Bob Reccord resigned April 17 as president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board.
Reccord was the focus of a special March 23 trustee meeting in which a 19-page report by a trustee task force was discussed. The report dealt in large measure with various issues related to Reccord’s leadership of the mission board.
Bob ReccordReccord has been NAMB’s president since its founding in 1997 as part of the Southern Baptist Convention’s restructuring, called “Covenant for a New Century.”
Trustee chairman Barry Holcomb, in a statement released April 17, noted that Reccord “has sought to provide leadership that was both consistent and visionary.”
“Contrary to some opinions, Dr. Reccord is in no way being asked to resign, let alone forced to resign,” Holcomb said, noting that Reccord “is taking this step for what he feels is best for Christ’s kingdom.”
“While others might have placed their own personal well-being ahead of what was best for NAMB, Dr. Reccord is doing just the opposite,” Holcomb said. “I believe that this is one of the strongest evidences of his personal character and integrity. He has a strong love for our missionaries, for those who work within NAMB and for our trustees. And so, taking the high road of leadership on behalf of our missionaries, our agency, and our convention, he is resigning today as president.”
Holcomb, an Alabama pastor, added that Reccord “has aptly noted that in convention life, entrepreneurial leadership and denominational requirements may be at odds with one another. This is no one’s fault – it is simply a reality.”
Holcomb also noted that both a financial audit and the trustees’ task force report revealed no ethical problems related to Reccord’s leadership of NAMB.
“Read in a vacuum, one might leap to the conclusion that nothing positive has happened at NAMB over the past nine years. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, any impression gleaned from our report that suggests that the trustees are either unaware or unappreciative of the many strong accomplishments at NAMB by our president or our people is incorrect. I believe I speak for our board when I say that we are very grateful for the wonderful ministry that has been accomplished by our missionaries and our staff, under Dr. Reccord’s leadership.”
The report by the nine-member trustee task force contained recommendations that were adopted by the full board, stipulating that Reccord would work under several sets of “executive level controls.”
Among the concerns of the trustee report was the outsourcing of media work without a bidding process to a firm owned by a friend of Reccord. The trustee task force said no conflict of interest had occurred, but the arrangement had left the board open to such an accusation.
The task force report also stated that Reccord had “underdeveloped his relationships” with state Baptist conventions and their executive leadership.
Concerns over Reccord’s leadership initially were voiced in a Feb. 16 article by Georgia Baptists’ newsjournal, The Christian Index.
Reccord was senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Norfolk, Va., from 1992 until his selection as NAMB’s president in 1997. Earlier, he had served as senior pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fla., and co-pastor of Carmel Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C. He also is a former director of leadership training for Evangelism Explosion International. – BP