Peter 5:1-3) and guidelines of the application set forth by TBBF. 2. The Sponsoring Church A. Requirements 6
The pastor must be an active participant in the TBBF (as described in Article 7 Section 4) B. Responsibilities i. The sponsoring pastor will commit to significantly support the church planter and his ministry financially. ii. Will partner with the church planting pastor to plan a strategy. iii. Will serve as a moral/spiritual support structure for the church planter and his family. iv. Will oversee the financial records of the church planter and be able to submit records to the board. v. Will be willing to help secure and assume liability for original loan for building and land. 3. Properties and Facilities Before the investment of funds the church planter must provide: i. Current appraisal (90 days or less) ii. Commitment letter from lending institution or security for balance of note iii. If purchasing existing property an inspection is required. iv. Submit official sight plan. v. Submit demographic studies. vi. If the loan for the properties is going to be repaid by the church plant they must provide financial documents showing their ability to repay the loan. Article IX. Nomination of National Baptist Bible Fellowship Officers Nominations for the BBFI National Officers shall be made from the floor of the local fellowships of the TBBF any time preceding the January meeting of the TBBF. Each local fellowship shall authorize its Chairman to present one nomination for each respective office to the Officers and Directors of the TBBF at the January meeting. Every nomination submitted will then be placed on a ballot and presented to the TBBF, where it will be reduced to a single nomination for each office from the TBBF, by a majority vote of the pastors present and voting at the April meeting. Article X. Guidelines for Hosting and Conducting State Fellowship Meetings The Host Pastor Will: 1. Provide a request to the State Chairman & Directors. 2. Receive from the State Chairman the following guidelines in regards to the TBBF meeting. A. Service will be conducted on the third Monday Evening and Tuesday morning in January, April and August. B. The State suggests no more than one speaker on Monday evening and no more than three speakers on Tuesday morning. 7
C. The State Chairman will assist the host pastor in the selection of speakers that will help fulfill the stated purpose of the TBBF as stated in Article II. D. The host pastor will provide accommodations for Break-out sessions for student pastors, and worship pastors. E. It is suggested that the host church provide for the ladies an encouraging and beneficial time during the pastor s business meeting. F. The host pastor will moderate the Monday evening service and he will arrange with the State Chairman Moderators for the Tuesday sessions. G. The TBBF will contribute an amount determined annually at the April State meeting to assist in expenses for the host church. ARTICLE XI. Guidelines for disbursement of project funds Funds that are received for approved Texas State projects are to be held until all the promised funds are received. However in the case of an emergency the TBBF Officers and Directors, by a majority vote, may approve any portion or all of the funds that have been received to date for a project. All funding of projects will be disbursed in the name of the church not to a person. ARTICLE XII. Constitutional Amendments This Constitution shall supersede any other document pertaining to the Texas Baptist Bible Fellowship. This Constitution and By-Laws may be amended at the annual meeting of the Texas Baptist Bible Fellowship by a two-thirds vote of those present and voting during the April meeting. Any Constitutional changes shall be presented in writing by the January meeting prior to the April meeting. 8