ATLANTA — Kevin Ezell has
been elected president of the North American Mission Board (NAMB). NAMB’s board
of trustees approved the nomination in a special called meeting Sept. 14 in
Atlanta.
Photo by John Swain Bryant Wright, right, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., greets Kevin Ezell, left, pastor of Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., and his wife, Lynette, during a break in the Sept. 14 trustee meeting where Ezell was elected as NAMB’s next president. |
Ezell’s nomination was announced
Aug. 31 after NAMB’s seven-member presidential search committee voted
unanimously to recommend him as president. Today’s meeting began at 8 a.m.
Eastern Time and ended at noon with the announcement of the vote to approve
Ezell.
Ezell has pastored Highview
Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., since 1996. He served as president of the
SBC Pastor’s Conference this June in Orlando. He and his wife, Lynette, met
with NAMB trustees for about an hour Tuesday morning in a closed session to
discuss his nomination.
Bryant Wright, president of
the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in
Marietta, Ga., attended the meeting. Wright delivered a devotion to NAMB
trustees this morning before they entered into executive session to consider
the vote.
“Today is an historic day in
the life of NAMB,” Wright told trustees. “Today your big decision is to follow
God’s will with a man the search committee clearly feels is God’s man for
leading our churches as they go about the harvest.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Ebert
is team leader of communications for the North American Mission Board.)