Jackson, Miss.—Trustees of the North American Mission Board unanimously approved a resolution describing the entity as “crucial to the weaving together of Southern Baptist partners to fulfill the Great Commission.” Trustees took the action during their May 19-20 meeting in Jackson, Miss.

The trustees said they believe “that the North American Mission Board is an efficient and effective Southern Baptist entity that takes seriously the good stewardship of the Cooperative Program and Annie Armstrong Easter Offering dollars entrusted to us by Southern Baptists.”

The statement of affirmation came three weeks after board chairman Tim Patterson, pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., was quoted in the Florida Baptist Witness as supporting a “singular world missions agency” for Southern Baptists. Before the trustees’ May 20 sessions, Patterson said he did not intend to speak on the board’s behalf and apologized for the way the information was shared.

The meeting took place as the denomination-wide conversation about SBC President Johnny Hunt’s Great Commission Resurgence declaration continued to unfold. NAMB President Geoff Hammond, in his address to trustees, called for a North American Great Commission Task Force. He told trustees the committee would study the actions and activities that will impact the continent for Christ in more effective ways.

“I believe we are in greater need of a missions force in North America today than at any time in our history,” Hammond said. “We need a Great Commission refocus that will bring a great emphasis to this mission field.

“This board is absolutely vital to the weaving together of Southern Baptists in the cooperative missions effort. This cooperative effort is not just about funding. It’s about doing missions together, and it’s not about one church saying, ‘I can do it without any partners.’”

In addition to adopting the resolution of support, trustees unanimously re-elected Patterson for a second year as chairman of the board, as well as Tim Dowdy, pastor of Eagles Landing Baptist Church in McDonough, Ga., as first vice chairman, and Mike Palmer, pastor of Salmon Valley Baptist Church in Salmon, Idaho, as second vice chairman.

Carlos Ferrer, NAMB’s chief financial officer, reported that Cooperative Program dollars received by the entity are down 3.7 percent compared to budget. NAMB still holds a 10 percent reduction in spending enacted by Hammond at the beginning of the year.

In other business:

• Trustees heard that NAMB’s number of endorsed chaplains now totals 3,078. In the first quarter of 2009, Southern Baptist chaplains reported 8,615 gospel presentations and 1,972 professions of faith.
  
• The evangelization subcommittee reported that 315,000 households were touched with the gospel during the recent GPS (God’s Plan for Sharing) pilots that took place in Philadelphia, Stone Mountain, Ga., Lubbock, Texas, and Riverside, Calif. “Can you imagine what is going to happen when GPS launches continent-wide in 2010,” asked Stan Gilcash, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Watertown, N.Y., and chairman of the evangelization committee.

Hammond ended the meeting with a tribute to Southern Baptists who serve as chaplains in the military. About 100 currently are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trustees previewed a video that will be shown later this month at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Louisville, spotlighting the ministry of Chaplain Major Daniel Middlebrooks, who ministers in the hospital emergency room at Camp Victory in Baghdad. (BP)