NAMB full board to meet Aug. 11 in called session

ALPHARETTA – It’s official.

North American Mission Board trustees will meet in a special called session of the full board at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 11. The meeting to determine the fate of President Geoff Hammond met with a few snags over the weekend as trustees worked to get the required number of votes to call the meeting.

Bob Atwell

Such meetings are extremely rare in the history of denominational agencies due to the cost of bringing in representatives from around the nation on short notice. NAMB’s constitution says called meetings must be requested no later than five business days in advance to allow personal schedule changes and transportation and housing arrangements to be made.

The pressure on NAMB trustees to call the meeting coincides with the regularly scheduled meeting of the 21-member Executive Committee on Aug. 11. The vote to call the meeting made the Aug. 4 deadline and provides the minimum advance notice for the full 57-member board to come to Atlanta.

Trustees unable to attend the Tuesday meeting will be able to listen in via conference call and cast any needed vote. Called meetings, of which NAMB has had only two in its 12-year history, are restricted to only one topic and cannot explore other items.

In a related issue, The Index has learned that the employee whose newly- created position was questioned by the Executive Committee begins his employment on August 10 – the day before the board meeting.

Trustees have been working with Hammond for the past several months to employ an individual with strong administrative and leadership skills to run the agency on a daily basis. The plan was to free up Hammond so he could be out of the office to network partnerships and speak on behalf of the agency.

That plan took a different direction when Hammond recently had the position downgraded from one similar to that of a Chief Operating Officer that required Board approval to one that did not require approval, in effect giving him control of whom he hired.

The disagreement over the creation of that upper management position was the second of three points detailed in an email between Kentucky board member Jason Pettus and the full board, based on a telephone conversation with Board Chairman Tim Patterson. See the full discussion of that email here.

The individual Hammond hired for the post is Bob Atwell, director of missions for Loudon County Baptist Association in Lenoir City, Tenn., and an associate of Hammond’s from his missionary days in Brazil. Hammond, according to his resume, served as an International Mission Board missionary to Brazil from 1990-97.

Atwell, according to information posted on his website, served as an IMB missionary in Salvador, Brazil, for nine years before joining the Association. Wendy Norvelle, media spokesman for the IMB, confirmed that Atwell served from August 1992 through September 2001 as a missionary in general evangelism. Today that position would be classified as a church planter, she added.

Atwell has been more forthcoming than NAMB on releasing details about his new position. He has posted his resignation on his website and announced that he has “accepted a position with the North American Mission Board … as Senior Associate to the President in Administration.” The Association has planned a farewell reception for him and his family on Sunday, Aug. 9, the day before his first day at NAMB.

NAMB historically freely releases information on new upper management positions and The Index has regularly published those announcements. In fact, in the October 25, 2007, issue the paper wrote a story detailing Hammond’s “dream team” complete with organizational chart showing how the management team was structured.

But the agency is remaining tight-lipped on Atwell, declining to say where his position will fit in that structure and if he will report directly to Hammond or if he will have any supervision responsibilities.

In a prepared statement released to The Index, NAMB reversed its previous media position and stated simply, “In keeping with our personnel policies, we are not releasing details on this position such as job description or reporting structure. That said, we are looking forward to Bob Atwell joining us as Senior Associate to the President for Administration. His planned start date is Monday, August 10 … this position is graded within a salary range that is similar to many of our team leader positions … ”

Grading the position on the same level as existing team leaders would place it lower on the chart than that of a Chief Operating Officer as envisioned – and campaigned for – by the Executive Committee.

The staff section on the Loudon Association’s website shows his experience as based on five years ministry as pastor of Faith Southern Baptist Church in Clay City, Ind.; nine years as a field missionary with the IMB; and eight years as director of missions for the 40-church Loudon County association in east Tennessee.

NAMB has a budget of $130 million with 279 employees supervised from the national headquarters at 4200 North Point Parkway in Alpharetta.

For more detailed stories on this and other topics of interest to Georgia Baptists, subscribe today by clicking here.

Geoff Hammond resigns as NAMB president, ending 26-month administration