Trustees of the North American Mission Board approved 60 new missionaries, endorsed 38 Southern Baptist chaplains and heard a report from their presidential search committee during their Oct. 4 meeting at the board’s Atlanta-area offices.

The board also passed a number of new leadership and management policies and heard from Southern Baptist Convention president Frank Page.

Page opened the Oct. 4 meeting by telling trustees that God has given NAMB a “monumental task. Southern Baptists need NAMB to set the pace and give us a strategy to win this continent for Christ.”

Page told the trustees it’s not NAMB’s job to win the United States and Canada to Christ; that is the job of the local church.

“It’s NAMB’s job to challenge our churches to do what God has called them to do, and then give us the tools and the direction needed to win North America for Christ,” he said.

According to NAMB statistics, three out of four people in North America — some 235 million — have no relationship with Christ and thus are spiritually lost.

While some people may have written off the Southern Baptist Convention as irrelevant and outdated, Page said, “I believe there’s a great future ahead. But it’s time for us to get back to basics. We have a great shot to do what God has called us to do.”

Greg Faulls, chairman of the NAMB trustee presidential search committee and senior pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Owensboro, Ky., updated the trustees on the search process.

“We are trying to make it a thorough, prayer-filled process,” Faulls said. “We neither want to waste time nor rush. We’ve got to get it right. We know that what we do will affect thousands of lives over the course of time. We take this seriously and covet your prayers.”

Faulls reported that since the Sept. 1 deadline for submitting resumes, the committee has been deliberating and praying. “We’ve narrowed the candidates down to a select list — not a short list, but a select list. But we’re still only at the preliminary stages. If you hear that we’ve narrowed it down to one or two men, that’s not true.”

Trustees approved a number of new policies and guidelines designed to clarify existing procedures and implement new accountability for future leaders of the mission board.

The specially appointed Executive Level Policy Committee presented a report that was adopted unanimously by NAMB trustees. The committee, chaired by Larry Thomas of Heber Springs, Ark., was created following a March 24 trustee report that detailed concerns about former NAMB president Bob Reccord’s leadership. Reccord resigned April 17.

A cover memo from the committee explained, “Throughout these recommendations, you will see certain threads repeated: Full disclosure, accountability, priority of NAMB ministry over personal ministries.” The report was accepted without discussion and without opposition.

NAMB trustees also approved a 2007 budget of $124.3 million, which is a record budget but only $300,000 more than the current year. NAMB’s chief financial officer, Mitch Crowe, called the budget “conservative but realistic.”

Crowe also gave a positive 2006 financial report he attributed to “the faithfulness of God and Southern Baptists” giving to the Cooperative Program and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering.” Crowe reported gifts to the Annie Armstrong Offering have already exceeded $55 million this year, which is nearly 9 percent more than had been given at this time last year.

“I’m confident that by the end of the year, Southern Baptists will reach and exceed the national Annie Armstrong goal of $56 million,” he said — a feat that has only been accomplished three times in the last 25 years.