ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)–Kansas pastor Terry Fox has resigned as chairman of the North American Mission Board’s presidential search committee.
Bill Curtis, chairman of NAMB’s board of trustees, shared news of the resignation with search committee members as they met in Atlanta Sept. 19-20. Curtis named Greg Faulls, pastor of Bellevue Baptist church in Owensboro, Ky., the committee’s new chairman. Fox notified Curtis of his decision September 6.
Fox cited his need to focus more attention on his new church start in Wichita as reason for the change. He will remain a member of the search committee.
“I appreciate Terry’s service and commitment to the process,” Curtis said. “He has done a very effective job in beginning the work of this committee.”
Faulls is a native of Delaware. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Western Kentucky University and master of divinity and Ph.D. degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was elected to NAMB’s board of trustees in June 2005 and was already a member of the search committee before being appointed chairman. Tulsa pastor David Crump will remain vice chairman.
Faulls credited Fox with getting the committee well organized and preparing them for the process of selecting a new president for NAMB.
“The receiving of resumes ended Aug. 31, so our process of reviewing and working through the list of candidates is just now beginning in earnest,” Faulls said.
The committee does not have a “short” list of candidates, but the group has already made an initial pass through all of the names it received and is moving on to the next steps in the search process, he said.
“Right now we have a select list of candidates that we’re talking about and dialoging about,” Faulls said. “We are even making some preliminary contacts. The status of all of this is very preliminary. We are not laser focused on a small number of candidates yet.”
Faulls said he wants the search to be a collaborative, team approach.
“There are no individual agendas,” he said. “I’ve told the committee we have a group agenda here and that is to find God’s man for this job.”
Faulls did not specify a timeline for finalizing the process.
“We are wasting no time, but we are not trying to meet a particular deadline or date,” Faulls said. “We don’t want that to hinder our process.”
Roy Fish, longtime professor of evangelism at Southwestern Seminary, was called as interim president of NAMB in June and plans to serve until a permanent replacement can be found.
Curtis asked Southern Baptists to continue praying for the search committee and all of NAMB’s trustees.
“We know this is a remarkably important task and we are committed to discovering God’s will for the leadership of this agency,” Curtis said.
On Sept. 18 Fox’s former church, Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita, released a statement saying Fox was involved in the “reallocation of Cooperative Program funds” at the church. Fox, though, told Baptist Press he “never did any spending of church finances without proper authority and accountability.”
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