The North American Mission Board (NAMB) report June 16 was silent on the biggest news event to come out of the Alpharetta, Ga., office during the past year — then-President Geoff Hammond being forced out in August 2009.
Hammond resigned Aug. 11 after enduring charges of chronic morale problems and leadership issues that undermined the effectiveness of NAMB. The resignation came during a board of trustees meeting that had been called specifically to deal with the problems.
One veiled mention of this came when messenger Larry Thomas of Southside Baptist Church, Heber Springs, Ark., asked why NAMB hired an outside expert to deal with “the August meeting.” He also wanted to know how much money was spent and where it come from.
Trustee chairman Tim Dowdy, pastor of First Baptist Church, Eagle’s Landing, in McDonough, Ga., noted that while he was not chairman at that point, he did know that money from the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering was not used for the expert.
“The reason was so we could have someone with an objective view to guide us through the process in the most expert way,” Dowdy said.
Hammond’s name was not mentioned. What was mentioned during the report was the trustees’ search for a new leader, the transition taking place and God’s Plan for Sharing (GPS). GPS is NAMB’s major decadelong evangelism strategy that was unveiled during the 2009 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting in Louisville, Ky., by Hammond.
And the obvious emphases woven throughout the report and following presentation were the Great Commission Resurgence, “penetrating the lostness” and reaching North America with the gospel.
“One thing I ask is that you pray for us in the next few months,” Dowdy said. “We are under one of the crucial [times] for us as we search for a new leader of the North American Mission Board.
“In the mean time, we have been blessed to have Richard Harris, vice president of [missions advancement], as interim (president). He has provided rock solid, stable leadership for NAMB in this time.”
“Your North American Mission Board is moving forward,” Harris said. “It has a bright future. … We’ve been attempting to move forward to fulfill the Great Commission. At the forefront is GPS,” he said, noting 10,000 churches are participating and 24,000 TV ads and 7,000 radio ads have aired. “We are leading Southern Baptists to reach the 258 million lost people in North America.”
Harris said NAMB is ready to lead Southern Baptists to “penetrate the lostness” and will be focused on church planting, evangelism, discipleship, leadership development and metropolitan missions.
The NAMB presentation featured three of these focus areas by highlighting the work being done by a diverse group of NAMB representatives. Each segment of the presentation began with a video story of a representative and the lives that are being changed. Following the video, the representative and one or more of those featured in the video were interviewed live by Harris.
Those featured were NAMB missionary Jalil Dawood, who works with the Iraqi population in Dallas; Andrew Mann, NAMB missionary in Bronx, N.Y.; and Sammy Gilbreath, director of evangelism for the Alabama Baptist Convention State Board of Missions, who has seen tremendous success with GPS.
The Iraqi Christian convert who was featured said Arabs moving to America would “be blessed to meet someone like [Dawood].”
Mann said the neighborhood where he lives and works is rough “but God is here.”
Two brothers who accepted Christ and are spreading the gospel among their family and friends said it was Mann’s help and attention to them that made the difference.
Gilbreath noted that GPS: Across Alabama “is probably the largest organized outreach ministry attempted by Alabama Baptists.”
In the recent GPS Easter effort, evangelistic material was hung on nearly 1 million doors in Alabama.
“We didn’t have a lack of passion [for evangelism],” Gilbreath said of Alabama Baptist work before GPS. “But we didn’t have a strategy. … Now we have a way to carry this out.” Liberty Baptist Church, Painter, was featured as one of Alabama’s GPS success stories (click here).
Noting the contagiousness of Gilbreath’s excitement about sharing the gospel, Harris asked him, “Will you help us in pioneer areas?”
“Absolutely,” Gilbreath said. “Alabama stands ready not only to penetrate lostness in Alabama but in all of North America.”
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