LifeWay nixes Glorieta sale...

...ensuring some years, one supposes, of continued financial losses.

LifeWay decides against Glorieta sale to Olivet

The Baptist Press story above quotes LifeWay's complete statement:

"LifeWay Christian Resources has reviewed the report from the National Association of Evangelicals, and decided not to go forward with the sale of Glorieta Conference Center to Olivet University. We are appreciative of our relationship with Olivet's leadership, and indebted to NAE for their thorough work. We will now renew our pursuit of viable options for the sale of the property."

Well...OK...what exactly about Olivet was learned through the NAE's "thorough work" which was labeled as a "theological study" whose purpose was to "determine compatibility" with "ours."

Incompatible? How so? In what respect?

I'm just a hacker and plodder in the SBC hinterlands but it looks like LifeWay caved on this sale just as soon as vested interests at Glorieta began to raise these questions. The alleged theological compatibility study was just cover, probably expensive cover for a decision already made.

Olivet, not insignificantly, already leases space there. This has the potential for becoming more interesting.

I don't care if LifeWay sells Glorieta, mothballs it, or finds ways to increase revenues so that it is not a financial drain. I'd just prefer some straight talk about the decision.

Glorieta is a problem, a money pit, and LifeWay has self-imposed encumbrances that make a sale difficult. These are:

• -- "Significant protections for individuals and churches that lease land from Glorieta for houses and conference facilities
• -- "Permission for LifeWay to continue using Glorieta for summer camps
• -- "Accommodation of use by New Mexico Baptists
• -- "Preservation of memorials associated with rooms and structures, and,
• -- "Prohibition of re-selling the facilities in the future without LifeWay's permission."

Plodder will be the first to predict that LifeWay will go back to the Baptist Convention of New Mexico, to whom the place was offered for one dollar (they turned that down), and sweeten the deal.

Hey, doesn't cost me anything to make a wild conjecture here.

I will also predict that LifeWay will stonewall the theological compatibility study.  

Call me an irascible, semi-retired curmudgeon but sometimes I hate the way we choose to conduct our business.

LifeWay, Glorieta Conference Center and old fashioned money pits

I am venturing out of my geographical area in writing about LifeWay's 'other' conference center, Glorieta Conference Center, in New Mexico. I have always wanted to take in a conference there (my wife worked there one summer and loved the place) but it was just too far.

Last year LifeWay started looking for a buyer, so I may never get the chance.

Why sell a perfectly good conference center? Here's a factoid that got my attention: LifeWay reported that "Just once in the last 25 years has Glorieta achieved financial break-even."

Ouch.

LifeWay offered the whole thing to the Baptist Convention of New Mexico for one dollar.

Deal of the century?

Not according to the BCNM who said there was tens of millions of dollars of deferred maintenance to be done and wanted LifeWay to indemnify them if they took it over.

LifeWay, understanding that they would still own a money pit, declined that.

There was a possibility of another sale that fell through. It was interesting that the sale would have included

• -- "Significant protections for individuals and churches that lease land from Glorieta for houses and conference facilities
• -- "Permission for LifeWay to continue using Glorieta for summer camps
• -- "Accommodation of use by New Mexico Baptists
• -- "Preservation of memorials associated with rooms and structures, and,
• -- "Prohibition of re-selling the facilities in the future without LifeWay's permission."

Come on LifeWay. Either sell it or make something out of it. What buyer would buy the thing with all the above stipulations?

The first stipulation in the list above, the one about "individuals and churches" leasing land from Glorieta, is interesting. I have always wondered what the arrangement was at Ridgecrest for all those on-campus houses that were owned by churches.

The Ridgecrest/Glorieta model of a centralized, dedicated conference facility fueled by national conferences is outdated, according to one of the news reports linked above. This matches my experience with Ridgecrest where summer youth conferences, my church went every year in the 1980s and early 90s, packed the place. 

LifeWay gets to operate differently than other SBC institutions and agencies, since it can raise literature prices to generate more income and is unaffected, directly that is, by any Cooperative Program revenue issues. 

I suspect that this is the only thing that has made it possible for LifeWay to pour money into Glorieta for decade after decade without too much worry. I suppose the sums just became too large to justify. 

I'd be curious to see a figure on how much money LifeWay has lost on Glorieta over the years. I read that Ridgecrest is profitable, but I'd like to see the details on that. LifeWay has put some significant money into Ridgecrest which was getting very long in the tooth.

I'd ask any of my west-of-the-Mississippi readers what they think of the whole, sad, Glorieta thing.