On Sunday, Jan. 28, Baptists from across the Richmond area gathered at Lyndale Baptist Church in Chesterfield County to install Juanita (Nita) D. May as the regional ministries coordinator for Central Virginia Baptist Ministries (CVBM). You say you have never heard of CVBM? That's because it's something new!
In 2004, the Dover, Richmond and Middle District associations, representing 178 Baptist churches in and around Richmond, formed a dialogue team to explore the possibility of merging the three associations. In its report, the dialogue team did not recommend uniting but did propose forming a team to offer specific ways the three bodies might do mission work together more effectively.
Nita May with the three Richmond area directors of missions: (from left) Jim Hamacher, Middle Dis-
trict; Pete du Plessis, Richmond; and Steve Allsbrook, Dover.
So during 2005, another group of association representatives met as the shared ministry proposals (SMP) team. While studying needs and possibilities, this team looked around the nation to see if, perhaps, other associations might be engaged in such collaborative efforts.
“We looked far and wide, both in Baptist circles and in other denominations, for a model to go by,” recalled SMP team member Ted Dougherty, pastor of Taylorsville Baptist Church. And if any other local associations are working together in such focused ways, we couldn't find them.” So the proposal team created its own plan.
Of many options considered, the SMP team chose to put forward an entity that would be guided by a full-time missions/ministry coordinator working in collaboration with a 12-member coordinating team. Each association would provide its director of missions, one minister and two laypersons to serve as their CVBM representatives. By January 2006, all three associations had formally adopted the SMP team proposals, including funding provisions, and Central Virginia Baptist Ministries was born.
The coordinating team got to work in March of last year, and by fall, after careful planning and a wide regional search, called Nita May to be CVBM's first regional ministries coordinator.
A graduate of Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, May was pastor of Boulevard Baptist in Richmond, having previously served as associate of missions innovation/women's involvement for WMU of Virginia. From 1989 to 2000, she was director of programs for VEFC, a non-profit ministry that serves children-in-crisis across the Commonwealth.
“When the coordinating team sought its first leader,” recalls Steve Allsbrook, Dover Association director of missions, “we identified several non-negotiable characteristics our leader should possess …, the most important being that he or she have a vital, growing faith in Jesus Christ, and a specific sense of call to this RMC task. Every member of the team sees these characteristics in Nita.”
CVBM coordinating team members were also impressed with May's extensive volunteer mission experience in Africa, Eastern Europe, Central America, North America, South America, and Canada. She had coordinated and worked in numerous stateside mission opportunities, too, such as a project on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and as part of a disaster relief team to New York City following the 2001 terrorist attack.
Middle District DOM Jim Hamacher says his association's leaders are proud and pleased that May is the person chosen to guide CVBM's work. “Over the years our people have come to know and love Nita as an outstanding missions leader whose infectious enthusiasm, sincerity and passion are born out of a deep love of God and people.”
A frequent conference speaker at the Capital Region Leadership Conference, May led the spiritual growth for the deacon session this past year. She and her husband, Wayne, have three adult sons, and the Mays are both active leaders in Lyndale Baptist Church.
“I am energized to see the three associations in our region collaborating to do ministry,” observes Bob Lee, pastor of New Highland Baptist Church and a member of the coordinating team. “Our new regional ministries coordinator brings gifts, passion, and abilities that will help us do more together than we could ever do on our own,” he notes. “It's refreshing to see Baptists working together toward a common goal of claiming our region for Jesus through ministry.”
Pete du Plessis, Richmond Baptist Association's DOM, firmly believes that the “Dover, Middle District and Richmond associations stand on the threshold of a brand new day …. I ask all of our churches to cooperate with our new regional ministries coordinator, in seeking the Lord's leadership as we develop the ministry opportunities before us.”
As she begins serving this cooperative mission effort, Nita finds inspiration in Philippians 2:13—“It is God that works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” May says, “I am mindful of that text as I begin this new journey. God is working through each of us to start something new.”
For more information about CVBM, call (804) 332-4670 or email [email protected].