ALPHARETTA, GA.?The President Search Committee of the North American Mission Board trustees today recommended that Dr. Geoffrey A. Hammond become the agency’s next president. Hammond is senior associate director of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia.

NAMB’s full board of trustees will vote on the recommendation at a March 20-21 special called meeting in Alpharetta. If approved, Hammond would become NAMB’s president-elect, officially beginning his duties at the May 8-9 board meeting and starting full-time on May 22, according to committee chairman Greg Faulls.

“Dr. Hammond has proven himself to be a successful leader, strategist and practitioner in church planting missions and evangelism throughout his ministry career,” Faulls said. “NAMB is a missions agency in need of a strong leader with the mind of a missiologist and with a vision to strategically mobilize an army of missionaries who will spread the Gospel and plant churches throughout an ethnically diverse North America.”

Hammond, 49, was born in Nigeria to missionary parents serving with the Foreign Mission Board, SBC. He earned the equivalent of a business degree in administration in Zimbabwe, passing the final examination of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries and Administrators (UK). He is a graduate of Spurgeon’s Seminary in London, England, as well as earning the doctor of ministry degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, majoring in evangelism and missions.

He has served throughout his career as pastor, church planter, staff member of mega-churches, International Mission Board missionary to Brazil, seminary professor, director of missions, NAMB-appointed missionary, church planting strategist and for the past five years, as a senior associate state executive.

Hammond understands missions at every level. He has proven skills and experience planting churches and strategically directing church planting in associations and a state convention. He is gifted in leadership and adept in the areas of business administration. He is bilingual and has a grasp of the complexity and diversity of the harvest field and clearly understands the importance and dynamics of NAMB’s relationships with its state partners,” said Faulls. “In addition, he is fully supportive of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.”

Hammond and his wife, Deborah, have two sons, Timothy and Nicholas.

“Our president search committee has been thorough and prayerful in seeking God’s man for NAMB,” said Bill Curtis, chairman of the board. “I can say with confidence that the search committee has worked diligently on behalf of Southern Baptists and the board throughout this process, and they look forward to bringing a report on the journey and to presenting Dr. Geoff Hammond at the March board meeting.”

Curtis also said, “I wish to express my gratitude to every member of the NAMB staff. During the past year, I have observed our wonderful staff rise to every challenge with faith and cooperation. As we prepare to move into a new phase of NAMB’s history, I am confident that the staff and our committed missionaries will continue to rise as they work together in advancing evangelism, church planting and the strengthening of churches throughout North America.”

“As a third-generation missionary, my heartbeat has always been reaching people with the Gospel no matter where they live,” said Hammond. “I believe the North American Mission Board is the greatest missionary agency for reaching North America for Christ and it is the greatest honor of my life to be nominated for this position.”

The recommendation of Hammond follows an intense 10-month search that began with the committee’s commitment to continually pray, follow a thorough, patient process and resist outside political maneuvers.

“We determined what we were going to do was seek God’s man. There was never a predetermined person. We were faithful to follow our process and allow God to reveal His choice,” Faulls said. “We considered a wide variety of candidates from all corners of Southern Baptist life: pastors, seminary professors, state executives, missionaries, evangelists, as well as staff members of denominational agencies.”

NAMB, an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention, is led by a 56-member board of trustees. In April 2006, after the resignation of former president Dr. Bob Reccord, then-board chairman Barry Holcomb appointed a nine-member search committee: chairman Greg Faulls (Ky.), vice-chairman David Crump (Okla.), Dennis Culbreth (Va.), Ellie Ficken (Ala.),

KATY, Texas ? A Southern Baptist pastor in the Houston area has resigned from his city’s ministerial alliance, charging that it is “soft selling” the differences between Christianity and Islam.

Randy White, pastor of First Baptist Church of Katy, said the Katy Ministerial Alliance “has always posed itself as a Christian group” and that he has withdrawn his membership because “it was communicated that Allah and God were the same, just a different name.”

“Everything so far has been an advertisement for the soft side of Islam along the lines of ‘the more we get together the happier we’ll all be. If we as Christians and Americans understood the true heart of Islam, we wouldn’t have any concerns at all,'” said White, paraphrasing what he deems the misguided sentiment of the Katy ministers’ group.

A planned mosque near Katy has drawn opposition from some area residents, including one man who protested by holding pig races on his property adjoining the proposed mosque site on Fridays, the Muslim holy day. Muslims view swine as unclean.

White wrote in his resignation letter that “there is no place for prejudice and intolerance in America,” though “I must say I find no compatibility between Christianity and Islam.”

White told the Southern Baptist Texan: “I took a religious stance, not so much on the right of the church to gather to build a place of worship?we have a freedom of religion that Baptists fought for. But the Islamic faith is not compatible with Christianity and in many ways is not compatible with democracy.”

The ministerial alliance’s position “has been that we have more theological agreement than we have differences,” White complained. “And I don’t see any theological agreement [between Islam and Christianity].”

White’s resignation letter drew coverage in the Houston Chronicle and from the local Katy Times, which published several letters from readers on the subject.

Yousef Allam of the Katy Islamic Association told the Chronicle his group must obey the laws of the land “as long as it does not prohibit us from worship.”

NEW ORLEANS?Center Point Church of North Richland Hills, a Fort Worth suburb, has adopted a “home” away from home.

After replacing the roof on the home of a senior adult New Orleans resident?Mr. Richardson?in June 2006, the church decided to adopt the home and see it through to completion. The fourth team of volunteers from the church recently returned from hanging drywall in the home.

Center Point has been working with Operation NOAH (New Orleans Area Homes) Rebuild, a two-year initiative of the North American Mission Board in cooperation with Louisiana Baptists and other assisting state conventions. NOAH houses, feeds and coordinates the work of hundreds of volunteers every month, working toward a projected goal of rebuilding 1,000 homes.

Pastor Jay Bruner and the first team of volunteers presented a check from the church to Operation NOAH for $10,000. The money has been used, in part, for building materials for Richardson’s home.

Marc Byers, owner of an automotive repair shop and a coordinator for the trips, said returning team members were so excited about the first trip, the church made the commitment to come every few weeks.

Participant Lauri Daniels said that after hearing the report of the first team, she decided, “I’ve got to be a part of that.”

Byers, who came to faith in Christ a year and a half ago, said getting people involved in the trips was as much fun “as bringing people to church.” Some “recruits” for the trips have been unchurched skilled workers, including some of Byers’ customers.

“Nothing builds a church quite like a mission trip,” Byers said. “Some of our team members got connected to the church for the first time after one of these trips.”

Brad Sullard, Center Point’s associate pastor, said that the nine-year-old church, now averaging 650 in worship, has shifted their focus as a result of the mission trips.

“These trips have been very significant in developing our mission focus and a vision for those outside the church,” Sullard said. “We are moving from being self-focused to giving our lives away.”

Sullard said that the presence of volunteers is being noticed in New Orleans. As they shared lunch and visited with the neighbors, team members have shared how they are motivated by a commitment to Christ.

Center Point teams took the gutted home and replaced wiring and plumbing systems, insulation and walls.

“NOAH 5,” the next scheduled trip, is planned as a youth mission trip to paint inside the home. Three additional trips are anticipated to finish out cabinets, flooring and other accommodations.

“As an individual there’s not much I can do,” four-time team member Paul Bellwood said. “But we have learned that as a team, together we can do a lot.”

PHILADELPHIA?When SBC President Frank Page addressed Southern Baptist editors meeting in Philadelphia Feb. 16, he offered many of the same answers he gave eight months earlier to some of the same reporters following his election in Greensboro, N.C.

A sweet spirit, evangelistic heart, and a commitment to biblical inerrancy and the funding mechanism known as the Cooperative Program remain the litmus tests for those Southern Baptists he soon will appoint to some denominational committees, he said.

And while the questions changed some to suit recent buzz among a few Internet bloggers and other Baptists, Page still encouraged critics to do a “reality check” before giving up on Southern Baptist ministry and mission.

“I sense a huge number of people?primarily laypeople, certainly pastors of small and medium-sized churches who are authentically, loving, Christian men and women?they want to win the world to Christ, care about people, help people in Jesus’ name.”

Building upon the evangelistic foundation of his predecessor, Bobby Welch of Florida, Page said he had asked the SBC’s LifeWay Christian Resources and the North American Mission Board to team with state and associational staffs to develop a national evangelistic strategy.

“That’s why I’m cautiously optimistic,” Page said while adding that Southern Baptists are “tired of fussing and fighting” and willing to stay on focus with missions and evangelism.

Part of the blame for the negative perceptions of the SBC lay at the feet of those “people who want to constantly cast us in a negative light because in so doing they can cast themselves as being positive in the life of Southern Baptists,” Page said.

Countering the critics is somewhat of a public relations problem, he noted. When talking with people who have left the SBC or are considering that option, Page said he acknowledges “constant antagonisms have driven away massive numbers of people.”

Instead of focusing on the negative, Page challenges those who are disenchanted with the SBC to take a closer look at the breadth of denominational ministry extending from New Orleans to the other side of the world.

“Go with me to the Katrina area where I’ve been three times in the last six months,” Page said. “Let’s go see who is nailing boards on walls, who’s gutting out the homes. You’ll find Southern Baptists doing 10 times more.”

On college campuses nationwide are Southern Baptist ministers who are making a difference, he added.

While visiting Nepal last year Page said he learned that the sound of Christian songs can be heard on any street in the capital city because there are now 5,000 house churches that didn’t exist five years ago, a result of Southern Baptist mission efforts.

It’s more than “patting ourselves on the back,” Page explained. “It’s just a reality check. If you’re looking for fault, you don’t have to look far, but let’s just be open and honest.

“Are there not things you can buy into?” he said.

“If after you’ve checked it out you don’t want to be a Southern Baptist, God’s work is not tied up in who we are. But praise God he can use some of us,” he added.

EULESS?Growing up in an abusive foster home, Rick Stanley would crawl on his stomach in the night to console his crying younger brother, trying to assure him that things would get better.

Then one day Stanley’s mother showed up to retrieve her boys with her new husband in tow. They were off to their new home in Memphis, Tenn.

“My mother introduced me to a wonderful, wonderful stepfather,” Stanley recalled. “‘This is Vernon Presley, Elvis Presley’s dad,'” Stanley recalled his mother saying. “And I thought, ‘Great, who is Elvis Presley?'”

After arriving at Graceland, “There was this guy just standing there, just singing these gospel songs,” Stanley recalled. “He snapped his head toward me.? He knelt down and he said, ‘You know, I always wanted little brothers and now I have three.'”

“I saw the wonderful side of him,” Stanley said of Elvis. “I saw the good side of him. I can’t tell you what that meant to me as a little boy who had been pushed away.”

Stanley told how he had been raised by the Elvis’ entourage, the so-called “Memphis Mafia,” “some of the meanest, roughest guys you’ve ever been around.”

As for Elvis, Stanley related warm memories of “the most generous person.”

Being Elvis Presley’s stepbrother, Stanley had access to worldly pursuits at a young age.

Eventually, life in the fast lane threw him into a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center.

“My god was people’s opinion of me,” Stanley recalled.

“Fortunately for me, I met a young girl who started talking to me,” Stanley said of the girl who led him to Christ seven years after he met her and whom he eventually married.

Her persistent friendship and prayer for Stanley and her merciful actions?”She goes over to those kids [at school] who have learning disabilities that nobody wants to be around,” Stanley recalled of one event that impressed him.

Speaking of teenagers, whom Stanley speaks to often, “Folks, listen to me ? they can tell when they’re welcome [at church] and they can tell when they’re not.”

In August 1977, not long before Elvis’ death, Stanley’s future wife told him: “Ricky, I had a terrible dream ? I dreamt you died and went to hell.”

Relating the dream to Elvis, he told Stanley, “You know, Ricky, those are the people who care.”