The North American Mission Board’s presidential search committee hopes to have a recommendation by late March or early April, committee chairman Greg Faulls reported to NAMB’s trustees during their Feb. 7 meeting at the mission board’s offices in Alpharetta, Ga.
“We are working now with a narrowed, select list of candidates,” said Faulls, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Owensboro, Ky. “We have been working hard and taking our time. We are committed to seek the Lord and are looking for God’s man. We are not allowing the committee to be hijacked by outside political influence.”
The search committee probably will call a special meeting of the board of trustees to announce its recommendation, Faulls said.
“We are looking for someone who has a heart for God and who not only will have integrity and be able to collaborate with the trustees, but will be chosen by God to be a catalyst for spiritual awakening in this nation,” Faulls said.
“But I can tell you that right now, we do not know who the next president is. We are waiting to hear from God,” Faulls said.
NAMB trustee chairman Bill Curtis gave trustees a challenge “that every day between now and that meeting, we will diligently seek the mind of Christ and intercede for this team that when we arrive, whenever that may be, we will come as a group closely attuned to the will of God in our lives.”
Roy Fish, distinguished professor of evangelism at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, has served as NAMB’s interim president since June 2006.
In a financial report, NAMB trustees were advised that because of a 3 percent increase in revenues and gains, 2006 total revenues were up to $127.8 million – $3 million more than in 2005.
The increase was due to a record Annie Armstrong Easter Offering of $58.5 million dollars, plus a substantial decrease in total expenses resulting from budget under-runs in several NAMB divisions.
Trustees voted to apply the $3 million overage to strategic ministry needs.
In other business, trustees heard the results of two recently completed church planting studies. One study involved Southern Baptist church planters as well as planters from 10 other denominations. The other study examined church planting awareness at SBC seminaries.
According to the studies:
– On average, 68 percent of Southern Baptist church plants survived beyond their fourth year. The SBC survivability was the same as the sample as a whole.
– Awareness of church planting at Southern Baptist seminaries is on the rise, reflected in an increase over a six-year period from 33 percent to 55 percent of graduates who agreed strongly that they heard frequently about church planting at seminary.
– When asked two years after graduation, 97 percent of 2004 SBC seminary graduates agreed that churches should be directly involved in starting new churches.
Trustees were told that while new NAMB-sponsored church plants were down in 2006 from 1,724 to 1,457, new church plants have averaged 1,602 over the past four years. In 2006, 55.3 percent of all new church starts were ethnic or African American churches.
According to NAMB committee reports, 2007-08 will mark several anniversaries in the Southern Baptist Convention and other evangelicals. Among the key milestones to be celebrated by NAMB during the next year:
– 100th anniversary of the Royal Ambassadors missions education program for boys.
– 40th anniversary of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief
-150th anniversary of the famous Fulton Street Prayer Meeting in New York City, which led to a national revival across America and the estimated conversion of 1 million people at a time when the United States had a population of only 35 million.