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Robert Reccord resigned as president of the nation's second-largest domestic mission force, the North American Mission Board (NAMB), on April 17, less than a month after the board's trustees released a report critical of his leadership. Reccord had overseen the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) entity, which sponsors 5,126 missionaries in the U.S. and Canada, since its formation in 1997.

The 19-page report, created by a taskforce of eight NAMB trustees, said Reccord did nothing illegal or immoral, but faulted him for a series of costly and unwise management decisions. Reccord was chided for awarding no-bid media contracts to a friend's company, InovaOne, and for pursuing ministry opportunities and personal speaking engagements outside of NAMB's mission. The report also said he had failed to develop relationships with state Baptist officials and had created a "culture of fear" among agency employees.

Allegations of mismanagement first surfaced in a February 16 article in the Christian Index, the official newspaper of the SBC's Georgia Baptist Convention. On March 22, three high-level members of Reccord's administration resigned. The next day, the NAMB's 58-member board released its taskforce report and instituted strict "executive-level controls" reigning in Reccord's authority.

Reccord announced his resignation the day after Easter, when most Southern Baptist churches conclude their giving to the convention's annual NAMB fundraiser. All proceeds from the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, set to raise $56 million this year, go to support NAMB's missionaries (more than half of whom are salaried).

Both Reccord and trustee chair Barry Holcomb cited Reccord's entrepreneurial leadership style and his willingness to take risks as part of the reason for his conflict with the board. "Dr. Reccord has aptly noted that in convention life, entrepreneurial leadership and denominational requirements may be at odds with one another," Holcomb said. "This is no one's fault—it is simply a reality."

Reccord declined to be interviewed, but in a written statement to Christianity Today he defended his management decisions, including his hiring of InovaOne. "The selection of an interim outsourced media vendor should have included a better bidding process, but, to my knowledge, InovaOne has provided quality work at fair prices."

However, some trustees believe Reccord should have done a better job at balancing vision-casting—Reccord's acknowledged strength—with day-to-day management.

"So much trust was lost in his leadership that it was time for him to step aside," said Bob Rogers, NAMB trustee and pastor of First Baptist Church of Rincon, Georgia. "In the days since the taskforce report was released, [Reccord] showed no signs that he was willing to work under executive control. It's great to be visionary, but it's also important to be auditory and listen to the heartbeat of people."

Terry Fox, a former trustee chair and member of the investigative taskforce, said Reccord also had not communicated adequately with the board. A case in point, according to former NAMB director of marketing Mary Branson, was the budget Reccord submitted to the trustee board each year. For a $126 million agency, she said, the budget was too sketchy, providing only a brief overview with few specifics. "[Trustees] didn't know how to ask the hard questions," she said, "because they didn't see these details of the budget. They just saw big lump sums.

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April (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50