Evergreen History

The Evergreen Baptist Association gathered at Japanese Baptist Church in Seattle on February 22, 2003 for an historic meeting to adopt by-laws. These by-laws are unique to an American Baptist Region. They are historic on two counts:
  1. The way ethnic caucuses are part of the process of the structure of the Region, and
  2. The manner of acting being by consensus.
FIRST STEPS (2000)
How did Evergreen Baptist Association come to this? It all began with a debate in the American Baptist Churches of the Northwest (ABC/NW). A by-law proposal failed by the slimmest of margins to pass by the supermajority required at the May 2000 Biennial Convention of ABC/NW. A resolution did pass that stated:

“With deep regret, we acknowledge that a reorganization of the Region is necessary, and call for a regional process, including the proposed self-study, to determine the configuration of the new regional structure, to be determined on or before May 2002 with an interim report to the churches in May 2001.”


As a result, data gathering was done during the fall Area Conventions. A gathering called “Future Search” was held at Ross Point Camp and Conference Center in Post Falls, Idaho (one of the 7 camps of ABC/NW) in November of 2000. 72 people from around the Region met for three days. The group recommended to the ABC/NW Board to ask churches in the Seattle Baptist Union (SBU) (an existing corporation of churches in the Greater Seattle area) to form a New Region of American Baptist Churches.

The SBU was incorporated nearly 100 years ago and existed as a entity even before that time. It has very precise boundaries according to its by-laws that include most of King County (in which all the city of Seattle is) and a particular southern portion of Snohomish County (just north of King County), 40 churches at the time of this decision. It has received and distributed monies each year. Its charter is grants and loans—giving relatively small grants to churches to jump start new programs. It also gives low interest loans to member churches to help in revitalization and/or building projects. In the previous 5-6 years it gave significant grants to ABC/NW for its general budget.

THE TRANSITION TEAM (2001)
A New Region Transition Team was assigned by the ABC/NW Board in February 2001 as the board responded favorably to the recommendation of Future Search. The Transition Team got started before they were officially appointed and realized immediately that their task was compounded by the fact that the churches/people in SBU really did not know each other. This was created by the decision some eight years previous to hold SBU meetings during North Puget Sound Area Annual meetings. Although all churches in SBU were in North Puget Sound, not all North Puget Sound Area churches were in SBU. The African-American churches in particular and the Asian churches to some extent in SBU did not regularly attend North Puget Sound Area Meetings. This was true when at least every other year (sometimes more often) the meetings were held outside the SBU geography. Added to this was the extraordinary change in leadership among all ethnic groups. At the time of the decision to form a new region, half the Asian churches were between pastors. Just prior to the decision major African-American congregations had pastors of 20, 35, 38, and 40 years retire, move or pass away. There was also major leadership changes in the Euro churches.

The Transition Team therefore, made the decision to begin their work on developing relationships. They concentrated on having events for pastors and others so that people might meet each other and begin to have dialogue about the venture put before them. With the help of SBU the pastors and spouses were invited to attend a Mariner’s baseball game and were invited to a dinner cruise on Elliott Bay. There were other more informal meetings and attempts to have events that did not happen.

The Transition Team would have like to work at this level for a longer period of time but two things required that they move the process forward. First, the ABC General Board adopted “Provisional Procedures for the Orientation and Accepting of New Regions”. Secondly, there was pressure by some people in ABC/NW that the new region be organized enough that the churches in that Region would not feel it necessary to attend the 2002 ABC/NW Biennial Convention. The Team, with the concurrence of the ABC/NW Board, decided that they needed to get the New Region to Provisional Status before the May 2002 Biennial.

One of the minor (yet to some major) difficulties of the Transition Team was what to name the new region. In one attempt, they tried the “Seattle Baptist Union Region” but since there was a growing concern over the adoption of the churches in that organization into this new region that was quickly abandoned. So for a long time the Team simply referred to it, and encouraged others to refer to it as “The New Region.”

To comply the with the “Provisional Procedures”, the Transition Team called for a meeting of the churches at the end of October of 2001 to review the documents of ABC/USA, the covenant of relationships, the mission statement and the common criteria. Since all churches were already American Baptist, the documents per se were acceptable. However, it was at that meeting that a few churches wanted the agreed process of separation from ABC/NW to be different than the ABC/NW board had affirmed. They began to be vocal about the requirement by ABC/NW to “opt out” of the New Region if they did not want to be a part of it.

Meanwhile, in many different conversations without ever formally doing so, the Transition Team noted two things:
  1. There was a need to find the ground for “common ministry” among the churches of this “New Region.” The reason the “New Region” was asked to form, was not a reason to establish a “New Region”. In other words, “homosexuality” or “welcoming and affirming” could not be the identifying characteristic, issue or definition of the New Region. It simply did not have anything close to universal support among the churches and coming together under any “issue” was deemed to be unhealthy by the Team. Therefore, common ministries needed to be identified and seriously considered and lifted up to bring unity and purpose to this New Region.
  2. The Transition Team although selected primarily by ABC/NW was not sufficient in its ethnic diversity (1 African-American, 2 Asian, rest Euro-American ethnic ancestry). It was not diverse enough and either others had to be brought on board or something else had to be done to be assured that decisions were being proposed by a more representative body.

In addition, the Transition Team discovered several reasons that brought hope for a New Region outside the issue that began the forming.
  1. The geography of SBU was metropolitan. The immense geography of ABC/NW always prevented concerns of urban or metropolitan issues to be taken seriously by the entire Region. There was opportunity in this new Region to concentrate on issues that truly affected these churches that were close geographically.
  2. The breakdown of the churches presented an opportunity that at first was recognized as important, but exactly how it would be used was unclear. Of the churches in SBU there were about an equal number of churches of primarily African ancestry and Western European ancestry, with a few Asian ancestry churches thrown in. It meant that in terms of numbers of churches, no ethnic church “had the majority.” The Team speculated on the meaning of this during 2001. They knew it meant that the Team was not diverse enough and discovered that it held clues for their common ministries.
  3. The closeness of geography was deemed an asset in another way. Meetings could be held without extreme expense of monies and time. This was an enormous advantage to the Team compared to what ABC/NW had to do to hold Region meetings. The Team met regularly as did subsequent bodies that helped to form what would be Evergreen Baptist Association. It was an advantage that ABC/NW never enjoyed.
  4. The structure of ABC/NW and its corporations was awkward at best and misunderstood by most. All churches in SBU by being American Baptist Churches were members of ABC/USA and 3 other corporate bodies as well as North Puget Sound Area. They were members of ABC/NW, Washington Baptist Convention and Seattle Baptist Union. Because they were members of ABC/NW they were automatically in North Puget Sound Area which extended slightly south of SBU boundaries and for 3+ counties north of SBU boundaries. It was particularly difficult for the African-American churches to relate to all these bodies since they are all dually aligned. The Transition Team’s initial thinking was that perhaps if the New Region and SBU were one and the same that at least one corporation could be folded into the Region. Although that was not to be, to loose at least one of the bodies (Area) to relate to, seemed like something that would help.

Toward the end of 2001, the Transition Team saw two events fast approaching: a meeting of the General Executive Council (GEC) and the biennial convention of ABC/NW. Everything needed to be ready for the New Region to apply for “Provisional Status” to the GEC meeting in March. Provisional Status was necessary to ask the member churches of the New Region to voluntarily absent themselves from the ABC/NW Biennial Convention in May 2002.

The Team felt the only sensible way to meet the legal requirements set forth to attain Provisional Status, was to ask SBU to act as a sponsoring organization (like a local church parents a new church start). Therefore, the “New Region” could use the bank account, incorporation, etc. of SBU until such time as they were able to put these things in place for themselves. Part of the reason for this request was the issue of a “name” for the new Region. Nothing suggested seemed right, either the geography was too limiting, too broad or otherwise not well received. On top of that the Transition Team did not feel they were the ones to make that important decision.

The SBU board agreed to have their documents used in the transition period. However, a number of churches (who later opted out of the New Region) felt that SBU should not do this. SBU on their own agreed that at the annual meeting the churches ought to be able to affirm their decision. The vote taken to do so passed by a slim margin. As it turned out “The New Region” used SBU’s accounts, numbers, etc. for less than a year.

One of the difficulties the Transition Team always faced was the reality that people tended to define the New Region by the reason that had brought about its existence. The Team did everything they could to try to bring perspective to the process. Those who stood against the move toward the “New Region” within ABC/NW inclusive, did so on the grounds of the issue that brought it into being rather than on anything that was trying to be built. Even though those that were most vocal against the proposal were to use their “opt out”, their voice came close to shutting down the New Region altogether.

THE VISION COMMITTEE (2002)
Once the process was in place to move the “New Region” forward for ABC/USA, the Transition Team felt it was time to direct its attention to making some hard proposals to the churches such as a name, mission statement and by-laws. The issue of their racial imbalance was still before them. They decided to ask each ethnic caucus of churches that existed in its boundaries to nominate people to a Vision Committee. At first it was agreed that there would be four representatives from each ethnic caucus. The Asian Caucus was the only one that had an already existing group. They felt able to appoint only two, but felt that it was OK if the other two appointed four each. The African-Americans did not have a formal meeting to appoint their four and in fact, named representatives were for the most part named or volunteered by particular churches or pastors. The Euro-Americans had a formal meeting. They affirmed the decision that they would send only representatives who were positive about the New Region as Representatives.

On Saturday, February 16, 2002 the Vision Committee met for the first time from 9:00 to 3:00 p.m. at Japanese Baptist Church in Seattle. They were oriented to the task by Marcia Patton and Yosh Nakagawa. Marcia Patton acted as facilitator for the group. They were told that their task was to propose a Mission Statement, a Vision Statement, a Name, and Structure (By-Laws) to the congregations that were in the New Region. They were told that it would be nice if this work could be done yesterday, but they were to work on it as quickly as possible without compromising the end product.

The Vision Committee had 3 pastors (one from each ethnic caucus), an award winning mathematical scholar, an unemployed environmental engineer, a self-employed embroidery emblem maker and wife of a state legislator, a junior high-school science teacher, and a real estate broker. There was another pastor who attended one meeting and another person who later dropped out of his church and the committee.

The Vision Committee met at least once a month on a Saturday from 9 until 3 and at least two evenings in between.

By April the group was feeling that they were closing in on a Mission Statement and Name and they asked for a meeting of the churches to affirm them. While the Transition Team made arrangements for the meeting the Vision Committee began work on a structure for the “New Region” as a major part of their mandate. There was significant conversation in the Vision Committee about what difference this “new entity” made in terms of structure. What was needed was discussed. Yosh Nakagawa made an impassioned statement to the Vision Committee. They together caught the significance of using caucus groups as a way of deliberately bringing people to the table. Just as they had grown to appreciate one another beyond their differences, they hoped a similar experience for people in all their churches. Having caucuses establish the makeup of the Executive Committee of the New Region seemed to them to address the concern they had for true equality at the decision making table.

It was deemed by the Transition Team that it would be helpful if the churches met at the same time as the ABC/NW Biennial since the churches of the New Region are also members of Washington Baptist Convention (WBC), which held Biennial meetings in conjunction with ABC/NW meetings. Because of the formation of the New Region, WBC was changing their by-laws. Having all churches in attendance at Tacoma, would be helpful to their work. So a “Constituting Convention” was held on Saturday, May 18, 2002 at Rhodes Hall in Tacoma, Washington. There were over a hundred in attendance early in the day.

The Vision Committee met immediately before the gathering defining and editing the mission statement. The following mission statement was proposed and unanimously passed by the representatives present.

Being a culturally diverse people who are one in Christ, the Evergreen Baptist Association will
Build bridges between communities;
Provide resources to equip member churches to share Christ, and teach God’s word; and
Translate our unity to the world

In addition, the Vision Committee proposed a name for the Region, EVERGREEN BAPTIST ASSOCIATION. Some questioned the name Association. The Vision Committee members stated that they felt it more descriptive of what American Baptist ought to be about, “Association” rather than Region which was solely geography. They felt they had chosen a “geographical name” as American Baptist Regions are so named, since Washington State is the Evergreen State. They felt that simply using Evergreen did not limit geography as much as other names that were proposed. By the time of this May meeting, two churches from outside the SBU geography had elected to be part of the “New Region.” Pullman Baptist Church from the eastern side of the state, and the United Church of Moscow, Idaho. The name, Evergreen Baptist Association, passed wholeheartedly by the representatives present.

The Vision Committee also presented a proposal for the structure of the Association, with an Annual Convention, an Association Board and an Executive Committee that would be made up of two representatives from each ethnic caucus. So the odyssey of the caucus most clearly entered the picture. There was general agreement among the representatives that the Vision Committee was on the right track and encouraged them to proceed with the development of the structure into by-laws.

The final agenda at the May meeting was to elect leadership and to formally hand over control from the Transition Team to a Transitional Executive Board. The Transition Team proposed to the delegates that a Transitional Executive Board be selected by having 2 representatives from each of the three caucus groups and one generally elected representative. The group gathered was divided into caucus groups. It should be noted that one of the churches represented that day was a new Hispanic church. Although there were not enough Hispanic churches to warrant a caucus group, since they were being mentored into ABC/USA through a Euro-American Church, they were welcomed to sit with them. The Transitional Board was selected with a general election taking place after the caucuses announced their selections. The generally elected person is African-American.

THE TRANSITIONAL EXECUTIVE BOARD
The Transitional Executive Board immediately began working with the asked for assistance of three people: Lucy Brand as Interim Executive Minister of ABC/NW, Rev. James Winbush of Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Baptist Church as auxiliary board member (and chair of the Transition Team) and Marcia Patton as consultant. The Board soon made the decision that if at least one caucus representative was not present at a meeting then the meeting would not be official, and decisions would have to be put off until all caucuses were represented. The Board knew they needed further information from the churches and called a meeting on Saturday, August 19, 2002 to ask the churches what they needed during the next few months.

At the August meeting the Vision Committee again shared what they were thinking in terms of structure with more of the structure outlined, (see Appendix). In that outline it was suggested that voting delegates be selected by the same criteria as ABC/USA delegates. The group gathered was in agreement that this was not the preferred way of selecting delegates as it rewarded larger churches with significantly more representatives. It was informally agreed that there should be an equal number of delegates per church and that each church should meet a criteria of giving to the denomination in order to have voice and vote.

In addition, those at the meeting stated that they wanted the usual services from the Association during the transition period. They called upon the board to hire someone on a full-time basis as soon as feasible.

The Transitional Executive Board continued to work on budget issues, office location, staffing and furnishing. They made an agreement with Companis, a volunteer organization of Seattle First Baptist Church that places people in new positions to help non-profits get things started, to have an Administrative Assistant in the office. They worked with Washington Baptist Convention to use space in their offices in Kent where ABC/NW office spaces were.

In November 2002 Gretchen Bunzer was sent from Companis to serve as the Administrative Assistant. She was provided a new computer and printer and internet services were set up for her.

Meanwhile, the Vision Committee sent the outline for structure to a lawyer for initial writing. When they received it back, they felt it needed significant additional work before sending it to churches for review. Even so, there was much of the language and articles the lawyer included which were deemed unnecessary at a first reading by churches. In addition, several issues were raised including a slight change to the mission statement and changing the number of delegates per church.

Then a discussion ensued about the “manner of acting.” The lawyer had used the boilerplate that decision would be by “majority rules”. But when people began to talk about that, it seemed incongruous with the caucus concept, because any caucus could be overruled by “a majority vote.”

Caucuses were encouraged to meet to have discussion about what “working by consensus” might mean. Although in general it is agreed that there isn’t enough experience out there with consensus, it is truer to the sense of what the Association was trying to do than to continue to work by the standard “majority rules.”

People were sent surveys to respond to the by-laws and additional meetings were held in January of 2003 to hear questions, work with concerns of the by-laws. A document entitled By-laws for Adoption was sent to members with a meeting called for on February 22, 2003. The two churches east of Seattle (and the Cascade Mountains) were present by phone and speakers. Rev. Eldon Olson from the ECLA local synod was secured as a facilitator for the day. Following a brief worship service, the Rev. Joyce Lawlor, pastor of Good Shepherd Baptist Church in Lynnwood, preaching, the delegates adopted the by-laws. Pictures of the day show a racially mixed group of people working together.

APPENDICES

Transition Team Members
Rev. James Winbush, Associate Pastor, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Baptist Church, Renton. Chair.
Bonnie Harding, Member, First Baptist Church, Kent.
Herb Tschuyia, Member, Chinese Baptist Church, Seattle
Bob Gruel, Member, Southside United Protestant Church, Richland
Yosh Nakagawa, Member, Japanese Baptist Church, Seattle
Tom Nielsen, Member, University Baptist Church, Seattle. Secretary
David Simpkins, Pastor, Burien Community Church, Burien
Marcia Patton, ABC/NW Staff
and later Curtis Price, Associate Pastor, First Baptist Church, Kent was added to the Team.
Vision Committee Members
African-American Representatives:
Dana McClendon, Pastor, Greater New Bethel Baptist Church, Seattle
George Nobel, Associate Pastor, Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, Seattle
James Barnett, Associate Pastor, Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Baptist Church, Renton. (dropped out)
Leslie Braxton, Pastor, Mount Zion Baptist Church, Seattle (attended one meeting).
Asian American Representatives:
Dr. Akira Ishimaru, Member Japanese Baptist Church (in summer of 2002 resigned because of health, was replaced by Yosh Nakagawa also a Member of Japanese Baptist Church)
Romer Macalinao, Pastor, Filippino-American Christian Fellowship (who had to leave the country and was replaced by Paul Aita, Pastor, Japanese Baptist Chruch)
Euro-American Representatives:
Chrystal Cooper, Moderator, First Baptist Church, Mountlake Terrace
Heidi Cleveland, Member, Panther Lake Community Church, Kent
Curtis Price, Associate Pastor, First Baptist Church, Kent (later Pastor of Wedgwood Community Church, Seattle)
Larry Sims, Member, University Baptist Church

Transition Executive Board Members
African-American Caucus Representatives:
Linda Smith, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Baptist Church, Renton.
Kelly B. Coleman, Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, Seattle
Asian-American Caucus Representatives:
Akira Ishimaru (later replaced by Yosh Nakagawa) Japanese Baptist Church
Romer Macalinao, Filipino-American Christian Fellowship (later replaced by Paul Aita, Japanese Baptist Church).
Euro-American Caucus Representatives:
Barry Briscoe, Burien Community Church, Burien
Betty Bates, First Baptist Church, Seattle
At Large Representative:
Julian Hunter, Mount Zion Baptist Church, Seattle

Interim ABC/NW Executive Minister: Lucy Brand
Adjunct Advisor: James Winbush
Consultant, later Transitional Minister: Marcia Patton

Mission Statement
(as proposed for February 22, 2003 by-laws)

Being a culturally diverse people who are one in Christ and who value the liberties of our American Baptist heritage, the Evergreen Baptist Association will;
Build bridges between communities;
Provide resources to equip member churches to share Christ, and teach God’s word; and
Translate our unity to the world


STRUCTURE PROPOSAL
(as proposed for February 22, 2003 by-laws)

CONVENTION
Meeting
Annually or semi-annually
Members (Delegates)
5 Delegates per member churches provided they support ABC/USA and Evergreen
Responsibilities
Elect Executive Board Officers (as nominated by Caucus Groups)
Elect ABC/USA General Board Representative(s)
Elect Executive Minister (2/3 majority)
Approve and Welcome New Caucuses
Approve and Welcome New Churches
Budget approval
Quorum
Majority of registered delegates provided at least one member of each caucus is present.

ASSOCIATION BOARD
Meeting
Quarterly
Membership
1 Representative from each church +
Executive Board
ABC/USA General Board Representative(s)
1 representative each from National ABC caucuses who have a population in our Association to develop churches until such time as churches are planted and they have caucus status (Hispanic and Native American Caucuses)
Officers
From Executive Board
Responsibilities
Programming
Budget Proposal
Ordination Ethics
Calling an Executive Minister Search Committee 5<9 through a process of names from Association Board. Bring back candidate name to Association Board before going to Convention for vote.
Recommend churches to convention for approval and welcome.

EXECUTIVE BOARD
Meeting
Monthly
Membership
2 Representatives per caucus (only ones eligible for officer) (4 year terms with renewable 2 year term) +
Executive Minister +

Officers
Chair (2 year non-renewable term, rotating among caucuses)
Vice-Chair (2 year non-renewable term, with “assumed” next term serving as Chair, rotating among caucuses)
Secretary, who shall be the Executive Minister
Treasurer (2 year once renewable term, rotating among caucuses)
Responsibilities
Call meetings of Association Board and Conventions
Legal Entity for Association
Quorum
At least one representative from each caucus present

CAUCUSES
Membership
Members of churches who choose to be members of a particular caucus with approval of caucuses.
Present Caucuses
African-American (Black)
Asian
Euro-American
Expectations of Caucuses
Send experienced members of caucus to executive committee for reasonable period of time.
Teach all regarding the American Baptist Family
Cooperate with ABC National Caucus groups.
Responsibilities
Designate Representatives to Executive Board and alternates
Nominate officers (on rotating basis)
Set Agendas for Association Board and Conventions
Fill vacancies in a timely manner at duly called meetings of caucuses
Recommend new churches to Association Board
Recommend church plants to Association Board
Set standards in dialogue with other caucuses for recognition of ordination, process for ethical violations, etc.

DELEGATES TO MEETINGS
Every member church will be allocated 5 voting delegates each provided the church has participated in giving, and sending annual reports according the ABC/USA Common Criteria. A member church may send as many non-voting delegates as they choose.

Delegates shall be affirmed to represent the church upon pastors or church clerk’s signature.

Vision Statement

The Evergreen Baptist Association, being called into community by God, under the divine leading of Jesus Christ and with the help of the Holy Spirit, within the next three to five years will be:
The success of these partnerships will be seen by the presence of God in our collective voice making an impact for Christ in the world around us; our full participation in the Association (financially, physically and spiritually) and our passion and commitment for ministry of the gospel together by the grace and glory of our awesome God.