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N.C. trustees pleased with Ezell election
Norman Jameson, BR Editor, and Mike Ebert, NAMB
September 15, 2010
5 MIN READ TIME

N.C. trustees pleased with Ezell election

N.C. trustees pleased with Ezell election
Norman Jameson, BR Editor, and Mike Ebert, NAMB
September 15, 2010

ATLANTA — Kevin Ezell,

pastor of Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., was elected president of

the North American Mission Board (NAMB) in a special called meeting of NAMB

trustees Sept. 14.

“I am honored and humbled

that the trustees put this confidence in me,” Ezell said immediately following

his interview and election by a 37-12 vote, all conducted in executive session.

“I will do everything I possibly can to honor the Lord in this and to lead the

board to a place where it is as effective as it possibly can be.”

Ezell’s selection had become

controversial in the weeks after his nomination was announced Aug. 31. David

Hankins, executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, urged trustees

to continue searching for a candidate whose church exhibited a greater

commitment to the two primary funding streams of NAMB work: the Cooperative

Program and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions.

North Carolina NAMB trustees

Todd Garren and Bruce Franklin both confessed to having some concerns going

into the meeting, but both were emphatically positive when contacted

afterwards.

“I had some concerns, but I’m

proud to have a new president,” said Garren, pastor of Piney Grove Baptist

Church in South Fork Association. “He’ll do a fantastic job … the hand of God

is on him.”

Franklin, a lay leader at

New Sandy Creek Baptist Church in Henderson, confirmed Garren’s assessment and

said, “I can’t say enough about how God’s Spirit moved among us,” during the

meeting.

A third trustee, Bud

Parrish, had a family funeral and was unavailable for comment Sept. 15.

North Carolina’s trustees

said the concerns raised by Hankins earlier prompted questions in the board

meeting and Ezell thanked those who asked the questions, saying they needed to

be asked.

What “sealed the deal” for

Franklin, he said, was the transparent, tearful statement Ezell made when the

questioning was complete. According to Franklin, Ezell said he wasn’t running

for the NAMB presidency but was concerned with reaching North America for

Christ because he knew that’s what God was concerned with.

“The board represented the

bulk of the Convention,” Garren said. “They raised the questions the people in

the pew would have raised, which was good, because he’s going to be dealing

with those questions.”

Garren said it is “not fair

to categorize (Ezell) as an independent or a maverick” because of missions work

and church planting conducted outside the traditional avenues of the Southern

Baptist Convention. As a local pastor, Ezell was just trying to do what he saw

to be most effective, Garren said.

Franklin and Garren both

said Ezell’s election is a step toward fulfilling Great Commission Resurgence

Task Force goals that will eventually see 50 percent of NAMB resources

dedicated to church planting.

“What’s happening is going

to be good for the Kingdom,” Garren said. “Will it be good for those who work

at NAMB or at the International Mission Board under the former model? Maybe not

so much.”

Ezell said he sensed God’s

call to the role partly because of what can be accomplished through the North

American Mission Board.

“I see the potential NAMB

has if its energies and resources are focused in the right direction,” Ezell

said. “I am looking forward to being able to give a very clear vision for it.

You rarely have the opportunity to have this big of a Kingdom impact.”

Tim Dowdy, chairman of NAMB’s

trustees and pastor of Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church in McDonough, Ga.,

said Ezell’s leadership abilities, integrity and passion for church planting

and missions are what led trustees to him.

“He has demonstrated

faithful leadership and character and he has a passion for reaching the world,”

Dowdy said. “One banner he will consistently wave is that our greatest resource

in the SBC is not money, but people. We want to help mobilize our people and

partner with them to reach North America for Christ.”

Ezell has been pastor of

Highview Baptist Church since 1996 and was president of the Southern Baptist

Convention Pastors’ Conference in Orlando in June.

Ezell said one of his first

priorities as North American Mission Board president will be to spend time with

church planters.

“They are on the front lines

and I want to do everything I possibly can to free resources and direct

resources to them and help them succeed,” Ezell said. “I love church planters.

I like being around people who get in the ditch and do the work. That’s who I

operate best with. So I look forward to connecting and investing in them.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Ebert

is team leader of communications for the North American Mission Board.)