NAMB Affirms Interim President, In Search of New Head

By Lillian Kwon, Christian Post Reporter Friday, June 23, 2006

While in search for the new president of the North American Mission Board, Southern Baptists confirmed the choice of Roy Fish as interim president with overwhelming approval f rom the Southern Baptist Convention last week.

"Dr. Fish's relational skills will be of great benefit to the staff at NAMB and our state partners, as we walk through this time of transition," said Bill Curtis, chairman of NAMB's board of trustees, according to Baptist Press.

Fish, who was presented to the Convention on June 13 during the denomination's annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C., will head the nation’s third largest disaster relief group until the new president is found. Curtis made a public call for resumes of the mission agency’s leading position, which was emptied in April by Dr. Bob Reccord.

The former NAMB head had stepped down after leading the Southern Baptist relief arm since its establishment nine years ago. His resignation came when a critical report was released questioning both his leadership and the NAMB. Although Reccord made some "misjudgments," as the Board of Trustees of NAMB had stated, Southern Baptist leaders affirmed his integrity in placing the agency ahead of himself and highlighted his accomplishments nevertheless.

Despite the "difficult days," as Curtis acknowledged, according to Baptist Press, millions of lives have been impacted in the past year and Fish plans to focus the agency on church planting and evangelism - two areas that The Christian Index had given a negative report on earlier this year.

One region of particular focus is New York City, one of the most diverse and populated areas in the nation yet also the most difficult to evangelize.

"Our mission is to display the greatness of God in New York City." said Aaron Coe, a church planting missionary, according to BP. "If you touch New York, you will touch the world."

Coe reported six new Southern Baptist churches were planted in Manhattan in the past 15 years. The Manhattan churches are just six of 1,725 new churches that were planted in 2005, according to Curtis.

Resumes for the presidential job are being accepted until Sept. 1 f rom whence the search committee will choose the president in an undesignated timeframe.

In the meantime, Reccord has booked every weekend since June to speak at Promise Keepers' 2006 conferences until October. He currently serves as special liaison for the NAMB to Promise Keepers in Operation NOAH Rebuild – the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief rebuilding effort in New Orleans – and is scheduled to speak at a number of churches across the nation in the next several months.