- Baptist Press - https://www.baptistpress.com -

NAMB staff slots announced for new 350-employee agency

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–The staffing of the five key components, or groups, of Southern Baptists’ new North American Mission Board has been announced.

Each group will be headed by a vice president who will be a part of the senior management group of NAMB, projected to employ a total of 350 people.

The Implementation Task Force, a 10-member group appointed by the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee to assist SBC agencies affected by the restructuring begun in 1995, reported Jan. 30 the NAMB staffing will entail:

— Evangelization Group, 56 positions in four divisions: 1) Direct Evangelism, 2) Church Evangelism, 3) Campus Evangelism and 4) Ministry Evangelism. Ministry evangelism replaces the current Home Mission Board’s ministry division and will oversee such areas as chaplaincy, Abortion Alternatives and Baptist centers.

— Church Planting Group, 26 positions in three divisions: 1) Leadership Enlistment and Training, 2) Strategy and Resource Development and 3) New Congregation Implementation.

— Media and Missions Education Group, 122 positions in five divisions. The largest division will be the media technology division, most of whom will be housed in Fort Worth, Texas, at the current Radio and Television Commission facilities. The other four divisions will be 1) Public Relations, 2) Publishing, 3) Missions Education and 4) Media Strategy, all to be located in the HMB’s current facility in Alpharetta, Ga.

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— Strategic Planning and Mobilization Group, 44 positions in four divisions: 1) Associational Planning, 2) Strategic Focus Cities, 3) Strategic Planning Coordination and Research and 4) Volunteer Mobilization.

— Business Services Group, 86 positions in five divisions: 1) Finance and Accounting, 2) Human Resources, 3) Information Services, 4) Church Loans and 5) Marketing Services.

Additionally, an Executive Group will have 16 positions, including the NAMB president, and all vice presidents and support staff. Currently, another 13-member group, the NAMB Incorporators, is working toward a recommendation for NAMB president to be made to the new agency’s trustees this June, once NAMB is formally launched at the end of June’s SBC annual meeting in Dallas.

The staffing levels were announced by the ITF in the Jan. 30 issue of NAMB Transition News, circulated to employees of the three agencies slated for merger under the SBC “Covenant for a New Century” restructuring: HMB, RTVC and the Brotherhood Commission, based in Memphis, Tenn. Overall, the restructuring will reduce the number of SBC agencies from 19 to 12.

As announced earlier in January, the total number of employees will be 350, which is approximately 165 fewer positions than the current combined level of the HMB, RTVC and Brotherhood.

According to the ITF, NAMB’s structure will be a matrix organization led by the Evangelization Group and the Church Planting Group and supported by the other groups.

According to the NAMB Transition News, the ITF and a nine-member NAMB Logistics Transition Team are in the process of making recommendations of persons to fill the NAMB staff positions.

While the ITF has estimated severance costs for the NAMB merger staff reductions will be about $2.5 million, ITF officials have said the net savings of the overall SBC restructuring, after all expenses, will be approximately $34 to $41 million over five years.
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