ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)–Bob Reccord, president of the North American Mission Board, introduced the Southern Baptist Convention agency’s new vice presidents to employees assembled for chapel June 25th.
Reccord, most recently pastor of First Baptist Church, Norfolk, Va., and four vice presidents were elected to lead the new mission agency by NAMB trustees at their first meeting the previous week in Dallas. Two of the three introduced at the chapel service previously worked for the Home Mission Board and the other for the Brotherhood Commission, two of the three agencies, along with the Radio and Television Commission, merged for form NAMB under the SBC restructuring, “Covenant for a New Century.”
Richard Harris will lead NAMB’s church-planting group as vice president, bringing a strong evangelistic focus to what already has been one of the evangelical world’s most successful church-planting enterprises. Harris has served as the HMB’s director of mass evangelism the past 14 years.
A native of Kentucky, Harris pastored three churches in that state and also served as evangelism consultant on both the Kentucky and Texas state Baptist conventions prior to joining the HMB.
Harris has earned doctor of ministry and master of divinity degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas. He holds a master of arts degree from Eastern Kentucky State University and an undergraduate degree from Cumberland College in Kentucky. He and his wife, Nancy, have two sons.
Reccord introduced Mike Day as NAMB’s vice president of strategic planning and mobilization. Day will oversee the agency’s massive volunteer programs, cooperative relationships with state Baptist conventions and associations and the agency’s research team.
Day served at the Brotherhood Commission the past 12 years, most recently as executive vice president. He also has served churches as senior and associate pastor as well as youth minister. He holds doctor of ministry and master of divinity degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky and an undergraduate degree from Belmont University in Tennessee. Day and his wife, Debra, have two daughters.
Ernest Kelley received an extended standing ovation from NAMB employees when introduced as the new vice president of business services. A majority of the NAMB employees had served with Kelley at the HMB and took the opportunity to express appreciation for his leadership as interim president the final six months of the agency’s existence.
Kelley has been in denominational service since 1965, serving in variety of positions with both the Home Mission Board and Georgia Baptist Convention. He and his wife, Eleanor, are natives of Tennessee, where he pastored several churches. They have two grown daughters.
He holds a doctor of ministry degree from Golden Gate Theological Seminary in California, a bachelor of divinity from Southwestern Seminary and a bachelor of science from Cumberland University.
The new vice president of media and missions education, Nate Adams, was unable to be present for the service. Adams, presently corporate vice president of publishing of Christianity Today, Inc., will begin his duties later this summer.
Adams also serves as bivocational pastor of New Hope Community Church in St. Charles, Ill., a church he helped start two years ago. He holds a master’s degree in management and human resources from National-Louis University in Illinois and an undergraduate communication degree from Judson College in Alabama. Adams has worked with Christianity Today, which publishes 10 magazines including one of the leading evangelical publications in the world, since 1980 in positions of increasing responsibility. He has also served two Illinois SBC churches as youth director.
Adams will have responsibility for NAMB’s extensive communication efforts, including missions education, media strategy and public relations, as well as media technology services presently housed in Fort Worth, Texas. He and his wife, Beth, have three sons.
Reccord has not yet named a vice president of evangelism for the agency and asked for continued prayer as he searches for “God’s man to lead this vital aspect of our work.”
