NAMB trustees to consider removal of agency's president

ALPHARETTA – North American Mission Board trustees will meet on Aug. 11 to consider removing Geoff Hammond as president of the agency.

The primary charges against Hammond center around a lack of willingness bordering on insubordination to work with trustee officers, as well as chronic morale problems at the agency.

NAMB President Geoff Hammond could be removed from office of the Alpharetta-based agency if trustees agree his leadership style has led to a deterioration of the Board's effectiveness. The Board's Executive Committee, which has the power to remove the president, will meet in regular session on August 11. Hammond began his term at NAMB on May 22, 2007.

Hammond began his presidency on May 22, 2007, and had a honeymoon that bode well for the future of the agency. But within six months cracks in his administration began to appear as he came under criticism as an autocratic leader who rejected counsel from trustees and others.

NAMB’s 21-member Executive Committee, which conducts business between full board meetings, had planned to consider the allegations at its regularly scheduled meeting in early August. But as word of the meeting began to spread, the 57-member full board decided to poll its members to determine if a special called meeting would be in order. That decision was still undecided late Friday afternoon.

The lack of confidence in leadership at the agency came to light in a July 29 email from Jason Pettus, pastor of Living Hope Baptist Church in Bowling Green, Ky. In that email, which was forwarded to The Christian Index, Pettus disclosed his conversation with Board Chairman Tim Patterson over rumors of the upcoming Executive Committee meeting.

Pettus said Patterson stated that the committee “had several ‘serious issues’ that they needed to talk with Geoff about.” He then detailed three of those most pressing concerns:

First, Hammond had failed to meet with the executive leadership coach that the Executive Committee had hired to help him refine his leadership and management skills. Instead, Hammond was seeking another coach of his choosing.

“Tim stated that this was an example of problems he and the Executive Committee had been having with Geoff for 18 months,” Pettus stated.

Second, Hammond had hired a chief operating officer to help him manage the agency without prior approval of the Executive Committee. While the Executive Committee had been encouraging Hammond to add the position for the past year, it wanted input to assure the person had the right qualifications and would bring the proper leadership skills to the executive office.

Third, as detailed in the email, Patterson explained to Pettus that “morale at NAMB is at an all-time low and people within the agency and outside of it are unhappy with the way things are going.”

Pettus also asked Patterson if he was seeking to have Hammond removed as president at the meeting. Patterson replied that he “had no desire to see Geoff removed as president, but that members of the Executive Committee could pursue Geoff’s removal and that he would be serving only as the leader of the meeting.”

Patterson did tell Pettus that some on the Executive Committee “were very ‘angry’ and ‘frustrated’ with Geoff” and that the committee did have the authority to act on behalf of the entire Board when the entire Board was not in session.

Pettus told The Index he wrote the email to let fellow board members know to pray for the agency and that he was not taking sides in the issue.

“I have no concerns whatsoever about those serving on our Executive Committee. They are godly men and are not out to do any harm to the agency” he said.

“I have nothing but the greatest love and admiration for them and their leadership. I can truthfully say that we, as board members, love the North American Mission Board and what God is doing there.”

In a telephone interview with Patterson on July 31, the Florida pastor told The Index he was not going to bring the leadership and integrity issues before the Executive Committee, but that he would preside over the meeting. He said he intended to avoid any implication that the issues were a personality conflict between him and the president.

“This is not a personality issue or a rift between any of the board members. We intend to keep the meeting focused on the issues of leadership, integrity, and morale,” Patterson said.

“I am fully supportive of NAMB and its purpose and I am excited about what God is doing through its ministries. We have some of the greatest people in the denomination working at the agency.

“I believe the trustee system, as created by Southern Baptists, is a wonderful system and when it is allowed to function as it should it will accomplish the will of the people, be uplifting to God, and be a blessing to the denomination.”

Hammond’s leadership style has come under question on several occasions and was explored in a Nov. 20, 2008, article in The Index titled “Going, going, gone…” (www.christianindex.org/4956.article). It focused on NAMB’s creative funding for the agency’s massive evangelism emphasis, God’s Plan for Sharing (GPS) and for its chronic morale problems.

At one point, as detailed in the story, morale became such a serious concern that board officers came to Atlanta in April, unannounced, to personally deal with the issues. The group was kept for more than two hours by evangelism staff who were allowed to freely express their concerns while Hammond was out of town.

NAMB declined to comment on any of the issues that will be discussed at the upcoming meeting. In a prepared statement released to The Index, NAMB stated, “The topics to be covered at the upcoming August 11th meeting of the Executive Committee of our Board of Trustees are issues being discussed among our trustees. NAMB’s president, Geoff Hammond, recently asked the chairman of our Board of Trustees if there was anything he could do to prepare for the meeting, as is standard protocol, and he was told there was not.

“Some of our trustees have expressed concerns about what is to be discussed in the August 11th Executive Committee meeting and in accordance with NAMB Trustee bylaws, they have requested a specially called meeting of the entire membership of our Board of Trustees to take place at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 11.”

After being read the statement, Patterson verified that he had personally communicated the nature of the Executive Committee’s concerns to Hammond in advance of the meeting.

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