By unanimous vote, trustees of the North American Mission Board elected church-planting missionary Geoff Hammond as president of the North American Mission Board March 21.
The vote came after trustees met in executive session March 20, to review Hammond’s nomination and interact with the candidate and his wife Debbie.
“It’s a long way from Ogbomosho, Nigeria, to Atlanta, Georgia,” Hammond said, referring to his birth to missionaries in the African nation. “And I am not here today because of anything I have done, but because of who God is.”
In brief remarks to the trustees after the vote, Hammond outlined his vision for NAMB and the need for the gospel in North America.
“I grew up as a kid looking at North America as a place that already had the gospel,” Hammond said. “That was until I came here. The longer I am here, the more I am convinced that we need to see North America as a mission field.”
Hammond is the son and grandson of missionaries and currently serves as a NAMB church-planting missionary with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia convention. He also serves as senior associate director of the SBCV.
“I am a missionary,” Hammond said. “I want NAMB to be a missionary agency in all we do. I want us to be missionary-minded in all we do. I want us to think like missionaries. I want us to have a missionary culture in this building. I pray that when you walk in this building, you will feel like this is a missionary place.”
He joked that when he entered the NAMB building the day before, he was given a temporary name badge. Upon entering on Wednesday, he wore the missionary badge issued to him when he became a NAMB missionary several years ago.
“I know I’ll be receiving a new badge soon, but if you don’t mind, I’m going to hold on to my missionary badge as well.”
Hammond asked trustees and Southern Baptists to pray for spiritual awakening and revival, and that revival would start with NAMB and spread throughout the Southern Baptist Convention.
“I believe today is a divine moment and God has called me to seize it, and he is calling the NAMB staff and missionaries to seize it.”
Hammond will officially assume his duties at the trustees’ May 8-9 meeting in Alpharetta, Ga.