Following a unanimous vote by FamilyNet’s board of trustees Aug. 7, North American Mission Board (NAMB) trustees Aug. 8 voted unanimously to accept a letter of intent from Charles Stanley’s In Touch Ministries (ITM) outlining the ministry’s intention to purchase NAMB’s FamilyNet television network.
Under terms of the letter, NAMB and ITM will work together to evaluate and negotiate the planned sale and purchase of FamilyNet and finalize details for the sale on or before Oct. 31, 2007.
NAMB board of trustees Chairman Bill Curtis, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church, Florence, S.C., said the sale “will result in two very significant Kingdom events.”
“First,” he said, “it will enable NAMB to focus on its primary tasks as the North American missions arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. Second, it will enable FamilyNet to become the network Southern Baptists always dreamed it could be.”
Curtis said the sale to ITM will enable FamilyNet to grow while NAMB can focus energies and resources on its core ministry tasks.
“Throughout the years, Southern Baptists have used media to impact our nation with the gospel,” Curtis said. “For more than 50 years, the Radio and Television Commission, and later the North American Mission Board, has attempted to do this through the development of the Acts and then FamilyNet television networks.”
NAMB to keep airtime
“I am grateful to the people at NAMB for laying the groundwork at FamilyNet which has made this extraordinary and exciting opportunity possible,” Stanley said in a statement. “We at In Touch Ministries look forward to continuing FamilyNet’s tradition of creating and providing excellent, inspiring, family-friendly programming for cable providers, network affiliates and viewers.”
Under the agreement, a NAMB representative would hold a chair on FamilyNet’s board of trustees and NAMB would receive weekly program time on both the television and radio arms of the network. Although not part of the agreement, ITM has also indicated NAMB will have access to its state-of-the-art studio facilities and other communications technology resources.
NAMB’s FamilyNet task force started its process of examining future strategies for the network before Geoff Hammond became president of NAMB this past May, but Hammond says the agency will continue to use media to help spread the gospel across the North American continent.
“The North American Mission Board still resources and encourages Southern Baptists through many forms of media,” Hammond said. “The strategy to use media as one of the many tools to help us share Christ, start churches and send missionaries has not changed. We are also ready, in this digital age, to investigate new and innovative ways to get our messages out while continuing to use the access we have to radio and television through ITM.” (BP)
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