SBC Louisville 2009: NAMB presentation &  report 

We were thrilled to see the large crowd who stayed on Wednesday night, and the numbers of standing ovations were too many to count. By the end, we were all on our feet joining hands and saying that we are about every believer sharing and every person hearing as Mandisa sang the refrain of her song about people of North America needing to hear ‘the voice of a Savior’. Southern Baptists love their missionaries and their mission boards. We are proud to serve them at NAMB.                

–Geoff Hammond  

Filed under: God's Plan for Sharing, Great Commission, Missionaries, NAMB, North America, SBC on July 21st, 2009 | No Comments »

There are some moments in life that stay with you. One of those moments for me was when I was praying through the call to come to the North American Mission Board and accept the role as president. God made it clear to me that he wanted me to help lead Southern Baptists to see North America as what it truly is: a mission field. And the phrase that kept rolling through my mind and heart was, “Live with Urgency.” You’ve probably heard me say this time and time again. But as I’ve traveled from one end of this continent to the other, I see that Southern Baptists are truly realizing that the time is short and that “night is coming when no man can work.”

I believe this is why, at the time of writing this article, more than 2,400 people have signed Johnny Hunt’s call for a return to the Great Commission. The North American Mission Board joins with our SBC president in this focus and takes this call seriously. I believe Southern Baptists truly do want to live with urgency and seize this divine moment … a moment when because of economic strife, political turmoil and national and international terrorism, a lost and dying world is looking, even begging, for answers. I agree with my whole heart that we need to humble ourselves before the Lord, commit ourselves as never before to knowing His inerrant Word and submitting ourselves to obey all of it, as well as work to strengthen the local church and serve in it.

I also think a Great Commission Refocus would ask more of us and our churches. It would:

– Result in a mobilization of God’s people for missions engagement. “Go therefore” or “As you go” means the already impressive mobilization of Southern Baptists would take on new dimensions and even greater missions engagement.

– Bring new awareness to the mission fields and people groups of the world. The mission field is now worldwide. Where North America was once the primary sender of missionaries to the world, it is now a continent in even greater need of a missions force and is home to most of the people groups of the world.

– Invite the North American church to a new level of missionary involvement. The local church is central to God’s plan for reaching the world. It is time for the local church to recommit to growing and discipling a new generation of missionaries for North America and the world.

– Elevate the calling of missionaries to a new level. Just as the rest of the world desperately needs missionaries, the growing ethnic and cultural diversity of North America also requires missionaries and missionary strategies.

As I recently looked across a church filled with worshippers in Clinton, Miss., while 89 North American missionaries waited to be commissioned and sent to their mission field, I realized the vital role that your North American Mission Board plays in our Southern Baptist Convention. Thousands of churches, associations and State Conventions were represented in this one sanctuary of Morrison Heights Baptist Church. Partners that all look to a missions entity that is laser-focused on being a strategic missions partner helping Southern Baptists reach North America for Christ. It brought to mind the quote from a missions leader from a generation past. J.B. Gambrell, a Southern Baptist leader who served three terms as SBC president in the early 1900s, said, “One of the most unifying agencies among Southern Baptists has been the Home Board. It has woven our missionary life into one web.”

As Gambrell observed and Southern Baptists have decided, the North American Mission Board is called and is in the unique position to mobilize this great convention in a Great Commission Refocus. The saying may be old, but it still has merit: We are only as strong abroad as we are at home. North America is still the training ground for a mission force that ministers and serves around the world.

For these reasons, I am asking one of my senior associates, Steve Reid, to convene and co-facilitate a specially called North American Great Commission Task Force that will seriously study the actions and activities that will impact this continent for Christ in more effective ways. Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, has agreed to co-facilitate this group. Together they will be meeting with representatives from the different and diverse partners in Southern Baptist life, including local churches, associations, state conventions and entities representing constituencies from all across our denomination.

They will begin their study at the 2009 convention in Louisville and have regular meetings throughout the next year. I will be actively connected to this group and plan to announce the task force’s findings at the convention in 2010. I have shared this with Johnny Hunt and thanked him for his leadership. He has enthusiastically affirmed this idea as we respond to his Great Commission call.

I believe our most recent past SBC President Frank Page sounded the clarion call at the SBC in 2006 with his call for a national evangelism initiative. NAMB responded with the Great Commission tool we now know as “GPS: God’s Plan for Sharing.” This tool will be used by thousands of churches, associations, and state conventions to the glory of God and glorious harvest of souls.

Johnny Hunt has again sounded the call for a focus on the Great Commission. Let’s not delay. Let’s live with urgency. There’s no better time than now for a Great Commission Refocus … and may it start with me.         –Geoff Hammond

Filed under: God's Plan for Sharing, Great Commission, Missionaries, NAMB, North America, SBC, State Associations on May 22nd, 2009 | No Comments »

Kevin Lyons was leaving our offices on February 20 and received a crucial phone call—one that has changed, and saved, his life. As we welcome him back after several weeks of recovery, we also want to recount his story as one of answered prayer.

The phone call was from a nurse in the transplant unit of Piedmont Hospital. It was news he had waited so long to hear, he almost didn’t believe it.

“I said, ‘Yeah right,’ when she told me they’d found a kidney donor,” says Kevin, laughing.

He had been on the waiting list to receive a kidney for two years. For many patients he had spoken with, the process had taken even longer. Kevin immediately called his family and changed his plans for the evening because he would have a kidney that night!

Kevin is a pastor’s son, and his father was a past president of the Alaska Baptist Convention. He joined us in 1995 to serve with our facilities management team.

As Kevin returns to work with a new kidney after a relatively speedy recovery, I want to ask you to join us in praising God for providing for Kevin’s needs and the needs of all of us at NAMB.

And as always, I also want to join our staff in thanking you for your partnership.  — Geoff Hammond

Filed under: NAMB on May 8th, 2009 | No Comments »

I’m just back this week after having had the privilege of speaking at the PULSE 09 Conference for the Dakota Baptist Convention. On Monday morning in Fargo it was 37 degrees, a bit of an adjustment compared to the 85-degree days we’ve been having in Atlanta lately. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Fargo, but you haven’t seen “flat” until you’ve seen Eastern North Dakota. There’s a beauty in seeing the vast land stretch out to the horizon as far as the eye can see.

What a great group of pastors and leaders are ministering in the Dakota Convention! I was impressed with their leadership and passion as they focused the entire conference around the theme of our new evangelism initiative, GPS—God’s Plan for Sharing.

The worship, preaching and seminars were all inspiring, but the highlight of the week for me was when the group went out to distribute care packages to some of the people who had been affected by the recent flooding in the area. The Dakota churches raised more than $15,000 toward the cost of the care packages.

Those delivering the packages had the opportunity to pray with people and to ‘sow down the Gospel,’ which means an intentional sharing of the essential content of the Gospel so someone may come to Christ or take a step closer to a relationship with Christ.

Signs of the Red River flooding were still visible throughout Fargo. It was challenging to navigate through some parts of the city due to the huge earthen dikes, which were constructed to prevent flooding. Some of the major street intersections were still blocked by these dikes.

It was fascinating to learn more about the history of the Dakotas, especially about the Lakota Indians, who were great agriculturalists. They planted corn, which they referred to as “sacred corn, the source of life.”  I was reminded as we sow down North America with the Gospel that we also have a sacred seed—the Word of God—and the Gospel is the source of eternal life.

North Dakota has more churches per capita than any other state in the Union. It has a relatively cohesive demographic with traditional values and a great can-do spirit. I’m praying God will use Southern Baptists in North and South Dakota to become part of a Great Awakening that will sweep across the plains. An early settler called the land of the Red River basin too hard and barren to be of any value for agriculture. Today, we know it is one of the most fertile soils in the world for growing crops. I pray that as a result of the continued ministry efforts of Southern Baptists in this area, the Lord will give us a great harvest of souls in the land of North and South Dakota.  — Geoff Hammond

Filed under: God's Plan for Sharing, NAMB, North America, State Associations, Uncategorized on May 4th, 2009 | No Comments »

by Tim Patterson

I had to have been very young but the memory is still quite vivid and clear today. I was probably three or four years old when my father and I were walking down the streets of Kermit, Texas. I still recall the wooden sidewalks that lined the storefronts and the sounds they emitted as we shuffled along.

The spaces between the boards revealed the eerie darkness that lay below and I was sure it contained marauding monsters just waiting for me to slip through one of the cracks or to reach up and pull me under. For a three year old this seemed a real and dangerous certainty. The only security I had was my chubby little hand wrapped around my fathers mammoth index finger.

I can still feel and see with my mind’s eye, the size and sense of that one digit. As I look at my own hands and fingers just now, I can only imagine how small they must have been as they clung to this singular security.

The general store that we entered was portaled by an old screen door that was braced across the middle with a metal screen guard that advertised Bairds Bread. I had no idea how to read the words that were displayed but I recognized the smiling little girl with a slice of the soft white stuff in her hand.

A long spongy spring slammed the door behind us as we entered this marvel of modern merchandise. A long counter sat just to our left and on top and within was contained the very necessities of life.

Clothing, sundries, threads, pocketknives, pots and pans, tools and food all lined the shelves and hung from the walls. And the strange odor of things old and new hung in the air as well. Sacks of animal feed and planting seed added to the cacophony of scents.

One of my favorites sights was the mammoth block of cheese that sat waiting to be cut in perfect proportions by the mechanical slicer that pivoted from side to side. My eyes would stay fixated on that golden block until the owner would remove a small sliver and hand it to me on a piece of white butcher paper. My mouth waters even now at the thought of that moist morsel being laid on my lips.

Yet the vision that is most reticent in my memory is that of a shelf, that must have been from my perspective, over one hundred feet tall. Perched at the very top of that shelf was a row of the most beautiful and colorful western boots ever seen this side of the Pecos. All of them hand crafted by artisans from Mexico of the finest leathers available to man.

The ones I longed to be able to wear were composed of a black foot with the upper part of the boot being a deep red and white in color. Stitched within those colors was the most beautiful eagle I had ever seen. It seemed as though it was ready to take flight at any moment. I told my father that those were the ones that I wanted and that one day I would be big enough to wear them and all he needed to do was to purchase them now. I was sure it would not be many days before they would fit perfectly.

He did purchase them and all that time I thought they were for me. As far as I was concerned my dad was just taking care of them until I was able to put them on.

There are photographs of me as a little boy wearing those boots with the tops going all the way up to my hip and some of the fondest memories of my dad have within them the vision of him in those same boots.

I thought they were my boots to fill. I know it was childish but that was the way I felt. Those boots were far too big for me, yet periodically I would slip into them and pretend.

By the time I could wear those beauties they were well worn and my desire for that style had diminished. It was not until many years later did I realize I would never be able to fill my fathers boots and that my heavenly Father has given me my own boots to fill.

Watching my dad and listening to my Heavenly Father have taught me that one’s boots are something that you grow into and by the time they really fit, you and they are usually worn out. It is then we realize that we could never fill anyone else’s boots and no one can fill ours.

God has given each of us our own life to live. We can learn from the experiences of others and they can have an enormous impact on us but we are still responsible for our own actions.

You may be an employee at the North American Mission Board, a missionary on the field, a state leader, a pastor, a staff member or a layman in a local church, yet to long for the place and position that another holds is ludicrous and frustrating. Those are not your boots and they will never fit.

To be satisfied and secure in the place that you occupy is a wonderful expression of faith and trust in the pleasure of a Sovereign God. If we are to reach North America for Christ we must become comfortable in our own boots, knowing that God is in control. Trust Him! He knows what size you wear and what style is most appealing. The nature of boots is that when they are new they tend to pinch and bind. Wear them. Walk in them. When you finally break them in, you will want nothing else on your feet.

You have your own boots. Fill ‘em up.

Proverbs 3:5-6 — Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

Tim Patterson is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the North American Mission Board and senior pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida.

Filed under: Uncategorized on May 4th, 2009 | No Comments »

Times are tough. Recession… layoffs… the stock market—the news is bad and it seems like it gets worse every day. But right now, there’s a spiritual stimulus at work in our land. Talk to any of your more than 5,600 North American missionaries and they’ll tell you that these tough times are also times of great opportunity. When people struggle, when people realize the things they once trusted in don’t last—that’s when people begin to ask the important questions. So in this season when together we pray and give to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, don’t let this opportunity pass. Don’t let an economic recession turn into a spiritual recession. Our goal—set in cooperation with our partners—is an ambitious one of $65 million. Please pray… and give… and live with urgency. For resources and more information about the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, visit www.anniearmstrong.com. – Geoffrey Hammond

Filed under: Annie Armstong Easter Offering, NAMB, North America on May 4th, 2009 | No Comments »