ATLANTA — NAMB President Geoff Hammond, just concluding his sixth month as head of the North American Mission Board, unveiled his Dream Team of upper level management during the Oct. 9-10 Board of trustees meeting.

Hammond, who was elected president on March 21, has been fine-turning NAMB’s organizational structure as he continues his administration’s emphasis on evangelism through missions, missionaries, and church planting.

Before announcing the new management team, Hammond said that all vice president positions had been renamed to “senior strategist” to create a more servant-leader based team. That approach is a step back from NAMB’s first decade that established a more corporate approach to management.

Hammond said the new title of NAMB’s senior leaders will reflect the fact that the leaders are experienced, proven practitioners leading a mission agency.

In his address to Board members at their regular fall meeting he announced two major appointments to flesh out the six-member management team which has slowly taken shape over the past few months.

Ken Weathersby, who currently serves as NAMB’s senior director of the equipping division in the church planting group, will guide the agency’s evangelism efforts as senior strategist for evangelization. He formerly served as manager of the agency’s African American church planting group and previously planted churches in Ohio, Tennessee and Louisiana.

Weathersby came to NAMB in 2000 from the Tennessee Baptist Convention where he was state evangelism director. In that role, he led evangelism strategy and implementation in one of the largest state Baptist conventions in the United States. He was also responsible for state evangelism conferences, such as the TBC’s Youth Evangelism Conference that regularly is attended by more than 20,000 students.

Hammond said Weathersby has “the calling to be a missionary and the heart of an evangelist.

“As state evangelism director in Tennessee, he led mass evangelism and personal evangelism efforts,” Hammond said. “He thinks strategically and is a relationship-builder. I am excited about Dr. Weathersby leading an important area like evangelism for the North American Mission Board.”

The second major appointment went to David Meacham, who will lead the agency’s church planting group.

Meacham serves as director of the Leavell Center for Evangelism and Church Health at New Orleans Seminary, where he has also served as a professor of church planting. Meacham led Southern Baptist statewide efforts in Nevada from 1992 to 2001 as executive director of the Nevada Baptist Convention. Prior to that, he was director of missions in Las Vegas from 1981 to 1992.

After graduating from New Orleans Seminary, Meacham’s church planting experience began when he served in a volunteer role with the local Baptist association in the Riverside-San Bernardino area of California. Later, he served as director of church starting for the Puget Sound Association in Washington state.

Hammond said Meacham “is not only a skilled practitioner in church planting but also a very capable administrator. This man has been doing the job in the field most of his life and for the past few years he has been one of the best teachers and recruiters of church planters in North America.

“We also praise the Lord for his experience as a state executive director and state director of missions which will enhance NAMB’s relationships with our Acts 1:8 partners.”

Hammond then fleshed out the remaining team members who were NAMB staff and had already transitioned into their new roles.

• Harry Lewis, who served as interim vice president of missions for the past 18 months, will serve as senior strategist for missions and mobilization.

• Richard Harris, the longest serving vice president at NAMB, was named senior strategist for missions advancement – a new position that focuses on nurturing relationships with partners to encourage support of the Cooperative Program and Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. Until this summer Harris had served for 10 years – for NAMB’s first decade – as vice president, church planting.

• Carlos Ferrer, who joined NAMB in 1992 and served as interim chief operating officer prior to Hammond’s election, remains as chief financial officer under the new administration.

A sixth position, senior strategist for sending missionaries, will remain open as Hammond continues the search for the best qualified candidate. Until then, he will serve as interim in that role as he continues to learn the NAMB process and better acquaints himself with the operation of the agency. He previously served as interim in the church planting position prior to Meacham’s appointment for similar reasons.

Ferrer, in presenting the agency’s financial report, noted that the agency was solidly in the black and was $15 million under budget for the year-to-date period. He then reported that Annie Armstrong Easter Offering receipts were breaking with tradition and were up 2.3 percent above the previous year’s record 11 percent jump.

“Historically the year following a strong giving pattern is flat or shows a decrease. This reverses that pattern and we are grateful to Southern Baptists for their strong support of North American missions and their missionaries,” he told the Board.

In other action, trustees approved the agency’s proposed 2008 budget of $130.4 million. They also unanimously approved a “Trustees Expectations” document, which outlines guidelines on issues such as attendance at board and committee meetings; confidentiality; conflict of interest; lifestyle and integrity; and relationships with NAMB employees, the press, the public, and Southern Baptists in general.

Trustees were also informed that the agency had endorsed another 23 chaplains for a 2007 total of 205, far exceeding its goal of 142.

Board members were also updated on the sale of FamilyNet to Atlanta pastor Charles Stanley and his InTouch Ministries. That sale is expected to be completed on October 25.

The trustees also elected Tim Dowdy, Georgia trustee and pastor of Eagles Landing First Baptist Church in McDonough, as second vice chairman.

 

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In brief

In their regularly scheduled fall meeting NAMB’s trustees:

• Approved President Geoff Hammond’s Dream Team of upper management;

• Heard reports that the agency was solidly in the black and was under-spending the budget by $15 million;

• Learned that Southern Baptists continue strong support of the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for the second straight year with current income up 2.3 percent over the previous year’s record 11 percent increase; and

• Were updated on the sale of FamilyNet, which is expected to close by October 25, ending a costly era in broadcast media.