By Bob Allen
The search for the next general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA is on hold, due to “breaches of confidentiality” in the search process, the denomination’s president announced June 28 at the denomination’s biennial mission summit in Kansas City, Kan.
Don Ng, pastor of First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco, acknowledged in a Sunday morning business session that many delegates were anticipating an announcement of a successor to General Secretary Roy Medley, who steps down Dec. 31 after 14 years.
Instead Ng read a statement announcing the ABCUSA Board of General Ministries voted during executive session Wednesday morning “to suspend the search process at this time.”
The search process “brought forth strong and qualified candidates, each of whom is uniquely gifted in ways worthy to be celebrated and honored,” the statement said, “Unfortunately, breaches of confidentiality have compromised the integrity of the search.”
As a result, the board plans to name an interim general secretary at its November 2015 meeting and “will discern when to resume the search process.”
“As you know, searches are personnel matters,” the statement said. “For this reason, further details will not be given nor questions taken.”
The decision comes nearly a year after the naming of a 12-member search committee after the Board of General Ministries elected Medley in June 2013 to a two-year term ending in 2015. That was after Medley served three of the typical four-year terms, taking office in 2002.
Effectively announcing his retirement, Medley said at the time he desired to serve another two years beyond the end of his current term to implement a “Transformed by the Spirit” initiative aimed at revitalizing congregations, regions and national bodies.
Key changes included reducing the size of the denomination’s General Board and shifting focus of the biennial meeting away from public statements to a small-group discussion format in which delegates pick from a wide variety of interests.
This year “Mission Summit Conversations” ranged from leadership issues such as combatting pastoral attrition to public witness issues including ministry to people with disabilities to future-oriented topics like “congregations without buildings.”
Near the end of the business session Ng said many had spoken to him of their desire to issue some formal statement from the body as a whole regarding the Charleston shooting. Absent the old process for drafting a Statement of Concern during the biennial meeting, Ng assured the audience that leaders would be using every available avenue for policy statements and resolutions through the denomination’s governing boards to address the issue.