(RNS) The president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s domestic missions agency and three of his associates resigned Tuesday (Aug. 11) after questions were raised about his management of the agency.
Geoff Hammond led the North American Mission Board for two years.
Hammond’s resignation takes effect immediately, Tim Patterson, chairman of the agency’s trustee board, said in a statement after a daylong meeting. “(T)his is a personnel matter and we will keep the details of today’s discussion confidential,” he said.
Patterson said three of Hammond’s “closest associates” on the agency’s staff also resigned. They are Steve Reid and Dennis Culbreth, members of the senior leadership team, and Brandon Pickett, a communications team leader.
Two Baptist newspapers reported that an e-mail circulated among trustees prior to the meeting stated that Hammond had hired a chief operating officer without board approval, failed to meet with an executive coach to address his management skills, and was leading a staff whose morale was at an “all-time low.”
Hammond, 52, was unanimously elected to lead the agency in 2007, succeeding Bob Reccord who resigned the previous year after a state Baptist newspaper raised questions about his management practices.
The son of missionaries, Hammond previously was an executive of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia before leading the missions agency, which has about 275 employees and a $130 million budget.
By Adelle M. Banks
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