September 18, 2024
GuideStone trustees heard various reports from staff related to executing the enterprise’s Reach strategic plan, received the audit committee report and heard a strong report from Mission:Dignity.
Trustees met in regular sessions July 29–30 in Utah.
David Cox (Michigan) presided over his first meeting as trustee board chair. A bivocational pastor of Temple of Faith Baptist Church in Detroit, Cox has spent more than 20 years with Penske Logistics in supply chain management. A 1994 graduate of Florida A&M University, Cox has served various roles with the Greater Detroit Baptist Association and the Michigan African American Fellowship.
During the meeting, trustees welcomed five new members: Jimmy Adams (North Carolina), Glenn Emfinger (Louisiana), Susan Parris (Virginia), Bill Peacock (Maryland/Delaware/DC) and Keith Powell (Colorado). All were elected by messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting held this past June in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Reach strategic plan has at its core a goal to strengthen an already robust relationship with Southern Baptist churches and ministries.
“You can do strategy planning, put the words on paper, hang them on a wall, and then keep doing what you’ve always done,” GuideStone President Hance Dilbeck warned. “But we are committed to aligning our enterprise to execute this strategy and better serve our members and ministry partners.”
GuideStone Chief Operating Officer Chu Soh introduced Tim Sturr as the enterprise’s new chief strategy officer. Sturr, who came to GuideStone in April 2022 after 26 years with Wells Fargo and Capital One, will lead those efforts. He holds an undergraduate degree from James Madison University and a master’s from Stanford.
“Tim comes to GuideStone with a unique understanding of the challenges faced by pastors and their families as a preacher’s kid himself,” Soh said. “Tim brings the head knowledge after a quarter-of-a-century in financial services with the heart knowledge of ministry. We’re thrilled to see what he can do as we serve our members and ministry partners in the future.”
Sturr described the past two years at GuideStone as the most fulfilling of his career.
“Growing up as the son of a pastor in a family who struggled to get by financially, it is a joy to serve so many pastors as we seek to enhance their financial security and resilience,” Sturr said. “I have a passion for these pastors and their families to start well so they can ultimately finish well in service to our Lord.”
The Reach strategy is an outgrowth of GuideStone’s Vision, which states, “Every servant of Christ finishes well.”
“Finishing well is not just to get to retirement, but through retirement,” Dilbeck said. “It’s about freedom — freedom from anxiety but also freedom to serve as the Lord leads.”
In 2023, GuideStone distributed more than $1.6 billion in benefits — retirement as well as medical, life and disability claims. Almost a third of that was just in medical claims, which continue to present challenges for health providers nationwide.
“Inpatient costs alone have increased 19% year-over-year,” Soh said. “We’ve had double the number of claims over $500,000, which includes costs like NICU babies and transplants. We’re seeing higher claims for metabolic syndromes or chronic conditions. The stress our members are dealing with is catching up with them and impacting not only their mental and emotional health but their physical health as well.”
Audit Committee chair Deana Hames (Georgia) provided trustees with a report with updates on internal and external audits, received a clean report, and confirmed that GuideStone had again retained PwC for its annual audit for 2025.
Trustees again celebrated Mission:Dignity, the GuideStone ministry that provides financial assistance to retirement-aged Southern Baptist ministers, workers and their widows in financial need. Through June 30, gifts to the ministry are almost $6 million, Relief Committee Chair Brian King (Pennsylvania/South Jersey) told trustees. He noted that 2,739 individuals have been assisted through the ministry through mid-year. The O.S. and Susie Hawkins Emergency Grant Fund has received $12.8 million through June 30, with 100% participation from trustees, for which King thanked them and encouraged trustees to consider pledging more. The emergency grants support recipients with one-time needs like new eyeglasses, a water heater, roof repairs or dentures.
“Mission:Dignity is truly the very heartbeat of GuideStone,” Cox said.
Prior to closing the meeting with the traditional singing of Doxology, Dilbeck told trustees of the importance of koinonia in the work of GuideStone.
“What binds us together is the Gospel fellowship,” he said. “When we say we want to expand our Kingdom reach, we’re not talking about growing our business; we are saying we have a Gospel mission, a Kingdom assignment, to serve pastors, churches and ministries well.”
