Geoff Hammond to Lead NAMB!

by    Mike Ebert                                                                                                                                               Vol. XX, No. 4, April 2007

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 Tuesday, 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, GA,” 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 He 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.”

“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 into this building, you will feel like this is a missionary place.”

Hammond was recommended March 1 by NAMB’s president search committee after a nine-month search.

“We were so moved by the hand of God through the process concerning Dr. Hammond that we are presenting a recommendation to you unanimously as a committee – a truly unanimous recommendation from our committee,” Greg Faulls, chairman of the president search committee, told fellow trustees.

In his address to trustees after the vote, Hammond said, “I tried to jump out of the process several times and God would not let me. I wanted to say, ‘Here I am Lord, in Virginia.’ I thought, ‘We can’t leave this place, we have a son who’s going to be a senior next year, things are going well with this job, this is the best we’ve ever had it!’ I thought we had come to our last stop when we went to Virginia.

“And I remember the day when I had to come face to face with the fact that I was willing to do anything for God except one thing. So I had to say, ‘Here am I. Send me.’ Perhaps that is a passage God will use to touch you today and to touch Southern Baptists.”

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.

Hammond will officially assume his duties at the trustees’ May 8-9 meeting in Alpharetta, GA.

Hammond, 49, was born in Nigeria to missionary parents serving with the SBC International Mission Board. He earned the equivalent of a business degree in administration in Zimbabwe, passing the final examination of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries and Administrators (UK). He is a graduate of Spurgeon’s Seminary in London, England, and he holds a doctor of ministry degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX, majoring in evangelism and missions.

Hammond has served throughout his career as pastor, church planter, staff member of megachurches, IMB missionary to Brazil, seminary professor, director of missions, NAMB-appointed missionary, church planting strategist; for the past five years, he has been a senior associate state executive, serving with the SBCV.

NAMB in partnership with state conventions has placed 5,000 missionaries throughout the United States and Canada for the primary purpose of evangelization and church planting. Southern Baptists support the work of NAMB primarily through Cooperative Program giving and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. [BP]

[Editorial Note: Talk about mixed feelings! NAMB is getting a great servant, and the SBCV is losing a great leader. Be sure to pray for Geoff and Debbie as they undertake this immense new responsibility. And, of course, always pray for NAMB’s effectiveness in reaching North America for Christ. Finally, also pray for the SBCV that we find and follow the Lord’s will in selecting God’s man to replace Geoff. TCP]