A publication of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship • www.cbf.net
WINTER 2023-2024
Designing
Thriving
Congregations
Saying “Yes” to the Fellowship Five years ago, I was actively discerning whether I sensed a call to serve as executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Those days of decision-making unfolded as we were making our way through Advent toward Christmas. That December, I learned in a new way that the coming of Jesus in our lives is more important than anything we could imagine. I learned that Advent can be disruptive and demanding. I also found that it was a time to dream the holiest of dreams. I had to discern what is required, in the power and provision of the Holy Spirit, to make those dreams real. I never imagined that I would or could be called to serve in this kind of ministry. While the past five years have been incredibly challenging, I also thank God for the opportunity to serve this Fellowship. I see first-hand the beauty of our congregations, the impact of our field personnel, the compassionate presence of our chaplains and pastoral counselors, the commitment of our partners, the unique gifts of our state and regional leaders and the remarkable ministry of our CBF staff. This calling is still requiring me to learn, grow, adapt and change with all the ways the Holy Spirit is working in our Fellowship amid today’s challenges. One of the primary reasons I said “yes” to this calling five years ago is because I had a strong conviction that a new and better kind of Baptist denominational community was required. A more excellent kind of Baptist denomination would be one committed deeply to the thriving of congregations, the support of congregational leaders and the most generous participation possible in Christ’s mission. The mission of our congregations in our communities and our field personnel around the world is about inviting people to follow Jesus while also living Jesus’ life in the world. It is about evangelism and social transformation just as the ministry of Jesus himself entailed both. Jesus’ love is not just about our souls, but about our bodies. If our congregations are to be faithful to that kind of expansive mission in their communities and we are to join Christ at work around the world, we need to be part of a denominational community that is committed, without reservation, to us and our ministries. We need
A Publication Of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Volume 33, Number 4 Winter 2023-2024
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PAUL BAXLEY is Executive Coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
to be part of a community Baptist enough to know that the highest expression of church is a local congregation under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. I believed five years ago, and I believe even more today, that the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship exists for congregations and the thriving of their ministries. The work of our Fellowship is now more important than ever. So today, I ask you to join with Christ and others in making this Fellowship more faithful, more beautiful and more unique than ever. If you have not already done so this year, I invite you to make a generous financial commitment to the mission and ministry of this Fellowship. If you are able, consider joining my family and me in a monthly gift to CBF that is above and beyond what we give to support our congregations. If it is better for you to make a one-time gift as this calendar year ends, please do so. Either way, please give at the level that seems faithful to you and please do so above and beyond your support for your congregation. When you read this edition of fellowship! magazine, you will see some of the ways our Fellowship is invested in the thriving of congregations while also pursuing beautiful ministry around the world. The gifts you and I make now and in upcoming months will first sustain those ministries. But as our generosity grows, we will be able to say “yes” to more ways to strengthen congregations, encourage leaders and expand our partnership in ministry with Christ and His church all around the world. In these days, we see incredible opportunity and urgent need. Generosity now will allow us to seize more opportunities faithfully and respond to needs more decisively. I have been a Cooperative Baptist much longer than five years. God has used this Fellowship to touch and change my life and that of my family for decades. Our lives and the lives of the congregations we have served have been made stronger and more faithful because of this Fellowship. So as Advent turns to Christmas, I invite us all to say “yes” with even greater strength for the sake of our congregations and so that we might be a sign of good news of great joy for all people.
Fellowship! is published 4 times a year in September (Fall), December (Winter), March (Spring), June (Summer) by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Inc., 160 Clairemont Avenue, Suite 500, Decatur, GA 30030. Periodicals postage paid at Decatur, GA, and additional offices. USPS #015-625.
Executive Coordinator Paul Baxley Associate Coordinator for Identity & Communications Jeff Huett Editor Aaron Weaver Associate Editor Lauren Lamb Graphic Designer Jeff Langford
E-Mail fellowship@cbf.net Phone (770) 220-1600 Postmaster: Send address changes to: Fellowship! Cooperative Baptist Fellowship 160 Clairemont Avenue, Suite 500 Decatur, GA 30030
8CONGREGATIONS DESIGNING THRIVING
Initiative unleashes creativity, experimentation and risk-taking to transform churches By Marv Knox
16 EQUIPPING WITH EVERY GOOD THING CBF field personnel Dianne and Shane McNary demonstrated the purpose of long-term presence in Slovakia By Marv Knox
20 INGRID’S STORY
Learning to love home and be equipped with education By Grayson Hester
23 IMPACT REPORT 2023 The numbers behind CBF’s Outreach and Growth work
26 PASTORAS
Pastoras meet at the Baptist Women in Ministry of Puerto Rico retreat to recharge through fellowship By Kristen Thomason
28 PASTORAS
Pastoras se reúnen en Puerto Rico en el Retiro de Mujeres Bautistas en el Ministerio para recargar energías a través del compañerismo Por Kristen Thomason
30 CBF SELECTS DUO TO GUIDE ADVOCACY EFFORTS By Jeff Huett
FROM THE EDITOR We are excited to share with you the Winter 20232024 issue of fellowship! magazine. In the pages that follow, you’ll learn about CBF’s Thriving Congregations Initiative (pp. 8-13). Now in its second year, this initiative, led by Rev. Chris Aho, is unleashing creativity, experimentation and risk-taking to transform churches across the Fellowship and beyond. On pp. 16-19, our friend and Baptist journalist Marv Knox has offered an in-depth look at CBF Global Missions’ commitment to long-term presence through the ministries of Dianne and Shane McNary during their 19 years as field personnel. Grayson Hester continues this focus on pp. 20-21 with the telling of Ingrid’s story, a young Roma woman, mentored by the McNarys, who has faced discrimination firsthand but developed resilience as her faith has grown. We are also excited to announce the release of the 2023 CBF Impact Report. Read it online at www.cbf.net/impact-report and find an excerpt of the impact of CBF’s Outreach and Growth work on pp. 23-25. Kristen Thomason shares in both English and Spanish on pp. 26-29 about an August retreat of 56 women pastors held in Puerto Rico as well as a smaller cohort of pastoras led by Rev. Xiomara Reboyras as part of CBF’s Thriving in Ministry initiative. Finally, don’t miss the news on pp. 30-31 of two new CBF staff members announced Nov. 30. Building on a 10-year foundation laid for its formal advocacy efforts, CBF selected two women leaders in the Fellowship to guide the future of CBF Advocacy both in Washington D.C., and in partnerships with local churches. Jennifer Hawks was named as CBF director of advocacy and Sharon Felton named as CBF congregational advocacy manager.
AARON WEAVER is the Editor of fellowship! Connect with him at aweaver@cbf.net LAUREN LAMB is the Associate Editor of fellowship! Connect with her at llamb@cbf.net WINTER 202 3-2024
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A new weekly curriculum that helps children explore the Good News of Jesus through stories, scripture and activities.
También en Español. Free downloads for teachers and students at
www.cbf.net/pathlight 4 | fellowship!
Dawnings is a story-based approach to personal and congregational discernment that equips your congregation to discover and fulfill its God-given mission.
www.cbf.net/dawnings Amanecer es una jornada basada en narrativas personales para el discernimiento individual y congregacional. Amanecer capacita a tu congregación para descubrir y cumplir la misión dada por Dios al reconocer y responder al llamado único y oportuno de Dios en cada temporada de ministerio.
www.cbf.net/amanecer
www.cbf.net/mccall
The 2024 Emmanuel McCall Lenten Devotional series is prepared by Cooperative Baptist Fellowship family and friends. It is a project of love designed to be read during the season of Lent, which begins February 14, 2024. The devotionals include wonderful reflections on God’s Word, thought-provoking questions, prayers, incorporation of the arts and noteworthy information. As the devotionals are read, our prayer is that hearts open to the call of God to speak, walk and act justly. And, may our faith, courage and boldness grow stronger. 6 | fellowship!
CBF Book Club
C DE AY M
R
OC T
Celebrating Women’s Leadership in the Church
AP
B
AR M
SE FE
PT
AU G JA N
www.cbf.net/books
NO V
Brand-new discussion guides with compelling subjects and authors
Consider how Scripture reveals God’s plan for all of humanity—male and female together—to serve God’s people. Free 4-session video and age-graded curriculum for adults, youth and children.
Learn more at www.cbf.net/equallycalled WINTER 202 3-2024
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By Marv Knox
unleashes creativity, experimentation and risk-taking to transform churches
Imagine
figuring out how your church can thrive by experimenting with innovation, unafraid to fail in pursuit of transformation. Imagine learning from innovations that didn’t work. Then trying even-newer initiatives that eventually work. Imagine experimenting alongside other churches in situations like yours—learning from and encouraging each other—and guided by a coach who knows innovation inside-out.
Imagine using creative experiments as tools for church transformation and vitality. Imagine spending most of a year charting a course that will enable your church to thrive for years to come. Imagination like that is a growing reality for churches participating in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Thriving Congregations
Initiative, now beginning its second year. “Thriving Congregations helps church leaders develop habits and practices that enable them to find creative solutions to their problems,” Thriving Congregations Director Chris Aho said. “It’s a cliché to say, ‘Everything has changed,’ but it has,” Aho acknowledged. “The world most of us grew up in is gone and won’t come back just because some of us wish it would. “Many of the congregational changes we are acutely aware of today find their roots in how the U.S. culture and economy
(Left) Chris Aho serves as director of CBF’s Thriving Congregations Initiative. (Right) Abigail Visco Rusert leads teams in a Mission Mad Libs exercise as they imagine possibilities for Holy Experiments.
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Mike Smith, pictured above, serves as a Wise Guide for the North Carolina-based learning community. He works with congregational leadership teams to help them apply Thriving Congregation’s content.
changed from the 1970s through the ’90s. Until Covid hit, we managed the decline in our congregations, realizing tomorrow would be similar, but just a little smaller than today. But since Covid, we face a tomorrow that won’t look anything like yesterday. We must adapt to circumstances we could never have envisioned before.” To help churches adapt, CBF received a $1 million grant from the Lilly Endowment and launched the Thriving Congregations Initiative in the fall of 2022. The program trains congregational leadership teams of
four to six members in accelerator-style learning communities. During the learning community year, teams meet 10 times online and three times in person. They start by learning principles of thriving congregations and later experiment with initiatives that can cause their own churches to thrive. A key component is understanding and implementing what CBF believes are the five traits of thriving congregations: Compelling Clarity involves “knowing who you are, your giftedness, the importance of your ministry and being clearly defined by
what you are rather than what you are not,” Aho explained. “Clarity is based on the call God places on a congregation because of its unique set of relationships.” Rooted Relationships reflect “a life and faith marked by deep, meaningful relationships that help us hear and clarify God’s call,” he said. Thriving Congregations teaches churches to identify the relationships that matter most and to nurture them better. Dynamic Collaboration entails “carrying out work and ministry in ways that bring forth the life-giving koinonia (fellowship) the Apostle Paul mentions in the book of Philippians,” he said. It extends from collaboration within the congregation to partnerships with other churches and groups, both locally and globally. Collaboration multiplies the assets available for enabling congregations to thrive. Faithful Agility calls on congregations to be flexible and innovative in the face of changes and challenges, Aho added. For example, the book of Acts describes how the Early Church grew exponentially as it adapted and responded to constant change in first-century culture and politics.
Below: Randy Carter of Temple Baptist in Durham, N.C., and Abigail Mooney of First Baptist Church, Forest City, N.C., engage in Wagon Wheel exercises to get to know each other, pitch ideas and rapidly prototype dream statements. Top right: Henry Broadway of Temple Baptist and Charlotte Horn of FBC Forest City participate in a Wagon Wheel conversation. Bottom right: Garin Hill, Charlotte Horn and Abigail Mooney from FBC Forest City imagine dream statements based on other ministries found in a set of Hatch Deck cards.
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Holy Tenacity demonstrates “persistence that flows from a growing faith,” Aho said. “It is not surrendering in the face of challenges and not merely enduring difficult seasons.” Jesus’ parable of the sower illustrates Holy Tenacity, because the seed that grew in good soil multiplied a hundredfold. “Thriving Congregations participants learn to see those five traits in two clusters,” Aho said. Compelling Clarity, Rooted Relationships and Dynamic Collaboration all work together, he noted, explaining: “While churches seek clarity, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The clarity of calling comes and goes according to circumstances. But relationships provide stability. And while collaboration finds its direction in the clarity of a common calling, the calling is unclear and impossible to fulfill without relationships.” Similarly, Faithful Agility and Holy Tenacity exist in creative tension with
Abigail Visco Rusert, one of the Holy Experiments Retreat leaders, helps attendees brainstorm possible solutions and experiments to tackle their problems.
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each other, he said. Faithful Agility gives congregations the capacity to shift their calling according to circumstances, and Holy Tenacity enables them to robustly pursue the possibilities. “You can’t have one without the other,” he insisted. After participants understand these five Thriving Congregations traits, they begin to apply them to their own circumstances, Aho reported. They clarify their callings and explore their relationships. They consider the other churches and groups with whom they might collaborate. And they think about how transformation requires both agility and tenacity. Then they consider problems or challenges that need their attention. After identifying and defining a problem, they brainstorm possible solutions and conduct “holy experiments” to address the problem. Indeed, experimentation is the decisive ingredient in the overall process. “Thriving Congregations gives churches not only permission but encouragement
to experiment with initiatives that can transform a besetting problem into a strategic asset,” Aho said. In that context, failure is not a setback, but a lesson learned. Churches gain knowledge when they try something that doesn’t work, moving ever closer to a solution. Experimentation—accompanied by questioning and risk-taking—provides Thriving Congregations its superpower. “Mostly, Thriving Congregations is about helping churches ask questions that maybe they haven’t thought about before,” explained Brian Foreman, CBF’s coordinator of congregational ministries. “We were so wellequipped for doing church in the 1980s and ’90s. But today, churches that are equipped to ask new questions about God’s leadership might find new directions—new opportunities for doing ministry.”
Rodney Coleman (center) serves as a Wise Guide, a unique role in the Thriving Congregations Initiative that moves fluidly around mentorship, coaching and teaching. These guides work with congregational leadership teams to help the contextualize the program’s content.
Thriving Congregations is about helping churches ask questions that maybe they haven’t thought about before,” Brian Foreman, CBF’s coordinator of congregational ministries said.
Beyond that, Thriving Congregations “gives congregations permission to ask questions about risk,” Foreman added, posing a couple of questions: “What risk is suitable for our church? What are new ways to think about how God could be leading us?”
Holy experiments in real life Thriving Congregations’ emphasis on openness to questions, risk and experimentation resonated with cohort participants from Yates Baptist Church in Durham, N.C., noted Pastor Christopher Ingram and Courtney Thornton, a lay leader in the church. “One of our key takeaways was that it’s okay to experiment and to take those risks,” Thornton said. That counters the typical church response, which compels leaders to spend a long time developing a new program or project and not roll it out until it is “perfect,” she acknowledged. “We learned a different way of thinking and doing,” she said. “We learned something good can come out of the (experimentation)
process, and we don’t have to wait for perfection.” That attitude empowered the church to take a novel approach to building relationships as it seeks to recover from Covid, Ingram reported. “Coming out of the pandemic, we realized the church was really thirsty for and withering from the absence of meaningful fellowship,” he said. Leaders who participated in Thriving Congregations also realized they didn’t need just another program, but something more like a movement, a flexible response to a broad need. So, they invented IFFY—Intentional Fellowship for Yates. Call it a pop-up fellowship. The church can sponsor an IFFY event as needed if it meets three criteria— (a) it is fellowship-focused, (b) it provides an intentional moment to get to know someone or get to know them better and (c) people of every age and ability can participate. Yates launched IFFY last spring, the Sunday after Easter, with a churchwide donut
taste test on the front steps. The risky part? Delaying the start of worship by 15 minutes to take advantage of the maximal time people are on campus. “It hit the spot. It just flowed,” Ingram said. “The experience confirmed we had a lot to work with here,” enabling the church to address a major “discipleship issue” hinging upon how well the congregation knows, trusts and cares for each other. Leaning into the lessons they learned in Thriving Congregations, Yates’ leaders are bringing its risk-tolerant, experimentembracing approach to other church challenges, Ingram and Thornton said. Realizing the importance of outreach to the caregivers of neighborhood teens who participate in the church’s youth group, they recently “did reconnaissance” with parents and grandparents, Ingram said, adding: “We discovered what we thought they want and need from us is not what they want and need. We’re back to the drawing board, but we’re so glad we learned from them.” WINTER 202 3-2024
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“We learned a different way of thinking and doing. We learned something good can out of the [experimentation] process, and we don’t have to wait for perfect,” said Courtney Thornton of Yates Baptist Church and 2023-2024 Thriving Congregations Wise Guide.
The church also has applied Thriving Congregations’ emphasis on creativity to thinking about staff vacancies. They’ve learned to first consider how best to structure the ministry rather than how to find someone to fill a staff slot, he said. And now Yates’ leaders are looking to incorporate Thriving Congregations’ principles into the church’s DNA, Thornton said. “How can we make this inclusive beyond our team?” she asked. “We want our whole church family to think and function this way.”
Thriving beyond the cohorts Thriving Congregations extends beyond the annual cohorts to other groups. For example, Aho and Foreman led a team that conducted a Thriving Congregations retreat for leaders of camps affiliated with the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference. Participants attended the retreat seeking a “reframing” of the context of their camps to discover options for transforming their
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ministries, said Carl Greene, Seventh Day Baptists’ executive director. “The goal was to get us thinking about uncovering assets we have that aren’t evident in our day-to-day work. This was a kingdom opportunity,” Greene said. “The fruit of what came together was more than I dreamed.” Thriving Congregations enabled the camp leaders to develop a new process for considering their ministries. Implementing the process enabled each group to experiment with ideas and pitch new possibilities, like the approach modeled on the TV series Shark Tank, he said. One such idea led a “reeling” camp— whose facilities had fallen below state standards and had not been operational since before the pandemic—to see how it could creatively partner with another camp to open up a completely new multi-church family camp.
The Thriving Congregations process led to “curating the creativity of the group,” Greene said. The work done by the Seventh Day Baptist camp leaders—what Greene lauded as a unique process—shows Thriving Congregations is “a way of thinking more than it is a template for a how-to program,” Foreman said. “What Chris teaches them to do is recognize why they care about what they do, why it matters and what gifts and strengths they already have to do it.”
Getting connected… Thriving Congregations sounds similar to Dawnings, CBF’s original church renewal/ discernment program. “They’re both discernment processes,” Foreman acknowledged. “But Dawnings leans into spiritual practices, while Thriving Congregations leans into pragmatic discovery.” The primary difference is between discernment by contemplation and discovery by action, Aho added.
The 2023-24 Thriving Congregation learning communities are meeting in Florida and North Carolina. In early 2024, learning communities will convene in the Atlanta and Washington, D.C., areas, Aho said, noting one or two cohorts will be located west of the Mississippi River in 2024-25. But geographic proximity is not a requirement for participating. “These learning communities are open to any congregational leadership team that commits to attending the monthly online meetings and the three retreats that are part of the program,” he said.
Thriving Congregations is also expanding the availability of resources. Modules based on each of the five Thriving Congregations traits are in the works. A preaching guide and set of Sunday school lessons will be released this spring. “We also are actively looking for ways to distill the year-long cohort work into smaller pieces for leadership retreats, Thriving Congregations sprints, congregational renewal weekends or workshops that we can provide in a smaller period of time,” Aho said. “We want to get tools in the hands of our pastors and congregational leadership any way we can.”
“We absolutely believe God has given congregations what they need to thrive. Sometimes, it takes a process, like the Thriving Congregations cohort, to learn how to discover and maximize those assets God has given,” Foreman said. “We’re not bringing a magic bullet approach. What we’re bringing is another tool to discover and implement God’s vision in their community.” For more information on Thriving Congregations, visit www.cbf.net/thriving or contact Chris Aho at caho@cbf.net.
“It’s a cliché to say, ‘Everything has changed,’ but it has. We must adapt to circumstances we never could have envisioned,” Aho said. Through learning community meetings and upcoming modules, Thriving Congregations is working to help churches recover and transform since Covid.
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J IN US
JUNE 19-21, 2024
GREENSBORO
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Order or download OGM promotional materials at
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Across two decades in Slovakia, CBF field personnel Dianne and Shane McNary demonstrated the purpose of long-term presence By Marv Knox
After 19 years serving in Slovakia and Czechia, Dianne and Shane have taken on new roles within CBF but a piece of their hearts remains in Slovakia.
S
hane McNary used to make a morbid so whatever we decide to do today, you have to prediction that proved prophetic—and commit to do it on your own,’” Shane recalled. pragmatic—for his ministry partners in Across almost two decades, Shane and Dianne Central Europe. “When I had a conversation with McNary have served as Cooperative Baptist somebody to start a new collaboration in ministry, Fellowship field personnel, working primarily with my standard speech was, ‘I’m going to die tomorrow, Roma people in Slovakia and Czechia.
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While he didn’t die, he has passed on. After more than 19 years in Europe, the McNarys returned to the United States this year. Dianne became CBF’s Offering for Global Missions advocate. Shane became coordinator of ministry for Great Rivers Fellowship, which formed through the merger of CBF state organizations in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Shane reflected on the point of all those conversations with potential partners before they relocated. “They were offended that I said I’m going to die,” he acknowledged. “But then they were reminded the commitment is not just, ‘Let’s see what we can get from this person.’ We were able to have a long-term presence to walk alongside people until such time as we were not needed to support them in ministry. We were needed to support them as friends, and that transformation is only possible through long-term presence.” Leaning in to CBF’s commitment to long-term presence, the McNarys lived in Central Europe from 2004 to 2023. They drew upon their experiences—Dianne as a nurse and Shane as a pastor— as well as their shared commitment to the under-served and under-represented. In the focus of their ministry, they served among and alongside the Roma people, often derisively called “Gypsies.” “The Roma people are most definitely discriminated against,” Dianne said. Roma are ethnically different from the dominant cultures in the region and, as is often the case with discriminated people globally, their skin is darker. “There’s a huge prejudice, and it has gone on for years and years—hundreds of years in this particular area,” she explained. “The Roma people experience prejudice in every situation they come into.” For example, Roma are the last to receive opportunities to get education. Even those who persevere and earn college degrees often are told no jobs are available, even when non-Roma who apply after them are hired. Roma always stand in the back of the line for healthcare. They receive the worst housing, sometimes without electricity or water. They literally sit in the back of the bus. In Central Europe, Dianne invested about 60 percent of her time and Shane spent about 40 percent of his time in Roma ministry. “Most of my Roma work was centered in Vazec, about 20 minutes from where we lived in Poprad, Slovakia,” Dianne said. “I worked with
an organization called Jekh Drom, which is Roma language for ‘One Way.’ They have a community center where they work with people— not just Roma—living in poverty. My work was to come alongside and help them as they were doing their programs.” She used her nursing background to educate mothers about prenatal and after-birth care and “how to take care of those newborns.” She also helped children with their homework, “because most of the kids who come in there don’t have a place to do homework at home.” Shane’s Roma ministry included leading a Bible study in Jelsava, in southern Slovakia. He sat on the board of a nonprofit that is translating the Bible into the Roma language. He also invested considerable time alongside Roma pastors, sharing life and helping strengthen their churches. Working with Roma literally came with the turf when the McNarys accepted CBF’s invitation to serve in Slovakia and Czechia. “When we started exploring what we might do with mission work, we didn’t even know who the Roma were,” Dianne noted. “And when we learned about the Roma, it was like, ‘We know these people.’ Shane was a pastor for years and with my working in healthcare, we knew people who lived in poverty.” Dianne spent about 40 percent of her time in non-Roma ministry. She coordinated conversational English classes where she could encourage Slovak participants to rethink their antipathy toward Roma neighbors. She also worked in a program called Community Health Evangelism, taught in other countries and served on a nonprofit board. Shane invested the other 60 percent of his time in a variety of ministries. He worked on multiple fronts with Slovak Baptists. He also chaired the European Baptist Federation’s Freedom and Justice Commission and served as the Baptist World Alliance’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Together with Dianne, he coordinated dozens of mission teams and spent countless days mentoring Slovak and Czech pastors and assisting churches across the region. “I used to say, ‘My work is I go and have cake and coffee with people, and it’s the best job in the world,’” he said.
Watch videos about the McNarys’ ministry at www.cbf.net/ogm Košice, Slovakia. The city where Dianne and Shane began their ministry in 2004. Shane preached often at Devleskero Kher, a Roma church in Kosice. Dianne facilitated a discussion club at the state scientific library.
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Shane also took the lead in coordinating CBF response when the war in Ukraine started and thousands of Ukrainian refugees—many of them Roma—flooded eastern Slovakia. His relationships with pastors undergirded one of CBF’s most intense relief endeavors. Beyond that, he provided ongoing coordination for CBF’s response to the war across the region. Altogether, Dianne and Shane focused on ministries demanded by the needs their partners identified. As Shane’s “I’m going to die tomorrow” line indicated, they never knew how long they would remain. But they felt comfortable taking supportive roles—putting their partners in the drivers’ seats so that ministries would continue when they left. “We were there almost 19 years. When you talk about ‘long-term presence,’ that’s pretty long-term,” Shane noted. “The ability to be there long-term helped us focus on equipping and empowering local ministry instead of building everything on our presence. “If I invested myself in a program, that would be my program, what I’m doing missionally, and that would end when I end. But long-term presence allowed me to take the time to invest myself in local people and in local initiatives that they start, that they continue. When that happens, then even when my long-term presence should end, the long-term impact remains.” The McNarys feel blessed to have spent almost 19 years among the Roma and other people in Slovakia and Czechia, and their friends say the blessing is mutual. Denisa Kovacheva met Dianne through a discussion club sponsored by the Košice Scientific Library, which Dianne coordinated. “We talk about all kinds of topics, and it’s a great place for people around here to practice their English,” Denisa said, noting she was thrilled the group continued to meet digitally during Covid. They particularly bonded when Dianne obtained an English-language
hymnal for Denisa. “Each song tells a story, and it’s a life story. And (playing hymns) brings me closer to God,” she said. “Dianne and Shane have been here a long time,” she added. “It’s important because if people just come and go, you don’t get to know them as well. You can fake things for a short time. But if someone stays in a community for a longer time, then they will show their real colors.” Ingrid Bangova has known the McNarys for 14 years, since she was eight-years-old and they conducted a children’s camp in her village. As a Roma young woman, she knows discrimination firsthand, but has developed resilience as her faith has grown. When her mother became ill and her father had to quit his job to care for her, Ingrid initially thought her dream of attending university was disintegrating. “I prayed about it and thought: ‘What should I do now? Go to study or stay at home and take care of my mother?’” she remembered. “Somehow, God sent it to my heart that I should just write to Shane. So, I explained what my situation was, and actually since then, I have been receiving a scholarship through them.” Ingrid studies at the University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia. The McNarys believe an investment in this young woman’s education is prudent. “We realize that you change a man’s life and you have changed his life,” Shane said. “But you change a woman’s life, and an entire family is impacted.” Marek Gombár is co-pastor with his wife of an Assemblies of God church in Pavlovce and Uhom, near the Slovak border with Ukraine. They collaborated to help Marek’s congregation serve hundreds of Ukrainian refugees in the early weeks of the war. Previously, they built a bond of commitment to ministry and compassion for the Roma people. “When I saw him for the first time, I knew this was a person who came to us, the Roma, who loves the Roma,” Marek said. “We went
Dianne and Shane visit Pastor Marek and Jarmila Gombar at their home in Pavlovce nad Uhom, a small village near the Slovak-Ukrainian border.
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“THE ABILITY TO BE THERE LONG-TERM HELPED US FOCUS ON EQUIPPING AND EMPOWERING LOCAL MINISTRY INSTEAD OF BUILDING EVERYTHING ON OUR PRESENCE.” somewhere for pizza, and I saw into his heart and said, ‘God, this is a person I want to work with.’ This is a person who not only speaks, but I see that he has such a heart. He is a person whose heart flows from love, and there are not many such people.” René Ferko is pastor of an Apostolic church in Decin, Czechia, where he also is a hospital chaplain and coordinator of Roma work in the region. He and Shane met more than 11 years ago, when “the seed for ministry among the Roma was growing.” He calls the rangy missionary an “angel.” Shane is “the person who has helped me be where I am today,” René said. “In the hardest moments of my life, he was there, and he was willing to come from Slovakia, such a long distance, and sit and listen to what we were going through. “I’m glad he’s been that helper—we call it angel—all along the way, to do what Jesus has called us to do. It’s been a rare and very valuable collaboration with Shane and his family.” When the opportunity to help lead Great Rivers Fellowship came along, the McNarys weren’t looking to leave their posts in Europe. “We both loved what we did,” Shane said. “But things came together to say it’s time to change.” After a period of depression and frustration unrelated to her work in Slovakia, Dianne had worked through what they call “a period of discernment, re-evaluation and healing” and felt set to keep on keeping on.
But when Shane received a request to apply for the Great Rivers Fellowship job, they felt they should consider an opportunity that would bring them back to the place—Arkansas—where they were born. And then, when the Offering for Global Missions advocate position opened up, Dianne saw a chance to remain connected to CBF while supporting her colleagues. Even so, “it was hard to make the decision; it was hard to leave,” Dianne said, recalling how she cried through the final day of a CBF all-staff meeting about a month after they returned to the States. “I had left my home, and I knew I wasn’t going back soon,” she explained. Shane expressed gratitude for technology that spans the miles. “Our work was so relational; distance makes staying connected difficult. But still we are maintaining those contacts,” he said. That includes continuing to accept requests for finances out of a small amount of personal funds that remain in their Slovak bank account, exchanging texts and talks with partners and friends, and even facilitating an online course through International Baptist Theological Seminary. Ministries they supported in Europe continue to follow up-and-down cycles. They rejoice over progress, agonize over glitches and appreciate the blessing of ongoing work. This fall, they relished a life-come-full-circle experience. On their second day in Slovakia in 2004, they met “a ridiculous-looking kid, a first-year seminary student, who ended up being my language helper,” Shane related. “Now, he is getting ready to start a church plant in Prague. He came to the U.S. to raise money for that church, and he stopped by to see us Nov. 1. “Imagine—a church plant in the capital of the Czech Republic,” Shane said as they both beamed, thinking of the prospect.
Left: Shane talking with Rene Ferko as they head to the train station. Below: Dianne leads a weekly session of the discussion club at the state scientific library in Košice, Slovakia.
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Learning to love home and be equipped with education
S
ometimes the best way to discover home is to leave it. That’s certainly proven true for Ingrid Bangova, a Roma woman from the small village of Cinobaňa, Slovakia. She, like many Roma people scattered throughout the Eastern European diaspora, relates complicatedly to that concept of “home.” A perennially displaced and persecuted people, the Roma are without land and without border. But they are not without love or hope. Or any of those things which transcend human-made constructs. “What I love, or I like, about Cinobaňa is that my whole childhood is actually there, my whole family,” Ingrid said, “and that every time I think about it or know that I will be going home, I look forward to seeing them there.” Home can be a people as much as it can be a place. It is to her people, her family, that Ingrid expresses her devotion. Her family and her ardent faith in God buoyed her journey to the Slovak capital of Bratislava. “I quite like life in Cinobaňa, but it is difficult to find a job or to learn and grow,” she said. “So that’s why I actually decided to go to Bratislava to study.” A far cry (and distance) from her tiny hometown—Bratislava is roughly the size of Tulsa, Okla. Her home village, in this Austriastraddling metro, represented an opportunity to love more deeply the hometown she felt called to leave. Life there did not always treat Ingrid kindly. Devoid of opportunities and facing
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By Grayson Hester
Ingrid’s Story “My hopes or my dreams for the future are very simple. I would only like that my family, my surroundings, my friends would perhaps search more for God’s word—to open their hearts to it—because I think that is the basis of everything we need in life.”
myriad prejudices, both interpersonal and institutional, the Roma people could be forgiven for lapsing into pessimism. The systems work against the Roma people by depriving them of resources, preferring instead to allocate them to those who inherited Slovak nationality or European wealth.
Ingrid Banova, a young Roma woman from Cinobana, Slovakia, takes a moment to relax and enjoy a beautiful fall day.
Through a scholarship administered by CBF field personnel Shane and Dianne McNary, Ingrid was able to study tax consulting at the Economic University in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Watch a video of Ingrid’s story at www.cbf.net/ogm
“Many people from the Roma community are worried—they don’t see their future as rosy,” she said. “Sometimes they don’t have anything to cook for the children.” Interpersonally, Roma people routinely experience bigotry and hate. It is common for them to endure slurs and violence. And unfortunately, Ingrid has not been exempt.
“It once happened that my friend had a birthday party, and his mother told him the day before that he should not invite me there,” Ingrid said. “That he should say that he canceled the party because I’m Roma and I could steal something in the house.” But it was there that Ingrid also witnessed beauty and joy, sometimes in the form of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel. CBF features a long-established ministerial presence in Slovakia, focused primarily on the Roma people and enacted by a select few field personnel. Shane McNary is one such person. He met Ingrid early in Slovakia as her village hosted one of the Fellowship’s first Slovak youth camps. “The difference in equipping men and women for education is often seen in low-income communities,” Shane said. “When a man is equipped by education, it changes his life. When a woman gains an education, it changes her entire family.” CBF gifted Ingrid with a scholarship, enabling her to receive an education and fulfill her academic dreams. Somewhere, out of the murky middle between discrimination and divinity, emerges a truism—home is complicated. But Ingrid meets it not with a solution, but with acceptance. “These situations kept me moving forward because I realized that I had to accept it myself at first,” she said. “When I came to terms with the fact that I am a Roma woman, that I am of a different skin color, it
no longer caused that feeling of shame or inferiority. I realized that it doesn’t actually mean that I’m bad or that I’m someone different.” This resolve carried her across the country and into new adventures, propelled by faith in a God whose love became manifest, partially through CBF. She now studies tax issues and tax consulting at the University of Economics in Bratislava, a field she chose because “it’s a very current topic and I think it will always be needed; so, I hope it will be easier for me to get a job in the future.” She intends to use her earnings to help her family back home, providing for those who once provided for her. And while material concerns certainly matter, it is not there that Ingrid invests the bulk of her hope. Equipped with every good thing, like education, Ingrid leans primarily into her faith—in God, in her family and in a home she can never truly leave behind. “My hopes or my dreams for the future are very simple. I would only like that my family, my surroundings, my friends would perhaps search more for God’s word, to open their hearts to it,” she said. “Because I think that is the basis of everything we need in life. That, along with God, peace, love and gratitude also come into life, and I think that we don’t even need anything more in our lives.”
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The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Year-long Guide to Prayer
2023-24
SPIRITUAL GUIDES
Join us in prayer For this year’s Prayers of the People, we invited writers to share with us about someone who has made a significant impact on their lives, a spiritual guide so to speak—one who has shaped their faith, their theology or their prayer life. As you will see, the offerings are wide and varied, ranging from friends and family members to mentors and colleagues, from the characters of Scripture to authors and theologians past and present.
To view, download or order a printed copy of Prayers of the People, visit www.cbf.net/pray. 22 | fellowship!
Participants in the pilot program of CBF’s Pan African Koinonia and CBF of South Carolina’s Fellowship Focus Groups, which brought together churches in black and white communities to become partners in ministry.
OUTREACH & GROWTH Outreach and Growth celebrates the interest of new CBF partner congregations. CBF invites churches to form new, vital, loving, just and needed church partnerships. The team encourages partnerships during times of prayerful discernment and discovery and strives to create relationships with existing CBF organizations to make the Fellowship home for all. The work of the Outreach and Growth team includes leadership of the Pan African Koinonia, as well as FAMILIA, CBF’s Latino Network.
NEW PARTNERS
141 INDIVIDUALS
8 CHURCHES
Check out CBF’s 2023 Impact Report at www.cbf.net/impact-report W I N T E R 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4 | 23
CONTACTS
WITH PROSPECTIVE INDIVIDUALS, CHURCHES AND PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS
37
CHURCHES
185
141
INDIVIDUALS
GENERAL ASSEMBLY FIRST-TIME ATTENDERS
350
INDIVIDUALS AND CHURCHES
CBF OUTREACH EVENTS
7
PARTNERS
3 EVENTS 61 PARTICIPANTS
PAN AFRICAN KOINONIA (PAK) LEADERS IN CBF 17 PAK GOVERNANCE BODIES 8 SCHOLARSHIPS $10,000 AWARDED WORTH
MCCALL RACIAL JUSTICE TRAILBLAZER LUNCHEON NEARLY
600 ATTENDEES
100% INCREASE
Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III offers the keynote address at the Dr. Emmanuel McCall Trailblazer Awards Luncheon during the 2023 General Assembly in Atlanta.
Members of Familia, CBF’s Latino Network, gathered for opportunities in their heart language throughout the 2023 General Assembly in Atlanta.
FAMILIA
5 34 YEARS NURTURING
COVENANT PARTNERSHIPS
PARTICIPANTS
IN CBF’S ANNUAL MINISTERIAL REST AND RENEWAL RETREAT
100%
WITH
140 CHURCHES
100%
24
SAID THE EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN INSTRUMENTAL IN THEIR HOLISTIC AND MINISTERIAL HEALTH SAID IT HELPED THEM CONNECT BETTER WITH THE MINISTRIES AND WORK OF CBF AND THE FAMILIA NETWORK
“The FAMILIA retreat has been a balm for my family and me. It has provided us with a space of tranquility, recreation, peace and connection that we lack away from the rest of our FAMILIA.” – Retreat participant
STATEWIDE, NATIONAL AND LATIN AMERICAN
ORGANIZATIONS
MCCALL INITIATIVE CHURCHES RACIAL 3 6 JUSTICE RESOURCES VIDEOS
DEVELOPED FOR CHURCHES
1
DOWNLOAD
COMPLETED FIRST
RACIAL REPAIR COHORT PRODUCING INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ASSET REPORTS AND A STRATEGY FOR ONE-YEAR MINISTRY FOCUS AREA
Pastoras meet at the
By Kristen Thomason
Baptist Women in Ministry of Puerto Rico retreat to
recharge through fellowship For three days
in August, 56 female pastors gathered to worship, learn, reconnect and rest at the Baptist Women in Ministry retreat for pastoras in Puerto Rico. Some of the participants were seminary students just beginning their ministries, some pastors of local churches looking for inspiration, some chaplains serving their communities, and others were retired pastors sharing what they learned from their abundance of experience. Rev. Xiomara Reboyras, pastor of Comunidad Cristiano Nuevo Pacto in DeLand, Fla., participated in the retreat. “We shared wonderful experiences only possible when 56 women pastoras come together to embrace their ministerial realities.”
In 2022, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship signed a Missional Relationship Covenant with the Iglesia Bautistas de Puerto Rico (Baptist Churches of Puerto Rico). Leaders like Reboyras in collaboration with CBF Latino Network FAMILIA are working
Three Latina pastors from the U.S. joined leader Rev. Xiomara Reboyras in Puerto Rico for the retreat. From left to right: Rev. Ruth Cuellar, Rev. Xiomara Reboyras, Rev. Yarelis Montes de Oca and Rev. Argiolys Roman came to fellowship, worship and learn in August.
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diligently to foster relationships with the organization’s 114 churches, eight schools and 35,000 church members. Three Latina pastors from the continental United States, Rev. Yarelis Montes de Oca, Rev. Ruth Cuellar and Pastor Argiolys Roman, accompanied Reboyras on the retreat. “During my participation and presentation, I thanked the ‘pastoras’ of Puerto Rico for receiving my friends and colleagues from the United States in such a loving way, and the response I received literally moved me to tears. They said, ‘If they are your friends and they are from CBF, they are part of our family,
and we love them,’” Reboyras said. While ministers from the mainland attended the retreat with the intention of blessing the Puerto Rican pastoras, they came away blessed by the experience. “Connecting with the pastors of Puerto Rico has been the most beautiful thing that has happened to me ministerially in a long time,” said Pastor Yarelis Montes de Oca of Miami, Fla. “I feel part of something holy, sacred, important and owe valuable thanks to these wonderful women.” The pastoras reminded Florida chaplain Argiolys Roman that “I didn’t need more knowledge or information for my mind; I needed encouragement for my heart; I needed to laugh and enjoy good times and good company.” Both women agreed that it was the conversations, encouragement and sharing of stories from lives spent in ministry that will continue to inspire and uplift them long after they return home. “I feel lighter, knowing that we are strong and brave, because we are,” Montes de Oca said. “It’s good to reconnect and enjoy friendship at a ministerial, personal and authentic way.” Reboyras believes in the importance of women supporting one another in ministry. “I was fortunate enough to have amazing role models, women ministers who walked with me and opened a path for me,” she said. “My one and only pastor until I became a pastor myself was a female, and I was an active part of her ministry and life.” As a native of Puerto Rico, Reboyras also understands the challenges facing Hispanic pastors. “I learned to pray, preach and process emotions in Spanish and, as if that is not enough, I have an accent! As a Latina, as a professional and as a minister, I’ve accomplished everything I have worked for; but I am aware that I am one of the few and lucky ones, especially in my culture that can truly say, I learned from women and women helped me open the doors.” Drawing from her own experiences, Reboyras is facilitating a CBF Thriving in Ministry cohort for 16 female pastors in Puerto Rico, all of whom attended the August retreat with support from CBF. Thriving in Ministry is a CBF initiative funded by the Lilly Foundation to assist pastors by connecting them with mentors and peers serving in
Rev. Reboyras facilitates a Thriving in Ministry cohort in Puerto Rico and the pastoras meet monthly until April 2024. “The connections and resources are providing this group with an opportunity like no other.”
similar situations. The Thriving in Ministry cohorts provide coaching tailored to ministry context and encourage members in their personal wellbeing. The pastoras have been meeting together monthly since January 2023, either in person or via Zoom, and will continue their meetings until April 2024. “The connections and resources, as well as the possibility of developing stronger relationships with their peers on the island and in the United States, are providing this group with an opportunity like no other,” Reboyras said. Pastor Ruth Cuellar of Iglesia Bautista El Buen Pastor in Newnan, Ga., sees the pastoras retreat and Thriving in Ministry
cohort as part of CBF’s larger commitment to supporting women in ministry. “CBF is making it possible for Latina women with a call to ministry to have spaces like this to share, listen and walk together, honoring women as Jesus taught us.” Whether it’s building new relationships on retreat or sustaining them through a Thriving in Ministry cohort, Reboyras is grateful for the chance to create connections among women in ministry. “One of the most beautiful opportunities that life gives us is the possibility of seeing the paths, efforts and ministries of many bear the wonderful fruit of becoming one.” WINTER 202 3-2024
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Pastoras se reúnen en
Por Kristen Thomason
Puerto Rico en el Retiro de Mujeres Bautistas en el Ministerio para recargar
energías a través del compañerismo Durante tres días
de agosto, 56 pastoras se reunieron para adorar, aprender, reconectarse y descansar en el retiro para pastoras de Mujeres Bautistas en Ministerio de Puerto Rico. Algunas de las participantes son estudiantes de seminario que acaban de comenzar sus ministerios, algunas son pastoras de iglesias locales en busca de inspiración, otras capellanas sirviendo a sus comunidades y otras pastoras jubiladas que compartieron lo que habían aprendido de su abundante experiencia. La Rev. Xiomara Reboyras, pastora de Comunidad Cristiana Nuevo Pacto en DeLand, Florida, participó en el retiro. “Compartimos experiencias maravillosas que sólo son posibles cuando 56 pastoras se reúnen para abrazar sus realidades ministeriales”.
En 2022, el Compañerismo Bautista Cooperativo firmó un Pacto de Relación Misional con las Iglesias Bautistas de Puerto Rico. Líderes como Reboyras, en colaboración con la Red Latina FAMILIA de CBF, están trabajando diligentemente para fomentar las
Tres pastoras latinas de Estados Unidos se unieron a la pastora Xiomara Reboyras en Puerto Rico para el retiro. De izquierda a derecha: Rev. Ruth Cuellar, Rev. Xiomara Reboyras, la Rev. Yarelis Montes de Oca y la pastora Argiolys Román participaron del compañerismo, la adoración y el aprendizaje en agosto.
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relaciones con las 114 iglesias, ocho escuelas y 35.000 miembros de esta organización. Tres pastoras latinas de Estados Unidos continental, la Rev. Yarelis Montes de Oca, la Rev. Ruth Cuéllar y la pastora Argiolys Román, acompañaron a Reboyras en el retiro. “Durante mi participación y presentación, agradecí a las ‘pastoras’ de Puerto Rico por recibir a mis amigos y colegas de los Estados Unidos de una manera tan amorosa, y la respuesta que recibí me conmovió literalmente hasta las lágrimas. Me dijeron: ‘Si son tus amigas y son de CBF.... son parte de nuestra familia, y desde ya las amamos’”, dijo Reboyras. Aunque las pastoras asistieron al retiro con la intención de bendecir a las pastoras puertorriqueñas, salieron bendecidas ellas
mismas por la experiencia. “Conectar con las pastoras de Puerto Rico ha sido lo más hermoso que me ha pasado ministerialmente en mucho tiempo”, dijo la pastora Yarelis Montes de Oca, de Miami, Florida. “Me siento parte de algo santo, sagrado, importante y les debo valiosas gracias a estas maravillosas mujeres”. Las pastoras recordaron a la capellana de Florida Argiolys Roman que “no necesitaba más conocimientos o información para mi mente; necesitaba aliento para mi corazón; necesitaba reír y disfrutar de buenos momentos y buena compañía”. Ambas mujeres coincidieron en que fueron las conversaciones, los ánimos y el intercambio de historias ministeriales lo que seguirá inspirándolas y elevándolas aún después de su regreso a casa. “Me siento descansada, reconociendo nuestra fortaleza y valentía, porque lo somos”, dijo Montes de Oca. “Es bueno volver a conectar y disfrutar de la amistad ministerial, personal y auténtica”. Reboyras cree en la importancia de que las mujeres se apoyen mutuamente en el ministerio. “Tuve la suerte de tener increíbles modelos a seguir, mujeres ministras que caminaron conmigo y me abrieron un camino”, dijo a Mujeres Bautistas en Ministerio. “Mi única pastora hasta que yo misma me convertí en pastora fue una mujer, y fui parte activa de su ministerio y de su vida”. Como puertoriqueña, Reboyras también entiende los desafíos a los que se enfrentan las pastores hispanos en el continente. “Aprendí a orar, predicar y procesar emociones en español y, por si fuera poco... ¡tengo acento! Como latina, como profesional y como ministra, he logrado todo con mucho esfuerzo. A la vez soy consciente de que soy una de las pocas y afortunadas, especialmente en mi cultura latina que puede decir de verdad, aprendí de las mujeres pastoras y mujeres abrieron puertas para mi.” Basándose en sus propias experiencias, Reboyras está facilitando una cohorte de Prosperar en el Ministerio (Thriving in Ministry) auspiciado por CBF para 16 pastoras en Puerto Rico, todas las cuales asistieron al retiro de agosto. Prosperar en el Ministerio es una iniciativa de CBF financiada por la Fundación Lilly para ayudar a los pastores/ as poniéndolos en contacto con mentores y compañeros que sirven en situaciones
La Rev. Reboyras coordina y facilita el cohorte de Fortalecimiento Ministerial para pastoras en Puerto Rico y se reúnen mensualmente hasta abril 2024. “Las conexiones y los recursos brindados a este grupo son una oportunidad como ninguna otra.”
similares. Las cohortes de la iniciativa proporcionan coaching adaptado al contexto del ministerio y apoya a los miembros en su bienestar personal integral. Las pastoras se han estado reuniendo mensualmente desde enero de 2023, ya sea en persona o a través de Zoom, y continuarán sus reuniones hasta abril de 2024. “Las conexiones y los recursos, así como la posibilidad de desarrollar relaciones más fuertes con sus pares en la isla y en los Estados Unidos, están proporcionando a este grupo una oportunidad como ninguna otra”, dijo Reboyras. La pastora Ruth Cuellar, de la Iglesia Bautista El Buen Pastor en Newnan, Georgia, ve el retiro de pastoras y el cohorte de Thriving in Ministry como parte del
compromiso más amplio de la CBF de apoyar a las mujeres en el ministerio. “CBF está haciendo posible que las mujeres latinas con un llamado al ministerio tengan espacios como este para compartir, escuchar y caminar juntas, honrando a las mujeres como Jesús nos enseñó.” Ya sea construyendo nuevas relaciones en el retiro o sosteniéndolas a través de una cohorte de Prosperar en el Ministerio, Reboyras está agradecida por la oportunidad de crear conexiones entre mujeres en el ministerio. “Una de las oportunidades más hermosas que nos da la vida es la posibilidad de ver cómo los caminos, los esfuerzos y los ministerios de muchas dan el maravilloso fruto de unirnos y convertinos en una sola.” WINTER 202 3-2024
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CBF Selects Duo to Guide Advocacy Efforts
B
uilding on a 10-year foundation laid for its formal advocacy efforts, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship announced November 30 it has selected two women leaders in CBF life to guide the future of CBF Advocacy both in Washington, D.C., and in partnerships with local churches across the Fellowship. Jennifer Hawks, who currently serves as the associate general counsel for BJC (Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty), has been named CBF’s director of advocacy. Sharon Felton, the associate pastor for students at Faith Baptist in Georgetown, Ky., has been named congregational advocacy manager. As director of advocacy, Hawks will focus on representing CBF at a national level, stewarding CBF’s voice in advocacy issues and ensuring a public witness for racial justice. In her congregational advocacy manager role, Felton will encourage congregational leaders to pursue advocacy efforts as a ministry of the congregation and consider how they may be advocates for racial justice. She will work with CBF’s Congregational Ministries team to maximize opportunities to invite congregations into the ministry of advocacy and equip them for faithful public witness so that they might participate in the transformation of their communities.
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Jennifer Hawks has been named as CBF’s director of advocacy. Photo courtesy BJC.
Hawks to Build CBF Presence in the Nation’s Capital Hawks has served for nine years as BJC’s associate general counsel. She holds a law degree from the University of Mississippi and a Master of Divinity Degree from Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary. In her work at BJC and before, she has had experience in legislative advocacy, legal advocacy and coalition building within and beyond Washington, D.C. She will be based out of the nation’s capital and will begin work with CBF on February 15. Hawks said she is excited to deepen relationships across CBF to help partner churches, states and regions, and networks enhance their ongoing ministries with advocacy. “Advocacy is an essential part of our Christian prophetic witness, and I am thrilled to be joining the CBF team to establish an advocacy presence for CBF in our nation’s capital,” she said. “Sometimes being the hands and feet of Christ means writing letters to the city council or walking the halls of Congress. “Each generation must decide whether and how to take up the prophetic mantle and speak truth to political power. I am energized and ready to connect CBF’s prophetic witness to the issues of the day.” Stephen Reeves, CBF’s outgoing director of advocacy and executive director of Fellowship Southwest, said Hawks is a “natural choice” for the role and is excited she feels called to serve CBF. “Her years of experience with BJC, one of CBF’s closest advocacy partners, means she understands CBF and the community of faithbased advocates in Washington D.C.,” Reeves said. “Her experience leading coalitions and advocacy efforts on the Hill will serve CBF well as she becomes our first D.C.-based advocate. Her background as an attorney and ordained minister means she has the depth of knowledge necessary to lead our churches in the policy realm.”
Sharon Felton is serving as CBF’s congregational advocacy manager.
By Jeff Huett
Felton to serve congregations and communities
“CBF’s commitment to advocacy has been shown in all the ways we have encouraged, trained and demonstrated strategies in which congregations can be involved,” Foreman said. “With Felton has served as associate pastor to students at Faith Baptist Sharon’s addition to the staff, CBF is demonstrating an even Church in Georgetown, Ky., for nine years while also implementing stronger commitment to resourcing congregations around issues of grassroots advocacy programs supporting public education as the importance to their calling around justice and ministry issues, both director of Pastors for Kentucky Children since 2018. She currently locally and nationally.” works alongside CBF’s Outreach and Growth team on a variety CBF Executive Coordinator Paul Baxley commented on the of racial justice projects in support of CBF’s Dr. Emmanuel McCall growth of CBF Advocacy and his excitement about the future. Racial Justice and Leadership Initiative. She previously served on “Ten years ago, Suzii Paynter and Stephen Reeves cast a a contract basis leading CBF’s advocacy efforts against predatory compelling vision for the establishment of CBF Advocacy as a lending in Kentucky. She has earned a Master of Divinity Degree from necessary extension of the most transformative ministries of our Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and B.A. in Psychology congregations and the transformative work being done by field from Baylor University. Her role at CBF began Dec. 1. personnel around the world,” Baxley said. “In these years, important Felton said she is looking forward to exploring the intersection of initial steps have been taken not only in shared public witness toward missions and advocacy to serve our communities and create a more policy change but also in the empowerment of local congregations to just world for everyone. be conveners and advocates in their own communities. Our Toward “God calls us to love with all that we are and all that we have Bold Faithfulness process several years ago confirmed that a strong and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Justice is one of the sense of calling to the mission of advocacy and public witness across most important ways to show love to our neighbors,” Felton said. our Fellowship. “There are so many forms of advocacy we can engage in across the “Today we begin the next season in the growth of CBF Advocacy. Fellowship, and I can’t wait to explore them together. I am profoundly grateful that Jennifer and Sharon are joining our “I am interested in hearing and learning about the issues and incredible CBF staff. They each have unique gifts, experiences and needs in each of our communities and seeing how we can work qualities that prepare them for the important work we have asked together to create beloved community for all,” she said. “Great work is them to do. I look forward to serving with them and seeing new already being done, and I look forward to connecting congregations opportunities for faithful prophetic witness that will come.” and groups so that we can learn from one another.” Brian Foreman, CBF’s Coordinator for Congregational Ministries, said Felton will be a substantial resource for congregations engaging in advocacy work at the various levels of where churches are called to participate.
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160 Clairemont Avenue, Suite 500 Decatur, GA 30030 www.cbf.net (800) 352-8741
AMPLIFY YOUR IMPACT The Power of Stock and QCD Giving The heartbeat of CBF has always been our unwavering commitment to bearing witness to the Gospel. When you give, you do more than just make a donation; you step into a partnership that is actively engaged in renewing God’s world. As we continue to fulfill our God-given mission, we invite you to explore the potential of stock and Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) giving. These avenues not only amplify the impact of your generosity but also offer potential tax benefits:
Stock Donations: You can avoid the federal
capital gains taxes and receive a federal income tax deduction for the current market value of the gift. This type of gift can maximize your savings and your impact on our mission.
IRA Donations: Are you 70.5 or older and have
a traditional IRA? If so, consider making a contribution from your account. These gifts can reduce your future tax burden and help you fulfill a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) if you must take one. Your gracious contribution will lay the foundation for ministry efforts in your community, our county, and across the globe. If you would like to make a tax-savvy gift today, you can scan the QR code or visit
FreeWill.com/SmartGiving/CBF.
You are an integral part of this journey and, together, we’re not just making a difference—we are renewing God’s world.
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