ATLANTA—Kevin Ezell has been elected president of the North American Mission Board. NAMB’s board of trustees approved the nomination in a special called meeting which took place Sept. 14 at an Atlanta-area hotel.
Ezell’s nomination was announced Aug. 31 after NAMB’s seven-member presidential search committee voted unanimously to recommend him as president.
“I am honored and humbled that the trustees put this confidence in me,” Ezell said immediately following the meeting. “I will do everything I possibly can to honor the Lord in this and to lead NAMB to a place where it is as effective as it possibly can be.”
Ezell said he sensed God’s call to the role partly because of what can be accomplished through NAMB.
“I see the potential NAMB has if its energies and resources are focused in the right direction,” Ezell said. “I am looking forward to being able to give a very clear vision for it. You rarely have the opportunity to have this big of a Kingdom impact.”
Tim Dowdy, chairman of NAMB’s board of trustees, called the vote a culmination of a 10-month process. “It has at times been discouraging and at times encouraging, but along the way, God has been faithful to give us guidance. When He introduced us to Kevin, it was evident through the interview process that this was the man.”
Dowdy, pastor of McDonough, Ga., Eagle’s Landing, said Ezell’s leadership abilities, integrity and passion for church planting and missions are what led trustees to him.
“He has demonstrated faithful leadership and character and he has a passion for reaching the world,” Dowdy said. “One banner he will consistently wave is that our greatest resource in the SBC is not money, but people. We want to help mobilize our people and partner with them to reach North America for Christ.”
Ezell has pastored Louisville, Ky., Highview since 1996. He served as president of the SBC Pastor’s Conference this June in Orlando.
NAMB’s presidential search committee was appointed in October 2009. The committee was headed by Ted Traylor, pastor of Pensacola, Fla., Olive. Other members were Doug Dieterly, executive pastor, Plymouth Church, Plymouth, Ind.; Larry Gipson, pastor of Oneonta, Ala., First; Chuck Herring, pastor of Collierville, Tenn., First; Lisa Knutsen, a member of Henderson, Nev., Green Valley; Ryan Palmer, pastor, Seventh Metro Church, Baltimore, Md.; and Tim Patterson, pastor of Jacksonville, Fla., Hillcrest. As chairman of NAMB’s trustee board, Dowdy served as an ex officio member of the search committee.
Bryant Wright, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of Marietta, Ga., Johnson Ferry, attended the Sept. 14 meeting and delivered a devotion to NAMB trustees before they entered into executive session to consider the vote.
“Today is an historic day in the life of NAMB,” Wright told trustees. “Today your big decision is to follow God’s will with a man the search committee clearly feels is God’s man for leading our churches as they go about the harvest.”
After the vote, Ezell said one of his first priorities as NAMB president will be to spend time with church planters.
“They are on the front lines, and I want to do everything I possibly can to free resources and direct resources to them and help them succeed,” he said. “I love church planters. I like being around people who get in the ditch and do the work. That’s who I operate best with. So I look forward to connecting (with) and investing in them.”
Mike Ebert is team leader of communications for the North American Mission Board.
