NAMB President Geoff Hammond resigns

Dr. Geoff Hammond resigned as president of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, according to a report in online edition of The Christian Index.
The resignation happened after a day-long meeting of the full trustee board today, August 11.
The future of the board leadership is uncertain. Please pray for the North American Mission Board.

NAMB considering removal of president

The executive committee of the board of trustees of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention is considering removing its president, Dr. Geoff Hammond, for "insubordination," according to a report in The Christian Index. The executive committee meets on August 11, but the full board may meet with them to make the decision.
I rotated off the board of trustees of NAMB last year. Having served as a trustee, I know how agonizing this situation must be. Dr. Hammond and the trustees need our prayers for wisdom, that God will be glorified through this situation.

Should NAMB merge with IMB?

Should the North American Mission Board (NAMB) merge with the International Mission Board (IMB)? In a surprise statement, Tim Patterson, chairman of NAMB, said yes. Read the article here.
He may be right, but I'm not sure. NAMB is a very different animal from IMB. IMB has a simple focus: sending missionaries to other nations and people groups around the world. NAMB is much more diverse, including production of training materials and literature for Men's Ministry and RA's. Also, NAMB coordinates most of its work with local state conventions and associations, jointly funding work with them, whereas IMB sends its missionaries itself, without joint funding (although it cooperates with local national conventions.)
It seems to me that Chairman Patterson should have explored this idea with NAMB president Geoff Hammond and with the other trustees of NAMB before making a public statement such as this. My understanding is that he did not talk to them about his statement, which caught them by surprise. I know that as a pastor, I would not want my chairman of deacons publicly stating that my church should merge with another church, without even talking to me about it first. If I were still a trustee, I would call him on the carpet for making this statement the way he did.

NAMB Commissioning awesome experience

The North American Mission Board commissioning service at First Baptist Church of Rincon on February 22, 2009 was an awesome experience.
The crowd of nearly 1,000 people heard brief testimonies and prayer requests from 144 missionaries serving all over the United States and Canada. Dr. Geoff Hammond, president of NAMB, spoke about how in these difficult economic times, we are to seek the kingdom first, not "all these things" of materialism.
Children from the church and other area churches brought in the flags of the United States and Canadian provinces, and the choirs and praise team of FBC Rincon led music. We also heard pre-service music by a Hispanic praise team and Korean choir.
This picture shows Lon Vining (the man in the aisle seat with his arm over the end of the pew) in the congregation. Lon and his wife Amanda serve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where he is planting a church. The population in Montreal is 0.05% evangelical Christian. The need is great, but God's calling is greater!
It was a thrilling worship service. When it ended, Dr. Bob White, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Convention, turned to me and told me that it was one of the most inspiring worship services he had ever been in.
You can read the article by Baptist Press about the commissioning service here.

Disturbing article about NAMB

The Nashville newspaper, The Tennesseean, has published a disturbing article about the North American Mission Board, saying that our evangelism efforts are poorly funded and lack leadership from Dr. Geoff Hammond, president of NAMB.
The article is a follow-up on another article written by The Christian Index, the Georgia Baptist newspaper, which was also very critical of the lack of funding plans for evangelism, and had some criticisms of the Dr. Hammond's leadership.
I'm praying that some good will come of this, and that NAMB can focus on leading Southern Baptists to share the gospel.