For a congregation with close and enduring ties to Baylor University students, the decision to become unaffiliated is no small one. About 200 congregation members attend Baylor, and church leadership estimates more than 20 receive scholarships through the convention as undergraduates or as students at Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary. Minatrea said students who join an affiliated church can retain their scholarships, but those who do not will lose them.

Baylor spokeswoman Lori Fogleman said it is “anticipated that full-time faculty members at Truett Seminary will worship at a BGCT-affiliated church,” though there is no written requirement that they do.

When the convention cut ties with Lake Shore Baptist Church in Waco and two other churches in 2016, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Texas created a temporary fund to fill in the gaps and cover students who lost convention scholarship money.

“They’d entered school, thought they’d had all their bases covered, and then lost that,” said Rick McClatchy, field coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. “I don’t know if we can continue to do that in the future.”

There is no opposition to extending the program in theory, but members would have to agree to set aside more money, McClatchy said.

“We were doing it for students caught in the bind, not a permanent program,” he said. “We’ll have to sort of look at that as we get more students in this situation. If churches want to work together to try to fund it, that will be the key thing.”

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