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"If something was a particular interest or dream … that the high-up leadership saw, we could throw millions of dollars at that project. But when it got down to actually running NAMB, we all pinched pennies."

Some trustees also questioned Reccord's use of NAMB funds. According to the taskforce report, Reccord and his wife, Cheryl, spent $3,771.64 of NAMB funds to attend the 2005 London premier of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Some trustees do not think Reccord needed to resign. David Fannin, a trustee and senior pastor of Nassau Bay Baptist Church in Houston, pointed out that the taskforce had found nothing illegal or immoral to report.

In addition, most trustees acknowledged that Reccord had presided over some notable successes, such as the Southern Baptists' disaster relief efforts in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. For three months, an auditorium at the NAMB headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia, was converted into a control center coordinating the agency's multi-state response. Reccord championed these efforts and also oversaw the growth of the Southern Baptist's relief network into the nation's third-largest, behind only the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

Following Reccord's resignation, a group of 46 Southern Baptist pastors and lay leaders, including six former convention presidents, issued a statement of support. "Where [Reccord] has made misjudgments, he has freely acknowledged them and assumed responsibility," the statement read. "But these are mistakes of the head, not the heart—the kinds of misjudgments that innovative leaders make in an effort to accomplish things that have never been done before."

In a similar statement to CT, Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church wrote: "I don't know all the details or reasons for reactions to Bob's leadership, but, regardless, I do know this: You can't put new wine into old wineskins. … The sad symptoms we see in so many Christian organizations, churches, and denominations today are caused by a number of theological, cultural, and structural problems that are far deeper than just personality issues."

Bill Curtis, first vice chairman of the board, admitted that the trustees bear some blame for NAMB's leadership troubles. Accountability policies, such as the executive-level controls recommended by the taskforce, should have been in place from the beginning, said Curtis. The next president will inherit these checks and balances.

"We are, in fact, desirous of visionary leadership," Curtis said, "but that leadership will [need to] build consensus, work within accountability structures, and further the agenda of the agency."

The trustees are expected to name an interim president at their May 2 meeting. In the meantime, interim chief operating officer Carlos Ferrer will provide executive oversight. Reccord has not announced his long-term plans, but he is slated to deliver the evangelistic messages at Promise Keepers' 19 upcoming summer conferences.

NAMB is a force for interdenominational cooperation, said George Hunter, professor of evangelism and church growth at Asbury Theological Seminary. It has also set the pace for other denominations' evangelism and church planting work, especially in its emphasis on starting minority-language churches in the U.S.

In 2004, NAMB reported 1,794 church plants and new affiliates, 823 in neighborhoods composed mostly of ethnic minorities. "[Yet] NAMB has been comparatively invisible in the denomination compared to the board whose place it took," Hunter said. "I'm not astonished that at least some board members were looking around for somebody to blame. I think that some of the Southern Baptist boards … have probably not gained as efficient an identity and constituency, and it's likely to take some time before all of that is in place."

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April (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50