In an unprecedented move, two state convention executive directors challenged the North American Mission Board (NAMB) presidential nominee, Kevin Ezell, senior pastor of Highview Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky., just prior to NAMB’s vote on him.
David E. Hankins, executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, opposed Ezell’s nomination in a Sept. 9 open letter to NAMB’s trustees and urged them not to elect him. Trustees were scheduled to vote during a Sept. 14 special called meeting. The result of this meeting will be reported at www.thealabamabaptist.org.
“This is not meant as a personal attack on Dr. Ezell,” Hankins wrote. “I would have the same concern about any candidate for NAMB who had a similarly poor record” of supporting Southern Baptists’ Cooperative Program (CP) channel of missions and ministry along with another key source of NAMB funding, the annual Annie Armstrong Easter Offering (AAEO) for North American Missions.
Emil Turner, executive director of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, agreed.
“Dr. Hankins has a gracious and kind assessment of the situation, and he is also clearly logical,” Turner said. “It seems surprising to me that the search committee would recommend someone whose level of support for the North American Mission Board through the CP and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering could not sustain the work of NAMB were it to be duplicated widely across the [Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)].
“While I have met Dr. Ezell and been impressed with his personality and his preaching, I would hope that the new president of NAMB could be an example of commitment to the Cooperative Program as called for by the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force and to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering.”
Hankins, a former vice president for CP with the SBC Executive Committee, wrote, “There are many excellent pastors with an SBC affiliation who have chosen to go a more independent route with their churches’ mission spending.
“I am thankful for every success they have brought to the Kingdom, but I believe, by their negligible cooperative denominational giving, they have removed themselves from consideration as SBC entity leaders,” he wrote. “I am concerned that a NAMB president who has chosen the independent model will send a chilling message to the thousands of Southern Baptist congregations who have been led by their pastors and their denomination to believe that generous support for our cooperative mission funding processes is the good and right thing to do.”
Information from the 2009 Annual Church Profile, maintained by LifeWay Christian Resources, lists 121 baptisms at Highview Baptist and primary worship service attendance of 3,260.
Highview gave $140,100, or 2.23 percent, through the CP from undesignated receipts of $6,270,057. Its total missions expenditures of $1,350,107 include $50,000 for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and $10,000 for AAEO.
Despite Highview’s annual $6 million budget, “the financial contribution of the church through the Cooperative Program and Annie Armstrong Offering has been marginal, at best,” Hankins wrote.
“Consequently one has to believe the anemic support of cooperative ministries has been a purposeful decision by the pastor and the church leadership,” his letter continued. “Dr. Ezell has indicated he believes this was a better way to reach their congregational objectives. Is that what Southern Baptists believe and what they expect from the leader of the North American Mission Board?”
Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church, Pensacola, Fla., who served as chairman of the NAMB presidential search committee, rejects the accusation that Ezell is “an independent Baptist.”
“Our team finds Dr. Ezell to be a loyal Southern Baptist mission supporter,” Traylor said, adding, “I am convinced Dr. Ezell can build NAMB into the mission agency Southern Baptists will be thrilled to support.”
Tim Dowdy, chairman of NAMB’s board of trustees and senior pastor of Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church, McDonough, Ga., is also looking forward to how Ezell could impact NAMB.
“Kevin has been a loyal Southern Baptist, and I believe he will help NAMB continue to work through the long-standing partnerships we have had and help us build new partnerships and new ways of taking Christ to North America,” Dowdy said.
But Hankins said those who would presume to lead Southern Baptist entities ought to have a track record of supporting those entities.
“The greatest stewardship of Great Commission investment and deployment is giving through the Cooperative Program,” and that calls on the SBC to adopt goals of giving more than $100 million annually through the AAEO.
“How can he challenge cooperative support if he has led his church in the opposite direction?” Hankins asked.
He said he was told there were no candidates who had all the credentials of the current nominee and an exemplary track record of CP and AAEO support.
“I do not believe this,” Hankins wrote. “There are any number of leaders who possess outstanding leadership skills and meet all the prerequisites, including denominational cooperation and support.
“This is serious business at a serious juncture. No one needs to remind you of the struggles that NAMB has had due to conflict at the executive level,” he told NAMB trustees. “I know you want to get this decision right.
Compromising on cooperative missions methodology is not the pathway to getting it right. Please, seek a candidate to lead our national work who possesses all the prerequisites your Southern Baptist family expects and deserves.”
While Hankins and Turner have voiced their concern publicly, what they are saying has been discussed across Southern Baptist circles on blogs, in e-mails and by phone.
“I realize there is an ongoing discussion among Southern Baptists about how we can best express our passion for missions through our giving, and I am sure that will be part of our discussion … when our trustees meet to discuss Kevin’s nomination,” Dowdy said.
The full text of Hankins’ letter, which has been forwarded to the full NAMB trustee board, can be found at www.thealabamabaptist.org.
(Compiled from wire services)
Share with others: