By Bob Allen
Stephen Reeves, director of public policy and counsel for the Texas Baptist Life Commission, has been named associate coordinator of advocacy and partnership for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
An attorney, Reeves will focus on collaboration with Fellowship partners and advocacy in the public square and serve on the CBF leadership team.
CBF Executive Coordinator Suzii Paynter, who worked with Reeves in her former role as executive director of the ethics and public policy division of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said CBF advocacy efforts will focus on consensus related to issues already being addressed through the organization’s missions and ministries.
Reeves, who grew up near Austin, Texas, is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin and Texas Tech University Law School in Lubbock. He previously worked with the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and as youth minister at Ravensworth Baptist Church in Annandale, Va.
Paynter announced Reeve’s hiring during a Sept. 12-13 meeting of the CBF Governing Board. She said a biblical and theological rationale will be developed for each partnership and advocacy initiative. Work will be in conjunction with other faith groups including the Baptist World Alliance and carried out with a mission and ministry focus.
Reeves is a deacon and Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church of Austin, Texas. He is married to Deborah Gaddis Reeves of Boiling Springs, N.C., an ordained minister and CBF-endorsed chaplain for Hospice Austin.