Will McRaneyLeadership &#8211; Will McRaney

PART 3: Church Planting – Full Article w/ Fact Links

PART 5: Financial Stewardship – Full Article w/ Fact Links

2 NAMB Emails Prove Ezell’s Lie and False Accusation

The Rest of the Story: The Why’s of Our Legal Complaint Against NAMB President Kevin Ezell – article and video by McRaneys

Truth and Responses to Questions Re: Ezell/NAMB

drMac — Wed, 24 May 2017 21:04:32 +0000

Responses to False and Misleading Information

“One is either seeking the truth, or they are playing a role in the deception,” as wise person once shared with me. I have experienced this over and over again as cover-up and denials began in Dr. Ezell, BCMD officers, NAMB leadership, and various forms of media. It is also true that either the truth brings freedom and pleases Jesus, or our denomination, our leaders and our mission efforts need to be protected from truth because our God is too small.

On this post or my website I will seek to identify and correct false and misleading information coming out of NAMB headquarters led by President Kevin Ezell or in various media sources or from BCMD officers. I will also provide clarifications and respond to questions that are being posed to me personally or in the public dialogue about these matters. As I am able, I will provide original source documents, but many of these are already posted on my website. I certainly would not want to make claims I cannot support with evidence, which is what a court will use in deciding the case. More importantly, every word spoken or written will be called into account by Jesus Himself.

In my case, my two primary defenses are the truth and the protection of the Holy Spirit of God. Dr. Ezell has a bully pulpit, many big public stages, an entire Trustee Board, others to assist him (a large PR, field and support staff), a $120 million annual budget, about $250 million in unrestricted reserves, people he has favored with SBC resources and the silence of people who are financially or relationally dependent upon NAMB and feel threatened should they speak. Unlike me, he has Southern Baptists paying his salary and the legal expenses in defense of his indefensible actions. Baptist Press has servants who are caught in a difficult spot between being an entity funded by and reporting to the Executive Director and Executive Committee on behalf of Southern Baptists and actually investigating and reporting the truth even when the news is negative.

I believe this step is necessary to combat past and recent public communication of false and misleading information by NAMB spokesmen, Dr. Ezell, NAMB attorneys and others in Baptist Press and other sources.

If there was no guilt, there would not be cover-up. In fact, there would be a SHOUTING for an investigation by NAMB Trustees, BUT there is not. NAMB Trustee’s misleading claims in June 2016 of a “thorough examination and review” without ever talking with me, others who can support my claims, or requiring a biblical cross-examination of Dr. Ezell is quite telling.

The choices seem to include (1) NAMB Trustees will do their elected duty to administer justice or (2) allow the US court system to administer justice in public view. Contrary to publish misleading statements, I and my attorney have been and are ready to enter into biblical restitution settlement conversations for the actions of Dr. Ezell and the neglect of the NAMB Trustees in oversight.

We serve a mighty and just God! Truth will help the SBC. In fact, it, along with repentance, are the only acceptable paths forward for NAMB leaders and our SBC appointed NAMB Trustees.

Military warrior and expert John Boyd said, at some point in every man’s life he will face the decision to “do something” OR “be somebody” (in NAMB/SBC). Now is the time of truth and justice. Now is the time for SBC leaders to do something without regard for themselves.

Fact Corrections & Evidence

Is the New NAMB Really Working? Part 7 Oversight & Accountability

drMac — Thu, 04 May 2017 21:05:08 +0000

Needed - A New Set of Lenses

No “ifs” “ands” or “buts” about it. Off the record, national leaders verbally acknowledge it. The SBC Trustee system is broken. The Trustee men and women who are serving are not broken and are people of goodwill, but the systems and the climates that surround their work is broken.

In the following article, I will lay out the challenges as I see them, recognizing that I have a limited, but highly personal experience that informs matters related to SBC Trustees. I will open with an example from my situation before moving to affirm the people and vital roles of our SBC Trustees. I will then explore some current challenges that have demanded much from our Trustees of three of our SBC entities. I will sprinkle my experience throughout and then conclude with information on the primary question of the article which relates to the Oversight and Accountability workings of the Trustees under the New NAMB.

One SBC Deacons’s Experience…

A lifelong faithful and generous SBC deacon in his 80’s made several calls to NAMB Trustees after the mailing of my “Letter of Concern” to all the Trustees. Prior to making the calls, he contacted me to ask if I minded if he called several Trustees to inquire about my Letter of Concern he had read. He said he was not seeking to argue or debate with Trustees, but to ask one primary question, “Have you read the materials Dr. McRaney sent to you?” Sadly, the typical answer he received was “no” or “I don’t have to answer your question” or “I stand behind Dr. Ezell one-hundred percent.” Oh, and let me share one more, “Dr. Ezell has been keeping us abreast.”

Serious and specific claims were made against Dr. Ezell in his duties as the President of NAMB in the “Letter of Concern.” The above brush-off answers are telling and seem not to reflect even a desire to hear, understand, investigate and respond to an honest question that fall under the duties of NAMB Trustees. This reveals multiple problems in our trustee system or in our training of SBC Trustees as to their roles and how to receive and address concerns of Southern Baptists.

SBC Trustees: Assumptions, Expectations and Preparations…

Southern Baptists assume that the men and women who are selected and volunteer of their time and energies to serve in these roles are people of high character and faithfully involved in SBC churches and causes. It is also assumed that the trustees will serve as ambassadors and at times public relations advocates.

However, Trustees are not employees of the agency nor serve the agency head. They are elected by and represent Southern Baptist members who love their denomination and support it with their prayers and finances. Their roles move much beyond advocacy in crucial and critical times such as: financial prioritization of decreasing or increasing resources, major staff and/or strategic direction changes, character issues of the leadership, or matters of wider SBC partnership and credibility changes that impact the trust and goodwill of SBC members. Trustees represent Southern Baptist members who love their denomination and support it with their prayers and finances.

The ministry environment around each agency is constantly changing so doing business as usual is not a stance any Board and agency/entity can take. SBC entities are served well by Trustees who: bring their ministry experience, inquiring minds, and thinking caps to all matters related to the entity. Trustees serve well by being prepared learners, courageously asking and examining questions, and exercising discernment. They need to be willing to explore ministry and strategic assumptions, to seek truth in addressing concerns and receive challenges concerning an entity’s storyline.

The SBC may have a training plan for Trustees, but if not, the SBC Executive leadership needs a plan to prepare and train all the SBC Trustees to assist them in fulfilling their roles. A well-informed group of Trustees can and should play vital roles in advancing the SBC and in preventing major problems from negatively impacting their agency/entity and the SBC. However, if we want trustees to serve mostly as rubber stamping advocates on matters of high importance, NOTHING needs to change in our system.

Healthy Oversight and Accountability

In the SBC, we want the leaders of our national agencies and entities to aggressively provide leadership, but for that to work, we need adequate and informed oversight. If not, NAMB and other entities risk compromising the mission and making themselves vulnerable. The consequences are large if leaders run afoul in their character, strategically, or in their use of resources or use tactics or attitudes that damage the wider SBC mission. Had NAMB Trustees actually responded appropriately to examine the claims as they became aware of them in my situation in February 2016, the outcome likely would have been determined by Christian brothers and sisters, not a judge and jury.

Trustees play a vital role that demands much. Being a Trustee is a stewardship and trust to be honored. If Trustee boards fail to provide informed and courageous oversight, they have betrayed their trust with Southern Baptists. The Boards should be people individually and collectively of goodwill, but they must also develop accurate perceptions of reality. Our sign should read, “Wanted: Independent Thinkers of Goodwill”

General Concerns regarding SBC Trustee Boards

Agency heads can be revered to the extent that asking questions or expressing a different viewpoint or concerns, gets you sidelined and labeled “not a team player.” Who wants that? Who wants to serve on a Board and be left off or removed from influential positions or committees as has been noted by current Board members when questions are raised? Who wants to be on the outside of the club when things on the inside look so good?

In personal phone calls and in hallways, a few trustees are saying they have been marginalized for asking questions. One Trustee claims he was removed from the executive leadership team for raising questions.

A healthy climate for trustees would include the welcoming, in fact invitation, of probing questions and inquiries on the host of important matters presented to them by agency leaders.

Recent Concerns in Our SBC Entities

In recent months, three SBC Trustee Boards have faced challenges that have placed significant demands on the Trustees. Were the Trustees prepared to handle such demanding challenges? The ERLC Trustees had to address concerns related to the words, attitudes, and views of our ERLC President and how SBC churches and members were processing their concerns. Many believe the concerns were ignored until a mega church decided to escrow in what would amount $1 million in annual CP gifts to evaluate their involvement and address their concerns.

Our IMB President inherited an organization with a financial crisis. While IMB income was stable (not in significant decline), the previous IMB Presidents and Trustee Boards overspent the income of the IMB by $200-$250 million in less than a decade. How did this happen? Where was the oversight and accountability? Did the Board not recognize the emerging crisis before IMB had to sell properties around the world some of which were being used to train locals to impact generations to come? The necessary radical changes involved reducing the mission force by some 600 IMB missionaries in order to balance the budget, yet almost 1,200 missionaries left the field. That force is now down to under 3,600 from close to 5,000. Were the Trustees involved or why were they not involved in how the mission force was reduced? Reports indicate that our most senior and experienced missionaries were encouraged to return to the US. Hard calls, but could it have been avoided with informed oversight and financial accountability?

NAMB Trustees – Asleep at the Wheel?

Under the New NAMB, Dr. Ezell’s character has resulting in the damaging of Christian leaders, eroding trust and goodwill among State and Associational partners, while the SBC is experiencing alarming statistical declines under the current strategies and financial priorities in evangelism and church planting. Questions have arisen and indications are that NAMB Trustees have collectively been “asleep at the wheel.”

These fellow servants of God, several which are my personal friends, did not expect nor were they prepared to deal with a NAMB President who has conducted himself in ways that would demand their confrontational involvement nor could they have expected to see such alarming results from the new strategies and priorities. No Trustee could have expected our NAMB President to have occasion to be untruthful and vindictive, unless they sought insights form others who have experienced it.

I have recently prepared and posted a series of articles that examine the following categories of matters, Is the New NAMB Really Working? And How Would You Know?, a question Dr. Ezell asked and answered with “Yes” before the SBC in St. Louis in June 2016. However, the facts reveal the answer is a resounding “No”.

An examination of the New NAMB reveals troubling times with the current strategies, partnerships, and financial priorities. The facts reveal remarkable downward trends in the number of baptisms , the number of church plants, and baptism ratios. SBC churches are actually accomplishing significantly less the last six years. Partnerships are strained in new places across North America over the tactics used and the failing strategies. NAMB has defunded jointly funded evangelism staff in State Conventions and dismantled the vast majority of the national evangelism team serving Southern Baptists. Are our NAMB Trustees aware of these facts?

Facts Reveal Troubles with New NAMB Strategy, Partnerships and Financial Priorities

Are and will Southern Baptists be stronger and effective in the future in advancing the gospel and evangelizing a nation with the strategies and tactics of Dr. Ezell and the New NAMB? Are Southern Baptists aware of the radical shifts in funding for 2017, where twice as much is being invested into buying homes for planters ($12 million) than in evangelism nationally ($6.3 million)? How do NAMB Trustees and SB members process investing $62 million (see p. 2 in Financial Management) in a project to purchase homes for planters over about six years while slashing the evangelism budget at NAMB and cutting evangelism in State Conventions? How have we increased the church planting budget by 3.5 times and eliminated essential parts of evangelism ONLY to see 444 fewer churches planted each year and see baptisms drop on average over 45,00/year during the last six years? How did NAMB accumulate $285 million unrestricted financial reserves?

Facts Reveal Dr. Ezell’s Character

The evidence is documented, multi-faceted, witness verified, and unimpeachable, even against cross examination. The evidence reveals: Dr. Ezell lied on multiple occasions in writing, pressured and with his signature threatened the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware — its leaders, staff, missionaries, along with church planters and evangelistic ministry efforts. Dr. Ezell made reckless false written accusations against me as their Executive Director (link is to one of several). He made a secret threat to BCMD President Bill Warren to withhold NAMB money as long as I remained Exec Director. (later came into the light to several pastors individually and in groups) Dr. Ezell then rewarded BCMD leaders after my termination with an extra $675,000 one year and an extra $825,000 for the next year. (Follow the Money Trail) (BCMD Board Minutes and Budgets were used to calculate the $675K & $825K) Ezell also received the BCMD’s coveted signatures to accept the NAMB-designed NEW Partnership Agreement giving NAMB complete controls over church planting in MD/DE! This after the BCMD unanimously reject that offer less than six months prior. Where is the accountability?

Trustee Accountability or Legal Justice and Restitution

I sent numerous written concerns to NAMB Trustees, both individually and collectively in 2015 & 2016. At first I received silence and then repeated unexamined denials by the Trustees (only 20 hrs. after receiving my concerns) and denials by attorneys (my response). In the face of the denials, refusal to address the documented concerns, and continued damages to me and my family by Dr. Ezell, I secured an attorney and filed legal complaints of libel and interference against Dr. Ezell and NAMB leadership. My numerous contacts with NAMB Trustees have been documented and they are available for review available for review.

Where were the NAMB Trustees or their Officers in doing the biblical thing: to hear and cross examine those involved? Where are the trustees in providing Biblical restitution to me and the BCMD for Dr. Ezell’s actions? Where is the Biblical accountability for Dr. Ezell?

NAMB Trustees Response and Claim of Investigation

NAMB Trustees failures in their investigation of my claims regarding NAMB’s President actions is a very personal example, but demonstrates the lack of accountability exercised. But, it really is all one needs to know to determine that our current Trustee system has significant deficiencies that are exposing our agencies, entities and SBC to unnecessary legal risk and more importantly risk in the loss of confidence in trust with the loss of the ability to self-correct when problems are discovered. Ignoring, financially draining, and denying the claims of the messenger, actually the victim, is not acceptable.

After the NAMB Trustee’s June 2016 public press statement on completing a “thorough examination and review”, a MD/DE Pastor Steve Wolverton immediately wrote Dr. Ezell and NAMB Trustee Chairman Herring separately. He knew Dr. Ezell was guilty of making false claims against Dr. McRaney and financially threatening the BCMD as long as Dr. McRaney remained the Executive Director, effectively encouraging termination. Wolverton wrote, “I want you to know that Dr. McRaney is telling the truth… Please don’t continue to sweep this under the rug.” Pastor Wolverton wrote that the claim of “thorough examination and review” was a “charade”. He knew NAMB Trustee leaders did not talk with him, but also did not talk with me or others who knew related details and subsequent cover-up by NAMB and by BCMD leadership. An investigation was supposedly completed without talking with the victim/accuser or cross-examining Dr. Ezell’s statements by me or my representatives. Is that oversight and accountability, or a “sweep under the rug” and “hope it does not reappear” approach?

Ezell’s Public and Private Threat

Dr. Ezell made a secret threat to withhold SBC money in the spring of 2015, AFTER on Feb. 6, 2015 I received a unanimous vote affirming my leadership and in support of my leadership in NAMB matters. On June 8, 2015, without cause, I was terminated. Soon after the BCMD received an extra $675,000 and the BCMD was strong-armed into canceling at 2012 Partnership Agreement to give Ezell and NAMB 100% control over church planting and defund jointly funded evangelism staff in a NAMB-created 2014 version of the Partnership Agreement. These facts are verifiable and will stand under cross examination. Where is the accountability? NAMB Trustees said they completed a “thorough examination and review.”

Damages by Ezell Continued

A SBC Executive Committee member revealed in Nov. 2016 that Dr. Ezell or those under his leadership posted an 8×10 picture of me at the Welcome Desk at NAMB headquarters in Alpharetta. When asked by my attorney, “Why?” NAMB attorneys relayed that it was because of security risks. What else really needs to be said! Nothing, but I will say I have yet to be revealed additional evidence of Dr. Ezell’s and NAMB’s involvement in interfering with my work and speaking engagements this fall and similar knowledge about another minister.

The record is clear, I actively pursued approaches to seek repentance and restitution in personal and small group ways first to limit involvement. However, should the court case proceed, other truths and pastors will necessarily be brought into the light. But, the Bible reminds us, “the truth will set us free.”

Alan D. Atchinson of the Capstone Report wrote, Capstone Article

It wasn’t enough to get a man fired; now Dr. Ezell and his bureaucrats want to destroy him too by preventing his participation in ministry events or earning a living. It is despicable. It is a symptom of everything wrong in the Southern Baptist Convention. What enables men like Dr. Russell Moore at the ERLC and Dr. Ezell at NAMB to behave in smug, condescending ways? It is the enabling of a trustee system that doesn’t do its job. Trustees function as a rubberstamp to validate and support the entity chief’s actions. Trustees do not possess the influence, the will or the power to hold entities accountable.

Blind Trust Expressed – Maybe the Problem?

In the joint meeting with NAMB and BCMD leadership on March 11, 2015, a revealing statement and sentiment was made. To the shock of 10 people in the room, NAMB Chairman Herring said in his opening remarks affirming his trust in Dr. Ezell, “if Kevin said the sky was purple, I would believe him.” Let me tell you: the sky is not purple no matter what Dr. Ezell says, unless of course you are wearing NAMB-issued rose-colored glasses.

The facts answered the question: Is the New NAMB Really Working in the areas of Oversight and Accountability? NO!

It is time for a new set of lenses.

Series of Articles – “Is the New NAMB Really Working”

PART 3: Church Planting – Full Article w/ Fact Links

PART 5: Financial Stewardship – Full Article w/ Fact Links

Documented evidence on lies by Dr. Ezell

Is the New NAMB Really Working? Part 6 President’s Character & Leadership

drMac — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 04:53:46 +0000

Separating Spin from Facts

A sacred trust exists between the President of NAMB and Southern Baptists. One man is entrusted with enormous power, prestige, and resources to shape individual lives and direct the mission of the SBC in North America. Southern Baptists sacrificially invest themselves and their resources, for the sake of an eternal purpose, to the tune of $120 million every year. The President of NAMB makes decisions that impact staffers and thousands of planters and evangelists all across North America. The President is responsible to live honorably before God and man, to steward the financial resources, to steward both the staff and the missionaries who represent SBC efforts in Alpharetta across the land, and to set the direction and priorities for Southern Baptists in reaching North America.

This essay is the sixth and final installment of a series entitled “The New NAMB: Is it Working?” It is offered as a rebuttal to the report by Dr. Kevin Ezell to the messengers of the SBC Annual meeting in June 2016, entitled, “It is working.” I have sought to ask and answer several “better” questions than the weaker ones NAMB has been asking. This article will address the question: Have NAMB leaders reflected Christ in their attitudes and actions with others as they steward the trust placed in them by SBC churches and members?

Sometimes situations demand that the facts be laid out beyond a cursory look. This is one such time, for I will be dealing with a person God created and loves who has been entrusted with much. Communicating as accurately as possible is an expectation from God and is only right in this situation. I will not cover every fact or document that supports my claims regarding Dr. Ezell, but this treatment will necessarily have some length. While I cannot cover it all, I have attached links below to a number of articles and fact sheets that examine these areas in greater detail.

The claims I make are serious, impacting the lives of many employees, the institution of NAMB, its President, and our trustees both at NAMB and in other parts of the SBC. I must not make these claims without also providing numerous examples and supporting evidence. While acknowledging there is much I do not know, I am deeply troubled over the matters I do know and can easily support with specific evidence.

Three Important Leadership Qualities

According to Dr. Jimmy Knott in It’s All About Leadership: Be a Leader Worth Following,three qualities of a Credible Leader worth following emerge: (A) Authentic Character, (B) Exceptional Competence, and (C) Relational Connection. This raises the question: “Are there significant lapses found in Dr. Ezell?” The following examples are illustrative, but not exhaustive. Consider these facts, along with the ones described in the list of online links following the article.

A. AUTHENTIC CHARACTER

Most human actions and thoughts are out of the sight of others. Take Orlando, for example. It has 66 million visitors per year. This is over 20 million more than NYC. While Orlando is publicly known to be a safe city, it is abundantly clear that many crimes take place that are either unreported by the victims or unreported by the Orlando press. Therefore, the actions of the perpetrators go unnoticed in public and probably by most of those who know them. The same is true for Christian leaders.

My pastor revealed in a sermon that we all have three persons inside of us: public, private and secret. Character and integrity requires the public, private and secret persons as revealed in their actions to be the same. The following are examples of wrongful character revealing things by Dr. Ezell occuring mostly out of sight of others.

1. Deception and False Communication

Dr. Ezell falsely stated that I refused to meet with him prior to canceling the historic Strategic Partnership Agreement. I have seven emails requesting meetings with Dr. Ezell. The General Mission Board President of the Baptist Convention of Maryland-Delaware, Mark Dooley, reported to the General Mission Board in February of 2015: “He (Dooley) has personally seen the email correspondence that supports the opposite. McRaney has repeatedly asked Kevin Ezell, ‘Can we get together?’ Which was met with very short, terse responses, and not an openness to meet.”

Dr. Ezell falsely stated that I violated the Strategic Partnership Agreement regarding two hiring procedures by not contacting NAMB staff, that I had repeatedly and willfully violated the agreement, and as such, I was the sole reason for the cancellation of the agreement with the convention, at a loss of one million dollars to the convention for planters, missions, evangelism, and eight jointly funded staff positions. Three convention officers examined these claims and concluded: (1) Neither I nor the convention violated the hiring agreement procedures, as evidenced by a NAMB Vice President’s own communication, along with the hiring dates involved, and (2) NAMB had, in fact, violated the agreement in seven specific ways, some knowingly for their benefit and to the detriment of the convention. NAMB Vice Presidents Christopherson and Davis disproved Dr. Ezell’s accusations with their own emails and calendar.

Dr. Ezell falsely stated that I did not return a phone call from NAMB Mobilizer Kevin Marsico. This is the first of three stated concerns by Dr. Ezell in his only communication (Nov. 2014) regarding any possible conflict with me. The second was that I violated the hiring procedure of the agreement, which was false. The third was that I added a new requirement that planters must reinvest in the regional ministry around them AFTER NAMB required the convention to remove the requirement for planters to give to the Association, which was true. The only recorded call by my Executive Assistant from Marsico occurred in October 2013 just after I was hired. Marsico called to express a welcome and offer his assistance, which does not require a return phone call.

2. Violations of Dr. Ezell’s Word and of the SPA by NAMB

NAMB violated the SPA, including the very manner in which Dr. Ezell cancelled the SPA, without communicating with me as the Executive Director in advance on his intentions.

Dr. Ezell violated the agreed upon terms of our March 11, 2015 meeting. He said he would bring two NAMB Trustees, in order to satisfy our terms, but he only brought one. He tried a power play to change the location at the last minute, requesting that we change the meeting place from the convention offices to his hotel a few minutes away. He changed the agenda from “not talking about the past” to his “talking mostly about the past” after I had the opening turn and talked about our joint ministry and the future. Convention leaders perceived this as Dr. Ezell’s attempt to control the meeting and get us out of balance with his tactics. Convention Chief Financial Officer Tom Stolle described Dr. Ezell’s behaviors as “petulant.” One convention leader noted in front of our team: “You showed remarkable restraint. If that had been me, I would have come across the table at Dr. Ezell.”

Dr. Ezell falsely stated that I resigned, not that I was terminated, and that he did not interfere in the process, and in fact, was not even involved. This was reported by Baptist Press in the article dated June 20, 2016 entitled MD/DE Investigation “Concluded.” The fact remains that I was terminated. It is decidedly untrue that I was told to “resign or be terminated” by a vote of the General Mission Board of the convention on June 8, 2015. The later term “resignation” was offered and even requested by the convention if I would accept a to-be-determined severance agreement that was not agreed upon until weeks after my termination.

The convention officers provided false information in their statement released on March 24, 2016. It is abundantly clear, the officers of the convention misled the public stating a resignation on June 9, 2015 and the vote of the board to terminate me on June 8, 2015. It is apparent to many that this decision to provide cover for Dr. Ezell was also an effort to cover themselves concerning the quick, unjust, and induced termination. Lots of ministers in this story are having a hard time telling the truth!

I requested a correction to Baptist Press leaders and to Dr. Page and the Communication team after their article on April 13, 2017. In doing so, I provided them with the first page of my separation agreement with the state convention which clearly indicates I was terminated on June 8, 2015, just days before the 2015 SBC Convention.

At the State Executive Directors meeting in California in February 2017, Dr. Ezell stated that he had talked with some State Executives that he trusted regarding the hiring of a new young leader at NAMB. Reportedly, Dr. Ezell represented that he received counsel and implied support of the proposed hire. However, two of the state executives interrupted Dr. Ezell to communicate the exact opposite. One Executive Director replied to Dr. Ezell, “I told you this was the response you would get.” Why did Dr. Ezell speak falsely in front of State Executives who he knew could confront him publicly? Is he in the habit of being loose with the truth?

A highly respected former State Executive has relayed stories of Dr. Ezell calling him for counsel only to learn later that Dr. Ezell misrepresented what that former State Executive had said. Why would Dr. Ezell do this? Was he borrowing credibility without regard for the truth?

If Dr. Ezell acts with deception, makes false accusations, and speaks falsely about his own behavior and conversations with State leaders, can he be trusted to represent the truth without guile? If Dr. Ezell will make false accusations against a brother, then what else will he do to damage someone? If he misrepresents conversations, can he ever be believed? Dr. Ezell did not follow Biblical commands to clear up relationships, nor did he accept my offers to do so. Then, he lied about it. So, why is Dr. Ezell communicating with deception in the ways noted above? There appears to be a character problem.

3. Abuses and Misuses of Power, Position and Money

On Dec. 2, 2014, Dr. Ezell in violation of the terms of the agreement, threatened the BCMD with a Notice of Cancellation Letter, which would have resulted in the loss of $1 million from the convention. This money was already committed to funding church planters, missions, evangelism and eight jointly-funded staff members. Incidentally, state convention churches annually contributed about $950,000 per year to NAMB through the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and NAMB’s portion of Cooperative Program gifts. Similar amounts were exchanged in both directions, yet Dr. Ezell threated to withhold NAMB’s committed resources due to his false allegations, while still continuing to accept the almost $1 million funds from the state convention.

As noted above, Dr. Ezell based his cancellation on the false accusations against me. Later, Dr. Ezell stated that NAMB would withhold financial support to the state convention as long as I remained the Executive Director. There are several smoking guns on Ezell’s threat. Numerous public verbalizations of the Ezell threat were made by the state convention President Bill Warren, who orchestrated my termination. One can follow the money trail. Significantly, the day after I was terminated, Warren stated, and later verified, that he believed the Lord would have him to be the next Executive Director.

Dr. Ezell made good on his promises. The state convention budgets and the board meeting minutes reveal post-termination additional gifts and financial commitments to the state convention in the amount of $675,000 payable in 2016 and $825,000 payable in 2017.

On February 5, 2015, Dr. Ezell texted a threat to a board member during a board meeting that Dr. Ezell knew was taking place. He threatened the Executive Director and the leadership of the state convention. The meeting resulted in 100% vote to: (1) reject NAMB’s offer to take over 100% of church planting and any partnership agreement establishing such terms, and (2) affirm support for my leadership and my approach in dealing with NAMB.

Dr. Ezell’s threat did not serve the purposes of NAMB in evangelism and missions or assist a ministry partner in the state convention. So why did Dr. Ezell make the threats and the false statements within them? Is there not a character problem?

Several State Executive Directors, SBC pastors and members of the press have discussed the new 2014 version of the Strategic Partnership Agreement NAMB was pressuring state conventions to adopt. I highlighted changes from 2012-2014 agreement in an article Going Going Gone Sold: Essential Elements of SBC Mission Efforts. We see the existence of gag orders on the State Conventions and the threat of funding cuts if the gag orders were violated or if state convention staff talked negatively about NAMB, or even revealed the terms of their Strategic Partnership Agreements.

The Christian Examiner editor wrote, “Several Southern Baptist state convention leaders have accused the denomination’s North American Mission Board (NAMB) of linking financial support from the national entity – funding for church planting and other ministries – to secretive Cooperative Agreements which include a clause that threatens to withhold ministry funds to the states if disclosures about the agreement – or concerns – are shared publicly.”

State leaders and pastors have expressed concern that Dr. Ezell is using gag orders, threats, and strong-arming tactics. This does not reflect the spirit of a cooperative partnership, but rather one of coercion. So why did Dr. Ezell use such tactics with several State Convention executive Directors? Is there not a character problem?

4. Punitive, Vindictive and Other Behaviors

Dr. Ezell interfered in my working relationship with the state convention by working around me and talking with Board President Bill Warren instead. In fact, Warren stated to the executive leadership team and the officers that Dr. Ezell told him that if McRaney would behave himself for six months, Dr. Ezell would talk with me. In essence, Dr. Ezell was putting me on probation for six months from talking with him. What a power move to dominate me and damage my leadership! What happened to wanting to meet as he falsely claimed? Where is the application of the basic teachings of Jesus? Was Dr. Ezell punishing me? It appears that Dr Ezell is having difficulties with telling the truth. His character is once again being exposed.

In a meeting of selected state convention officers to discuss how to address Ezell’s Notice of Cancellation, a former state convention President with national influence shared his experience and knowledge with the officers on December 16, 2014. This leader noted that Dr. Ezell is known to be vindictive to those who oppose him, regardless of the validity of the concerns.

I had speaking engagements scheduled for the fall of 2016 in Mississippi and Florida. Evidence indicates that Dr. Ezell and NAMB representatives engaged in efforts to interfere with my speaking opportunities to provide for my family financially. I have since received additional confirmation of Dr. Ezell’s involvement.

Dr. Ezell or other NAMB leaders posted my picture at the Welcome Desk of NAMB headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia. Why? What message was being sent to everyone who saw this 8 x 10 picture? NAMB attorneys communicated to my attorney that it was over “security” concerns. Really? Is this the action of an innocent man or the act of a guilty man? The picture, in full view, was taken in the fall of 2016 by a current Executive Committee member of the SBC who is a highly respected leader.

In early April 2017, a former state leader testified that he was told Dr. Ezell made a call to a ministry leader where the former state leader was being considered for a new position. Dr. Ezell had no responsibility or involvement with that ministry, yet chose to damage a fellow minister with his negative perspectives. The former state leader was looking to reengage in ministry and provide for his family. The man is working through his hurt and trying to make a living. Is it any wonder he has not yet come forward to expose Dr. Ezell’s involvement? Ezell has shown by word and deed who he is and what lengths he will go to in order to get what he wants and to damage people as he pleases. Wherever is there a place for this kind of activity in Christian work?

Dozens of national and state leaders have used the following descriptors of Dr. Ezell. They know, but keep silent for their own reasons, such as concern for the SBC or possible personal retribution. These words are being used to describe Dr. Ezell: vindictive, unstable, reckless, petulant, and impulsive.

Leaders lead out of who they are! What does this sample of KNOWN actions say about Dr. Ezell? Who knows what else has happened that has remained unspoken? Do these representative actions reveal poor character? Are they behaviors of a Christian who is sensitive to obeying Biblical commands? Should this leader be entrusted with setting direction and leading our staff and missionaries? Should he be stewarding the enormous resources of Southern Baptist Churches and members? How many times can you intentionally bear false witness to your actions and the actions of others? How many times can you intentionally seek to damage brothers and fellow leaders? How many times can you threaten and bully individuals and state conventions while keeping a position of trust as the President of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention?

B. EXCEPTIONAL COMPETENCE

NAMB is charged with helping the SBC evangelize North America. In 2010, Dr. Ezell began an all-out single focus on church planting. This strategy has caused dramatic shifts in staff, state partnerships, financial priorities, and associational partnerships. What have been the results of Dr. Ezell’s leadership as he turned NAMB and parts of the SBC upside down?

NAMB as noted in my two previous articles on Baptism and Church Planting, has reduced the evangelism budget to 5% of the annual $120 million budget. During the last six years this has been reduced from $20.6 million to $6.3 million. The New NAMB has defunded the vast majority of NAMB national evangelism staff to assist state conventions and churches. In 2017, the $6.3 million for evangelism is roughly half of the $12 million used to purchase homes for church planters.

The church planting budget has increased each year, so that it now represents in 2017 an increase of 3.5 times the amount of funds budgeted in 2010 for church planting. NAMB has budgeted $62 million to purchase homes for church planters over about a six year period, with 89 homes already purchased.

In non-Southern states, NAMB has defunded jointly funded state evangelism staff, including the State DOMS where they are most needed, almost all the collegiate student ministers, and the joint funding for Association ministries and DOMS.

Have those landscape changing strategies produced the results as promised in the key SBC metrics? Absolutely not. To the contrary, in every single significant measureable, Southern Baptists are in alarming decline. Here are key facts which I discuss in more detail in the previous articles on Baptist and Church Planting.

1. Baptisms

Baptisms are down 18.7% per church over the past six years under the New NAMB. Total baptisms are down over 45,000 per year during the past six years compared to the previous six years. Baptisms are at a 70-year low, and in a continual slide downward, even while the US population and the number of SBC churches is increasing. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Dr. Chuck Kelley noted, “Southern Baptists are closer to losing the South than we are to reaching North America. If we lose the South, eventually, we lose everything.” What do these numbers say about the effectiveness of the strategy that has dismantled much of evangelism at local, state and national levels? Has NAMB helped Southern Baptists be more or less effective in NAMB’s primary mission assignment?

2. Church Planting

The foundational statistic used to justify the radical overhaul of “all things NAMB” to support the single focus of church planting is misleading and flawed, whether by statistical ignorance or intentional guile. Church plants and established churches have baptism ratios based on membership that are within a few percentages of each other. While there are many good reasons to start churches, the new churches are nowhere near the NAMB reported “three to four times more effective in evangelism” statistic.

The following are calculations based on reports by NAMB and reports found in SBC Annuals each year. Southern Baptists are planting 444 fewer churches per year during the past six years compared to the previous six years, in spite of current 2017 expenditures that are 3.5 times greater than in years past. The SBC has planted 2,665 fewer churches during the past six years than during the previous six years. The New NAMB National Strategy has produced (a) reduced funding for evangelism, (b) weakened SBC ties, (c) diminished trust levels, (d) weakened relationships, and (e) reduced evangelistic collaboration. The strategic and tactical problems being discussed are planter placement, satellite campus funding, funding outside networks, and nationalized control.

Dr. Ezell initiated these radical changes and presided over the radical declines. His strategic decisions, in addition to his character, have impacted NAMB and the SBC in remarkable ways. In the question of competence, is NAMB helping to produce healthier and stronger results? Or has NAMB and the SBC hastened downward?

C. RELATIONAL CONNECTION

The President of NAMB is a leader for all Southern Baptists, pastors, laypeople, Associational missionaries, and State Convention missionaries and strategists. He needs to relate to a wide variety of people as Southern Baptists are a diverse group geographically, ethnically, racially, in terms of age, church size, worship style and language. His relationships and the relationships he fosters by protecting and enhancing trust and goodwill will impact the SBC for decades to come. His failures in these areas also impact us. We are a people who operate as volunteers who choose to work together in cooperation. The President of NAMB needs to be adding to trust and goodwill among all parts of the SBC family.

By observation and experience, anyone who has a brief encounter with Dr. Ezell will recognize his affability. He presents a warm and inviting first impression that seems to make people feel comfortable. However, a non-Southern State Executive noted to others that Dr. Ezell is “affable, but not nice.” He noted that he had observed Dr. Ezell’s actions and relayed that he was not a man who could be trusted, would not keep his word, had intentionally hurt people he knew, and was not someone he would describe as nice.

Why is this being said about Dr. Ezell? What does this State Executive Director’s comments to others say about Dr. Ezell? Is this also tied to faulty character, faulty strategy, and faulty perspectives on who Southern Baptists are, as by his own words when hired, he had disengaged from NAMB as a pastor?

NAMB Presidents cheer on and build up SBC partners. However, it appears that Dr. Ezell has started multiple new partnerships outside the SBC, while at the same time setting strategies and setting large budget allocations that have damaged SBC sister partners, both at the local and state levels.

Why? Maybe this reflects his perceived mandate from the GCR. Maybe this reflects his own bad experiences and lack of personal engagement with his Association and/or State Convention. Maybe he had bad experiences or just could not see from his megachurch view how either of these entities were really contributing to the whole of the SBC, and in fact, are the backbone in various ways. I have captured some of the issues of partnership in the SBC ecosystem by writing various articles linked below.

Dealing with Decline: The Future of Southern Baptist Cooperation

Going, Going, Gone, Sold: Essential Elements of the SBC Mission Efforts

Is the New NAMB Really Working? Partnerships

“A long-tenured national leader declared, “Partnership is dead in the SBC.” He, I and I am sure you, all hope he is wrong. However, groanings deep inside SBC life are indicating that walls may be beginning to crumble. The violations of trust and good will among and between SBC entities and Southern Baptists to their local, state and national agencies may not be able to be repaired. When the nationalization is fully set, and it is deep into the process, what has been dismantled and taken apart for short-term gains, will forever not be able to be put back together again. God has used the SBC, but God is not obligated to bless in the future. God help us!”

Is Dr. Ezell’s perspective accurate or are the perspectives of leaders who have invested the bulk of their ministry in serving the people and purposes of Southern Baptists? Are partnerships strong or are they closer to “dead?” Why, or better yet, how can the SBC maintain cooperation, advance together, and operate under the blessing of God if our NAMB President is building new partnerships, but damaging SBC ones?

The Damages and Hurts are Personal as Heads Turn Away

For me Dr. Ezell’s action are personal, but I recognize that Sandy and our girls are but a few of those who have had to deal with the consequences of being on the wrong side of Dr. Ezell. Southern Baptists deserve better from their NAMB President.

Not a single, not even one single national leader ever reached out to me after my questionable and untimely termination, even though many of them have seen his character firsthand. In fact, only a few state leaders did so. I was the one beaten on the side of the road and watched my former friends and national level religious leaders walk by, literally on the other side as they went on their SBC business way. The congratulatory calls and the letters came when I was appointed to the position by God and elected by the Board, but NOTHING after my unjust termination. Where is the Soul of the SBC and its leaders?

Sadly, most of the men I have talked with are in the know. They know the truths shared above to ring true with their own experiences with Dr. Ezell. In fact, one national leader has a file he keeps on things just related to Dr. Ezell. Yet, the sound of silence among these men is deafening. The Bible is so clear. When we know the right thing to do and do it not, it is sin. (James 4:19) The mostly loving thing the NAMB Trustee leaders and national leaders and even pastor friends can do is to encourage Kevin toward repentance and public and private confession. It is hard to live like this before a Holy God. There is freedom in Christ, but it begins with humility of heart that results in confession and prayer. (James 5:16)

Sandy and I have absorbed countless hurts. We love people and we are all in people in our work, ministry and in our personal lives. It is who we are. If you love deeply, you can experience deep joys and deep hurts. I will never forget the look on Sandy’s face as one of our top national leaders was coming down the hall in Columbus, Ohio, at the SBC in 2015, about eight days after my termination. She saw that leader quickly look away and skirt by us instead of reaching out to us. It spoke volumes and actually forecasted much of the reception or the lack of that we would receive from people like him who used to welcome us: ignore and deny and hope it goes away or the damage is limited. God is holy and just.

After thirty years of faithful and fruitful ministry among Southern Baptists, for 22 months now I have been unemployed, but now I have founded, “The Church Strengthening Network” and I am starting over to rebuild from no base. No calls have come offering help to get me back on my feet after this powerful bully knocked me down. I have been blown away and hurt all over again with such silence. Take a look at my resume and academic vitae on my website and see what you think. It has been pointed out to me that if I had a problem with alcohol, or an affair or outburst with an uncontrolled temper, someone would have to my rescue and offered help. But because I am the victim of libel and interference by the NAMB President and dare to speak truth, there are no calls or offers to help. As one State Executive said, “The SBC knows how to handle adultery and embezzlement, but not how to handle a bully.”

When a man repeatedly speaks falsely and seeks to damage others, he is unfit to lead and has forfeited the trust and privilege of stewarding people, money, and priorities that originate in the pockets of faithful and generous Southern Baptists. If hearts get right with Jesus, the NAMB Trustees will know what to do to make restitution and restore me. If not, my suggestions would only add words to this document. I tried absolutely everything to prevent taking this matter to court for justice, but to no avail. The sins are not just of a man, but of an agency and others. The sins were not just against a person or a people such as the state convention (and probably many others around North America) but against God Himself. The offenses were not just personal, but involved organizational neglect and a pattern of bullying by the NAMB President that has been ignored and denied. If you would like to hear the story behind the filing of the legal complaint, you can hear my wife Sandy and I discuss the matter on our website and read the related article.

Conclusion

Every child of God is a work in progress, not yet perfected. However the qualifications of those who seek spiritual leadership, such as pastors, are demanding and exacting. As to the President of NAMB, we must have high demands in terms of authentic character, exceptional competence, and relational connection. Dr. Ezell has significant failures in all three areas.

From my personal experience and documented facts, it is apparent to me there are serious and obviously disqualifying behaviors that have been identified by numerous SBC national, state and associational leaders. The patterns are the same. The damages widespread, not isolated. The conclusion should be obvious to those with eyes to see, minds to perceive, hearts to feel, and a willingness to obey God.

With Dr. Ezell’s patterns of misleading communication and his affability and a $120 million budget that he is controlling, it is no surprise how Dr. Ezell has fooled many trustees, developed a loyal band of followers, and convinced many people to disregard the documented and court filed complaints of libel and tortious interference.

Dr. Ezell’s actions do not reflect the spirit of Christ or the spirit of brotherly love and cooperation expected by all Southern Baptists. However, as I have said and written repeatedly, the facts are documented, verified by witnesses, and are unimpeachable. At some point Dr. Ezell moved away from doing the will of Father and got focused on other wills. Perhaps it was his own will. The intentions of his heart are of little importance, frankly. As Proverbs 20:11 reminds us, “Even small children are known by their actions, so is their conduct really pure and upright?”

LINKS TO RELATED ARTICLES:

Is the New NAMB Really Working Six Part Series

Open Letters

Initial Letter of Concern to NAMB Trustees

June 2016 Letter to NAMB Trustees

Troubling Times Under Dr. Ezell

Ezell’s Lies and False Statements

Summary of Claims/Accusations Against Ezell

McRaneys Tell Story of Ezell’s Overreach

The Whys of the Legal Complaint Against Ezell/NAMB

Going Going Gone, Sold: Essential Elements of SBC Mission Efforts

Dealing with Decline: The Future of Southern Baptist Cooperation

Supporting Documents

Statements of Fact: Detailed Version

Timelines – NAMB with MD/DE Convention – Three Versions

Is the New NAMB Really Working? Part 6 Character (Abridged)

drMac — Sat, 29 Apr 2017 05:59:46 +0000

Separating Spin from Facts

A sacred trust exists between the President of NAMB and Southern Baptists. One man is entrusted with enormous power, prestige, and resources to shape individual lives and direct the mission of the SBC in North America. Southern Baptists sacrificially invest themselves and their resources, for the sake of an eternal purpose, to the tune of $120 million every year. The President of NAMB makes decisions that impact staffers and thousands of planters and evangelists all across North America. The President is responsible to live honorably before God and man, to steward the financial resources, to steward both the staff and the missionaries who represent SBC efforts in Alpharetta across the land, and to set the direction and priorities for Southern Baptists in reaching North America.

This essay is the sixth of a series entitled “The New NAMB: Is it Working?” It is offered as a response to the report by Dr. Kevin Ezell to the messengers of the SBC Annual meeting in June 2016, entitled, “It is working.” I have sought to ask and answer several “better” questions than the weaker ones NAMB has been asking. This article will address the question: Have NAMB leaders reflected Christ in their attitudes and actions with others as they steward the trust placed in them by SBC churches and members?

Three Important Leadership Qualities

According to Dr. Jimmy Knott in It’s All About Leadership: Be a Leader Worth Following, three qualities of a Credible Leader worth following emerge: (A) Authentic Character, (B) Exceptional Competence, and (C) Relational Connection. This raises the question: “Has the actions of Dr. Ezell demonstrated character concerns?” The following examples are illustrative, but not exhaustive. Consider these facts, along with the ones described in the list of online links following the article.

AUTHENTIC CHARACTER?

1. Deception and False Communication

(1) Dr. Ezell falsely stated that I refused to meet with him prior to canceling the historic Strategic Partnership Agreement. I have seven emails requesting meetings with Dr. Ezell. The General Mission Board President of the Baptist Convention of Maryland-Delaware, Mark Dooley, reported to the General Mission Board in February of 2015: “He (Dooley) has personally seen the email correspondence that supports the opposite. McRaney has repeatedly asked Kevin Ezell, ‘Can we get together?’ Which was met with very short, terse responses, and not an openness to meet.”

(2) Dr. Ezell falsely stated that I violated the Strategic Partnership Agreement regarding two hiring procedures by not contacting NAMB staff, that I had repeatedly and willfully violated the agreement, and as such, I was the sole reason for the cancellation of the agreement with the convention, at a loss of one million dollars to the convention for planters, missions, evangelism, and eight jointly funded staff positions. Three convention officers examined these claims and concluded: (1) Neither I nor the convention violated the hiring agreement procedures, as evidenced by a NAMB Vice President’s own communication, along with the hiring dates involved, and (2) NAMB had, in fact, violated the agreement in seven specific ways, some knowingly for their benefit and to the detriment of the convention. NAMB Vice Presidents Christopherson and Davis disproved Dr. Ezell’s accusations with their own emails and calendar.

(3) Dr. Ezell falsely stated that I did not return a phone call from NAMB Mobilizer Kevin Marsico. This is the first of three stated concerns by Dr. Ezell in his only communication (Nov. 2014) regarding any possible conflict with me. The second was that I violated the hiring procedure of the agreement, which was false. The third was that I added a new requirement that planters must reinvest in the regional ministry around them AFTER NAMB required the convention to remove the requirement for planters to give to the Association, which was true. The only recorded call by my Executive Assistant from Marsico occurred in October 2013 just after I was hired. Marsico called to express a welcome and offer his assistance, which does not require a return phone call.

2. Violations of Dr. Ezell’s Word and of the SPA by NAMB

NAMB violated the SPA, including the very manner in which Dr. Ezell cancelled the SPA, without communicating with me as the Executive Director in advance on his intentions.

The BCMD convention officers provided false information in their statement released on March 24, 2016. It is abundantly clear, the officers of the convention misled the public stating a resignation on June 9, 2015 and the vote of the board to terminate me on June 8, 2015. It is apparent to many that this decision to provide cover for Dr. Ezell was also an effort to cover themselves concerning the quick, unjust, and induced termination. Lots of ministers in this story are having a hard time telling the truth!

Documented evidence on lies by Dr. Ezell

3. Abuses and Misuses of Power, Position and Money

4. Punitive, Vindictive and Other Behaviors

Dr. Ezell interfered in my working relationship with the state convention by working around me and talking with Board President Bill Warren instead. In fact, Warren stated to the executive leadership team and the officers that Dr. Ezell told him that if McRaney would behave himself for six months, Dr. Ezell would talk with me. In essence, Dr. Ezell was putting me on probation for six months from talking with him. What a power move to dominate me and damage my leadership! What happened to wanting to meet as he falsely claimed? Where is the application of the basic teachings of Jesus? Was Dr. Ezell punishing me? It appears that Dr Ezell is having difficulties with telling the truth. His character is once again being exposed.

Damaging Interference with Another Leader

Unflattering Descriptors

Dozens of national and state leaders have used the following descriptors of Dr. Ezell. They know, but keep silent for their own reasons, such as concern for the SBC or possible personal retribution. These words are being used to describe Dr. Ezell: vindictive, unstable, reckless, petulant, and impulsive.

Questions to Consider

Conclusion

Have NAMB leaders reflected Christ in their attitudes and actions with others as they steward the trust placed in them by SBC churches and members?

Series of Articles – “Is the New NAMB Really Working”

PART 3: Church Planting – Full Article w/ Fact Links

PART 5: Financial Stewardship – Full Article w/ Fact Links

Is the New NAMB Really Working? Part 5 Financial Stewardship

drMac — Sat, 29 Apr 2017 05:00:36 +0000

Separating Spin from Facts

Southern Baptists invest and entrust $375 million annually to national and international causes through the Cooperative Program and directly through our two primary mission offerings, Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong. Since, NAMB leaders alone steward over $400 million in assets and a $120 million annual budget, the office of the President of NAMB carries enormous trust and should possess the utmost integrity.

Its stands to reason that an examination of the stewarding of the staggering financial resources entrusted to NAMB would not only be acceptable, but would be welcomed. Most assuredly the generous gifts are resourcing missionaries and helping to advance the gospel. Yet, a closer look is merited just as in a family budget, as a matter of accountability to determine, perhaps even more importantly if the resources are helping to accomplish the objectives and values of Southern Baptist givers. Those givers, many of them on a fixed income in our 30,000 bedrock churches of 200 or less, have every expectation that those in charge of setting direction and providing oversight are using their resources wisely. Those same bedrock churches give 41% of all CP dollars.

I am not suggesting personal or corporate misuse of resources for personal financial gain. However, the facts reveal that SBC resources have been parlayed and misused to secure favors for Dr. Ezell and organizational compliance or silence for NAMB. The facts reveal that Dr. Ezell used SBC entrusted financial resources to threaten a state convention staff, mission and their Executive Director. The facts reveal that NAMB has reprioritized funds to church planting at the expense of national and state evangelism staff while baptisms are declining at alarming rates.

Dr. Ezell’s Tenure and How It All Began

According to the Louisiana Baptist Messenger, between 2010 and 2015, the financial position of NAMB improved $121.8 million. The two largest factors contributing to this were (1) increase of $77.4 million in unrestricted assets and (2) a drop of $33.7 million in post-retirement benefits liability resulting from the termination of 37% of the NAMB staff, mostly over the age of 54, in the first eight months of Dr. Ezell’s tenure. The major staff reductions reflect often used corporate America business practices to make what Dr. Ezell refers to as a “leaner” NAMB. But what the SBC lost in transition was some faithful and experienced servants who were connected and trusted by State Conventions, Associations, churches and pastors all over North America. People matter to Jesus, regardless of having a new leader and focus. Because SBC partnerships are voluntary, relationships matter even more, therefore turnover is more costly outside the balance sheet.

Unacceptable Threats

Fast forward to December 2014 and documented evidence reveals Dr. Ezell used $1million of SBC given money to threaten the jointly funded staff, church planters, ministries and the Executive Director of the Baptist Convention of MD/DE (BCMD). In the threat, Dr. Ezell made provable false accusations and violated the Agreement in the manner of his cancellation. If the threat was not enough, Dr. Ezell rewarded the BCMD with what amounts to an extra $675,000 for 2016 and $825,000 for 2017. A claim regarding this matter has been filed in a state court to determine if Dr. Ezell violated laws against this type of interference with a work relationship and committed libel.

A Board member in a non-Southern State Convention has recently shared his experience and concern. He communicated that while his State Convention of West Virginia was searching for a new State Executive Director (ED), Dr. Ezell and one of his VPs indicated Ezell would pay for two years of the salary of the Executive Director. The Board was initially asked to approve the candidate as their ED without his presence or his name “because Dr. Ezell was going to pay his salary for two years.” The State Board rejected the highly unusual “anonymous approach”, but later approved the same man when his name was provided. Interestingly, back in 2008 Dr. Ezell nominated that same ED for 1^st VP of the Southern Baptist Convention. Was paying the ED’s salary for two years an act of generosity on behalf of Southern Baptists or was influence being purchased? Are there other State Conventions where SBC money has been used to get what Dr. Ezell wanted?

Yet another example involves a past Chairman of NAMB Trustees who after his resignation from his pastorate, was “picked up” by NAMB to serve as a National Mobilizer the following month. But wait, there’s more….This same man then finds himself as the new Executive Director in Michigan only 5 months later. Coincidentally, a NAMB VP, Steve Davis, served as an advisor for the Michigan search team in their quest for a new exec. All of this is documented through press releases and published materials.

Areas of Concern

Storing Up Money

Baptist Press reported Dr. Ezell on Oct. 22, 2010 as saying, “We will do the best for every dollar Baptists send us.” In a NAMB release to BP on Nov. 13, 2015, Dr. Ezell said, “Southern Baptist don’t give sacrificially so that we can leave money unspent.” However in 2014, NAMB reported $285 million in unrestricted reserves, which is over $100 more than NAMB held in 2009. Do we want our NAMB to posses this level of reserves while we have defunded NAMB and state evangelism staff, experiencing 70 year low baptisms and our 47,000 churches are baptizing 18.8% fewer people per year ?

Trading Money for Support or Compliance?

The temptations are great when leaders have access to distribute large amounts of discretionary funds. The temptation to use money to reward and punish is even higher when the organization is undergoing major changes. When a leader’s actions have included making threats to State Convention partners and against a State Convention’s elected Executive Director, all types of questions arise about what else that leader is doing to buy influence, secure silence or pay off other leaders to get what he wants.

When a leader has acted in bad faith, trust is damaged and the presumption of innocence is gone. An independent investigation into the checkbook of NAMB beyond financial audits could be revealing. If there is nothing there, then nothing will be found.

NAMB Trustees: Potential Conflict of Interest

People are asking, “are the churches of NAMB Trustees receiving funds from NAMB to plants churches or start satellites?” The answer is YES. Pastors are expressing their concern that NAMB Trustees receiving funds may give the appearance of a conflict of interest in regard to their oversight responsibilities to the SBC.

Real-estate Purchases by NAMB for Planters to Use

Several concerns have developed around NAMB’s purchasing of buildings across the country. NAMB has purchased buildings to set up headquarters from which to conduct ministry from, such as compassion ministries and other types of relief. Are there not churches that are ready, willing and able to assist without NAMB owning and managing additional buildings. Should a national entity even be doing this type of ministry or is it better done by local Baptists in coordination with their state leaders? Questions are stirring on whether or not these types of purchases are a means to store financial resources or a move to garner additional good PR in the midst of noteworthy declines?

In its 2016 Financial Management Report, NAMB relayed its commitment to use $62 million of SBC given resources to purchase at least 4 homes in each of the 32 Send Cities and latest notes are they may be considering purchasing additional homes beyond the 32 cities. At last known reporting, 89 homes have ALREADY been purchased.

Several related questions are swirling among Southern Baptist leaders and members. First, when did NAMB get into the business of purchasing homes for planters to use? Second, how can NAMB even know where to purchase homes, as cities are constantly undergoing populations shifts so the strategic need is a moving target. Who at NAMB is making those decisions in 32 different cities? Third, is this another way for NAMB to tie up SBC resources in light of the remarkably high unrestricted reserves? Finally, is spending $12 million for housing for church planters in 2017 wise in light of slashing the evangelism budget almost in half to a paltry $6.3 million?

Having planted a church about 1,400 miles from family and friends, I understand the need. The issue is not whether planters, or even pastors of established churches in major cities need access to a home in their mission field. The issue is should NAMB be a LANDLORD all over the country or is the need better addressed by planters in coordination with local church leaders and their sponsoring church(s)?

Home FOR a Planter?

According to multiple leaders in conversations with me and others, NAMB actually purchased a home in the name of a church planter in Las Vegas, not to provide temporary housing, but actually gave him the home as he got started. If this is accurate, is this an example of using SBC funds to secure loyalty or was there a strategic reason to purchase this home for this one planters out of some 925 SBC church planters we have every year for the last six years?

Decimated Evangelism Budget

The Former (pre-Ezell) NAMB was investing $20.6 million in evangelism and the New NAMB has slashed the evangelism budget to $6.3 million in 2017. NAMB has decimated national evangelism staff, defunded jointly funded evangelism missionaries such as State Director of Evangelism, and reduced and eliminated financial support of other historic evangelism and local mission efforts.

Tripling Funds for Church Planting w/ Fewer Results

NAMB initially doubled allocation of funds to church planting. That number continues to rise. In 2017 the budgeted amount for church plantings is 3.5 times more than in 2010 when Dr. Ezell became President. With the New NAMB planting an average of 444 fewer churches per year, has it been wise stewardship to continue to invest even more dollars, but which has resulted in fewer plants? What about slashing the evangelism budgets and staffing across North America while SBC churches collectively are baptizing over 45,000 less per year and baptisms have declined an average of 18.8% per church over the last six years?

Funding Satellite Campuses

Concerns are being expressed by pastors of small and mid-size churches that NAMB is funding large and mega church satellite campuses. Those churches are noting that unless the satellites are evangelizing the lost for their congregations, the people reached would be Christians from small and mid-size churches like theirs. Consequently, the money the average SBC congregation is sending to CP may eventually drive their own churches out of business as people flock to a more impressive satellite.

Hidden Cost – WARNING!

The single greatest stewardship in church planting is the planter and his family. It will take another article to address this matter fully, but let me communicate, that I am deeply, deeply concerned that we are recruiting and using up (often for our own purposes) courageous men of faith who put themselves, their families, and their ministry on the line in making the sacrifices to plant a church. We are sending them into tough places of services with inadequate training and local support, in fact, NAMB’s flawed strategies are dismantling essential components at the local and state levels, while burning through sponsoring churches who are frustrated by what they see happening.

Surely some planters are looking to be in on the “cool” thing, but most are faithfully seeking to follow Jesus into the battlefield. My primary concern that I had as the professor of church planting at NOBTS, the Team Strategist for Church Planting in Florida, and the Executive Director of the BCDM was the stewardship of the planter and his family. So, training AND support were the focus, as was contextual fit, not the number of church plants. It appears that church planters are being recruited and used up like commodities. If they survive and thrive, NAMB writes about them for their own purposes, often without their knowledge. If the plant does not become viable, the planters once touted, and doted on and taken to sporting events and sent gift cards become soon to be forgotten causalities. They are left alone to fend for themselves as they pick up the pieces and their families and return to safer grounds. Let me be clear… all the leaders involved will have to give an account for how we treat people, not how many of them we can recruit and use. I am confident the planters get this figured out in spite of the positive PR along with small gifts.

Conclusion

All financial gifts to non-profits are expressions of trust and that should be guarded. Agency trustees, leaders and staff are stewards of the trust and the financial resources. Southern Baptists on the ground expect their leaders to please Jesus and honor their stewardship. Are these the types of decisions and actions that indicate that NAMB is working well in the use of the finances entrusted to them?

What would be discovered if the checkbooks of NAMB were examined? Could we find additional situations which would raise more concerns about the buying of favors or SBC money being used to reward desired behaviors and support, while punishing others? How much more information and documentation is needed to determine there is a problem and that it begins at the top?

If the lack of character of our current leader enables him to use SBC money to damage people and buy influence, then there is no end to opportunities for him to do so. The money and influence demands high accountability and oversight by trustees on behalf of Southern Baptists. That is NOT happening.

Interestingly, in church planting assessments, it is widely accepted that “the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” Let’s apply that church planting wisdom to Dr. Ezell himself. Has trust been violated? Do we want more of these behaviors? NO!

Series of Articles – “Is the New NAMB Really Working”

PART 3: Church Planting – Full Article w/ Fact Links

PART 5: Financial Stewardship – Full Article w/ Fact Links

Going, Going, Gone, Sold: Essential Elements of the SBC Mission Efforts

Is the New NAMB Really Working? Part 4 Partnership

drMac — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 19:13:55 +0000

Separating Spin from Facts

For decades, the Southern Baptist ecosystem of missions support has been the envy of other networks and denominations. However, it is in danger of crumbling down like the walls of Jericho. Sounds rumbling from the earth indicate this crumbling has already begun. Our NAMB President has damaged three essential ingredients of strong and lasting partnership in the SBC—our trust and goodwill, our mutual interdependence, and our spirit of respectful and selfless cooperation. The nationalization of our missions efforts with inappropriate tactics has violated and damaged trust, goodwill, and cooperation. We are dismantling the essential fibers of our SBC missions efforts. Like Humpty Dumpty, they will be hard to put back together again.

Current Southern Baptists inherited walls we did not build with our hands, but we have stewarded what was entrusted to us. Our walls were built by previous generations of faithful mission givers. While we inherited great resources, like kings of old, we cannot trust alone in the strength of our walls to remain, but must connect to God and walk humbly before the Creator and Sustainer of all. We must also as one body be rightly connected to our differing parts: local, state and national. As we face increasing hardships, our cooperation at all three levels is essential if we are going to strengthen our witness. A cord of three strands is stronger than a cord of only one strand.

This essay is the fourth part of a series entitled The New NAMB—Is It Working? Throughout this series, we are exposing the questions being asked by NAMB as weaker questions than the better questions we are asking. Today’s “better question” is this one: Under the New NAMB, have essential partnerships and the spirit of cooperation been enhanced or damaged?

Expressions of Government

Can you imagine only having a federal government with no local or state government, even with all of their shortcomings? What a disaster that would be! In the same way, can you imagine the SBC existing in only its national form? Our present system is not only essential in the South, but is particularly vital in the non-South regions where mutual interconnection is essential to survival. A centralized NAMB, regardless of its size or benevolence, cannot provide the strength or relationships necessary to help local churches through the hard times that are on the horizon.

Historical Cooperation Facing Challenges

The SBC was built and is held together around several pillars allowing us to advance the gospel across the nation and around the globe. Several key commonalities bound us together: doctrine around The Baptist Faith and Message, the training of clergy through our SBC seminaries, a congregational form of church governance, common organizational structures and ministry programing, and a unifying approach to investing in mission efforts through the Cooperative Program.

We were mostly Southern, white, and English speaking. We used materials published by the Baptist Sunday School Board. We sang the same hymns in our churches, had dinner on the grounds or in the fellowship hall, and offered ministry programming like VBS, WMU, Brotherhood, Training Union, and a host of others. Our churches served as the centerpiece of community life.

Things have changed. We celebrate a greater diversity today. We have adjusted to various unique approaches in order to impact the nations God has brought to North America. However, this growing diversity has brought new challenges, particularly in communicating a common story and mission in order to drive our churches out of independence and into cooperation and collaboration.

Southern Baptists Are Stronger Together

The SBC has some essential threads that hold us together in the midst of our great diversity in styles, preferences, forms, structures, doctrine and polity. Our SBC strength is in the tightly woven fabric of local, state, and national expressions of Southern Baptist life and missions. Each plays a vital role in making us stronger.

Danger of Denominational Deconstruction

What we have inherited will not last if we offend God in our dealings with Him and with others, or if we choose to walk in arrogance and pride. If He is not pleased with us, the hand of God can tear down the walls of our mission efforts, only to rebuild around us. What is dismantled in the organizational deconstruction of Southern Baptist life may never be put back together again.

Resourcing His Mission

By working together at the local, state, and national levels, mostly by means of a cooperative spirit and the Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists have been able to maintain a self-regenerating system of missions support both financially and in terms of personnel. Local SBC leaders have planted daughter churches carrying their DNA. These efforts have included both the funding and the sending of missionaries in a truly cooperative manner.

However, when national entities own and rule all things church planting among the non-Southern states, the SBC DNA is not inherited from the mother church. Thus, the national agency has to infuse it. I have little to no hope that this will happen. The methods being used dismantle and discredit state and local ministries, assuming federal ownership of these mission fields while hindering these regional efforts. Instead of NAMB owning this mission, we need strong churches and even weak, imperfect ones to own it. NAMB should encourage and resource local and regional leaders to help them be more fruitful in their assignment. In fact, it is NAMB’s assignment to do so. NAMB should merely add fuel to the efforts already being led by state leaders and local leaders on the ground. It is a poor strategy to attempt to build nationally that which was already in place regionally and locally.

In two previous articles, I addressed the roles of local, state, and national SBC entities:
Dealing with Decline: The Future of Southern Baptist Cooperation

All funds and missionaries are local. No denominational organization has resources that are not generated through our local churches. Disproportionately, both the Cooperative Program and the mission outposts called churches, have been supported by small and mid-size congregations. These churches have invested in SBC life and missions generously and remarkably, starting numerous daughter congregations even before our propaganda machine made it seem cool or popular.

Southern Baptists became the largest Protestant denomination in North America without a large national structure or a national media campaign. For that matter, we didn’t have the personal computer or the internet either. Local Baptists took responsibility for advancing the gospel, evangelizing their neighborhoods and starting churches. Remember, each of our 47,000 plus churches WAS STARTED. In a study I completed in 1989, I traced the historical SBC roots of church planting.

Taxes and Kings without an Army

All resources in the SBC originate in the pockets of local churches and their members. Instead of a societal system, Southern Baptists chose generations ago to cooperate and unite for the greater good. What is happening (and has been happening for many years now) is that we are becoming more societal in our approach. We have the IMB, NAMB, ERLC, 6 seminaries, State Conventions, and local Associations all seeking to garner support for their individual body part at the expense of the overall body.

Powerful kings have armies to keep the peace in the land and to collect the taxes. In fact, this is one of the reasons the Pharisees opposed Jesus and used the Roman government to kill Him. The Romans wanted peace in order to collect taxes, and they used the religious leaders to do accomplish this end. The Jewish leaders were threatened by Jesus’s life and message, so they plotted to kill Him.

Southern Baptist appear to be crowning kings. But, these SBC kings will not have the power to send out armies to keep the peace and collect the taxes from the local churches. All SBC gifts are voluntary. We simply must find a different and better way.

Great Commission Resurgence Impact

Without casting aspersions on GCR Task Force members or their motives, I believe the application of elements of the GCR have damaged the essential fibers of the SBC. There is less trust and goodwill than before. We have weakened the local and regional ties in favor of national ties and ministries. We are more in the news, but this news has not been good, based on our results in the field. Some leaders have said the primary objective of the GCR was to redistribute money and power. Clearly, we are less effective in our cooperative missions engagements. Generally, the GCR redistributed SBC mission funds (from state to national and from national to international) and championed a nationalistic approach to the church planting focus by NAMB. Today, we are experiencing much less responsiveness and support for local and regional strategies. My lenses have been focused on the work in North America through local, state and NAMB leaders, so I would expect there to be some benefits regarding certain components of this strategy which I have simply not seen or attempted to examine for this project.

Essential Elements of SBC Partnership Now and in the Future

All non-profits, including churches, denominations, and entities, are built on trust and goodwill. When these are damaged, we are weaker, and when they cease to exist, so does the nonprofit organization. In spite of the loud enthusiasm being heard in certain quarters, the reality is that we have gunpowder spread all over the SBC because of the violations of trust and goodwill by our NAMB leadership and the tactics used to execute their objectives.

If the SBC and NAMB is to be rebuilt, it will require our trust and goodwill, our mutual interdependence, and our spirit of respectful and selfless cooperation. The “cool factor,” great public relations, and the buying of favors using the money of small and mid-size congregations is not sustainable. The SBC will eventually be only as strong as the local relationships, not the relationships of a few select churches with national agency heads or even the national agencies themselves. For now, NAMB leaders are operating on the goodwill and trust of the past. They are relying on the blind faith and financial resources of faithful and generous Southern Baptists. We are not pursuing strategies that inspire more people to be loyal to our SBC values. We must earn their loyalty through the manner in which we conduct ourselves.

Ways In Which our Partnership has been Enhanced

Under the New NAMB and the GCR, there is no meaningful way in which our partnership has been enhanced. Yes, we have some good public relations. Yes, we have created a “cool” factor around NAMB and church planting. Some are seeking to engage younger pastors. However, we have abandoned some SBC entity partners and are actually shooting arrows at them as “bloated bureaucracies” or lesser partners. It is often as if we are fighting over the last meal, seeking survival at the national level at the decimation of the local and state expressions. However, local and state ties are more important than national ties over the long haul. Local and state expressions in SBC life are more important to our mission efforts than national entities. Chronologically, the national entity was the last to be created. The rationale was that some group must exist to assist local associations and state conventions until these organizations were established in new regions.

Ways in Which our Partnership Has Been Damaged

Trust and Goodwill

Several articles document concerns related to NAMB’s centralization efforts. The New NAMB has changed, ignored, and violated Strategic Partnership Agreements and budget agreements with State Conventions multiple times over the last 5 years. They have taken these actions almost at their sole discretion, even when confronted. Some state leaders do not believe Dr. Ezell and NAMB will honor their word. Rather, they fear these leaders will change their approach on a dime, and then expect state leaders to take the hit as they work it out locally with churches and associations.

Several articles have made accusations against Dr. Ezell regarding shortcomings in his character with regard to lying, bullying, false accusations, putting gag orders and making threats to those who verbalize opposition to him or NAMB’s approaches. In full disclosure, I have documented his actions against me and the MD/DE Baptist Convention that resulted in the filing of a lawsuit against him and NAMB for libel and interference with my working relationship with the MD/DE Convention.

Because Dr. Ezell used SBC money to interfere with my leadership in Maryland-Delaware, resulting in my subsequent termination, the message was sent loud and clear to all other small and mid-size state conventions without him having to say a word. Who then would dare to communicate the failings in evangelism or church planting or dare to oppose anything at NAMB? My journey to examine the related issues began thirty years ago in a History of SBC Evangelism PhD seminar and continues until today.

In the South, state and local leaders conduct their ministries with only a small degree of influence from any of NAMB’s actions. These Conventions give sacrificially to support the “all-in” church planting strategy that was based on statistical deception regarding evangelistic effectiveness. I addressed this in the third article on NAMB: Church Planting. Outside the South, NAMB’s defunding of Associations and DOMS left a bitter taste in the mouths of pastors and local Associational leaders. State leaders were also impacted and are trying to help recover from the 2012 NAMB defunding of DOMs in Associations.

Some temporary goodwill is being purchased with NAMB resources and the filling of some positions at NAMB and around the country. However, unfortunately, this may not last after the funds stop flowing. While some NAMB-Ezell friends and friendlies have been placed in select state convention openings and other key roles, trust is at a remarkably low level. No one wants to admit it. No one wants it to be this way. But this is the way it is.

Mutual Interdependence

A cord of three strands is not easily broken. One cord can be easily broken to detriment of the whole. Not perfectly, but throughout the history of the SBC since the inception of the Cooperative Program in 1925 (to prevent what is happening now), Southern Baptist local, regional and national leaders designed the CP to share a mutual interdependence in funding our mission.

The New NAMB pulled the support system out from under DOMs and Associations outside the South in 2012 when they defunded their work. Prior, NAMB assisted with local ministry by providing SBC entrusted resources to the State Conventions, which in turn reinvested into local ministers and mission efforts. The mutual interdependence was clear to all involved. But, the current centralization efforts created a situation where each entity must look to its own interest, not the interest of the SBC whole.

As of 2012, Southern State Convention leaders voluntarily accepted a new Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) with NAMB by sacrificing millions of state dollars to additionally support national and international efforts. NAMB reinvested $300,000 in each state, while NAMB received millions and tens of millions from each of those state conventions. However, the cross learning and partnership that had historically existing between the Southern states staff and NAMB staff came to something close to a screeching halt. NAMB is learning less from Southern state leaders who are in the field and the Southern states are less connected to NAMB in partnership and setting directions and priorities. Significant losses over the long-haul.

For Associations, NAMB directed (virtually) State DOMS to remove the historic requirement to give to their local missions/Association from the church planting agreements. This applied to all church plants receiving SBC funding. Should a local SBC church member who gives to their church and Annie Armstrong not be able to expect that those receiving the funds would also pay it forward by reinvesting in local SBC missions?

Louisiana Message Editor Will Hall reported in an article on Oct. 5, 2015 that designated giving annually has passed Cooperative Program giving. The message is clear, SBC will count it as Great Commission Giving if you designate giving to an entity, so CP is less important. The message was also clear with the hiring of our latest entity heads. There is not a standard or minimum investment prerequisite to steward millions in SBC resources. This is not a reflection of passion, but of value. What is important gets rewarded, and that sets values for the next generation.

Spirit of “Others First” Cooperation

As noted above, the developing spirit is to look to the interest of part, not the whole, which does not bode well for the future. NAMB has damaged the spirit of cooperation with their strategies, tactics and use of financial resources. NAMB created the new 2014 SPA that favored them and hurt regional and local ministries. More than once NAMB would send down edicts or new policies or procedures created in Alpharetta with little or no input, leaving local leaders to carry it out. The 2012 SPA required both NAMB and the State Executive Directors to physically sign off on changes, but NAMB leadership lapses in following that requirement in the agreement. In my situation, they lied to our MD/DE leadership and falsely accused me of violating the SPA, when in fact, I never even saw or signed off on the new hiring procedures. When confronted, a NAMB VP refused to correct his false accusations that made me appear to be uncooperative.

On the large scale, NAMB’s actions are destroying or has destroyed a spirit of true cooperation. Strong-arming, coercion, threats and the like are NOT cooperation. SBC entities are sister organizations. We do not have a hierarchy. When this is damaged among the entities, it is sure to impact the trust and goodwill of local leaders who own all the resources, financial and human.

Select Strategy Concerns Regarding Partnership under the New NAMB

NAMB is forging new partnership with non-SBC agencies and networks. While this could be helpful on some fronts, we cannot operate under the belief historic Baptist principles, practices, doctrine and mission support will follow those partnerships.
NAMB is seeking to plant churches through churches directly instead of funding through state and local leaders who are closer to the planters and the mission field. On the surface, this appears to be a good thing, but not without long-term dangers.
How long will small and mid-size congregations continue to fund NAMB and then have NAMB give it to large and mega churches to plant churches? A reverse Robin Hood if perceived, will impact CP giving.
Are large and mega churches positioned and have the breadth of experience to replace local and state training and support for the planters?
If churches are planted and disconnected from the local Association and State Convention, will they continue to support and fund them and CP after their funding is stopped? How does this impact future CP support?
How long will small and mid-size congregations continue to invest sacrificially when they see little to nothing redirected to assist them in carrying out their mission assignment? There are 35,000 churches averaging less than 500 (30,000 under 200). These churches give 65% of all funds to the CP.
NAMB strategies and tactics have negatively impacted Associations and State Conventions outside the south. Are Southern Baptist missions efforts long-term better served without healthy local and regional ministries? Or, are Southern Baptists better served with a limited national missions agency and stronger local and regional ties and entities?
NAMB actually duplicates what happens at the local and state levels. Ideally NAMB would use funds from mostly the South and human expertise at the national level to resource local and state strategies, not nationalize or centralize our missions efforts. The historic functions NAMB performed that are not happening at local and state levels are (1) National Crossover in June, (2) National Response Center (if still operational), and (3) Appointments of Military chaplains. Southern Baptist have been ground up, not national down.
Some Non-Southern local and regional leaders have gathered that NAMB believes Non-Southern are inadequate (“C and D players”). Signal being gathered…NAMB knows best for their field.
Centralization of missions money and power makes the SBC more vulnerable to poor leadership or strategies. It also provides greater temptation to misuse the power and the money. When NAMB funded more of its work through the State Conventions, there was less temptation to buy influence, threaten those who differ, or direct large sums of money to individuals in the field without local and regional accountability.
Naturally locals have more concern and support for what they have some hand in designing, directing and overseeing, than in what NAMB does. NAMB’s nationalization of church planting away from State Conventions and local Associations has numerous pitfalls, which is why I opposed it and our BCMD Board originally opposed it until Ezell tied SBC money to my removal.
The 2014 NAMB SPA with small and mid-size state conventions breads dependence and apathy, not incentives and encouragements to become self-supporting and self-governance. The story of how to catch a herd of pigs seems to be what is taking place across some parts of the SBC.

Tough Time Realities

In tough times, a band of brothers is stronger than large armies of mercenaries. Men fight in war for country, but when the bullets are flying, fighting for the man beside you in the foxhole who is also fighting for you help to keep one in the fight. So true in denominational life too. We can cheer and celebrate national things, but what happens locally is more important.

Conclusion – SBC Groanings

A long-tenured national leader declared, “partnership is dead in the SBC”. He, I and I am sure you, all hope he is wrong. However, groanings deep inside SBC life are indicating that walls may be beginning to crumble. The violations of trust and good will among and between SBC entities and Southern Baptists to their local, state and national agencies may not be able to be repaired. When the nationalization is fully set, and it is deep into the process, what has been dismantled and taken apart for short-term gains, will forever not be able to be put back together again. God has used the SBC, but God is not obligated to bless in the future. God help us!

Series of Articles – “Is the New NAMB Really Working”

PART 3: Church Planting – Full Article w/ Fact Links

PART 5: Financial Stewardship – Full Article w/ Fact Links