NAE head quits post; changes, debt blamed

Christian Century, July 4, 2001

National Association of Evangelicals President Kevin Mannoia, who shook up the umbrella organization with a move West and by extending a hand to mainline churches, has quit his post under pressure from the NAE executive committee.

Edward Foggs, chairman of the NAE board, praised Mannoia, 45, for his "visionary" leadership in the past two years but said there were "divergent perspectives about certain operational and fiscal matters" that led to the resignation, effective July 7. "We mutually agreed that under the circumstances, it would be, shall I say, an unusual challenge for him to give effective leadership," Foggs told Religion News Service.

Mannoia, a bishop emeritus in the Free Methodist Church, had moved the NAE headquarters from the evangelical stronghold of Wheaton, Illinois, to Azusa, California, partly as an effort to reach out to minority communities and to begin contacts with entertainment leaders in Hollywood.

But a couple of policy decisions upset some of the 50 denominational and 250 ministry affiliates. The NAE adopted a bylaw change to allow denominations affiliated with the more liberal National Council of Churches to affiliate also with the NAE if they adhered to the evangelical group's statement of faith. At March's annual meeting, however, the NAE board voted to restudy the matter. The group also worked with other Christian groups to issue a marriage declaration but suffered some embarrassment when National Council of Churches' chief Bob Edgar pulled out of the agreement just after it was announced.

"There's a constituency out there for whom these changes have undermined their expectation of the NAE and they don't agree or they don't like it and they wish that it were different, and I understand that," Mannoia said.

Financial struggles were a contributing factor to the decision. Figures from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability show that, from the end of 1999 to the end of 2000, total NAE income dropped from $1.5 million to $1.1 million, and donated income dropped from $887,915 to $564,614. NAE Vice President John Mendez confirmed the data.

Mannoia told the Los Angeles Times that the NAE's operating budget of $1 million was already running a $350,000 deficit when he took his post in mid-1999.

Under Mannoia's watch, the National Religious Broadcasters voted to drop its long-term affiliation with NAE, but Mannoia and executive committee members said that was not a major factor in the resignation decision.