CBF adopts expanded budget, fills governance vacancies, receives challenges

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship approved a mission and ministry budget increase of almost 5%, elected slates of nominees for vacant governance positions, bestowed awards, and heard challenges and affirmations from key leaders during the CBF General Assembly June 30.

Participants at the gathering in Atlanta ratified a 2023-2024 budget of $17,304,811. The new budget represents an increase of $775,036, or 4.7%, over the current financial plan.

Some of the largest budget increases by percentage or dollar amount are:

• $408,729 for Thriving in Ministry, an increase of $186,579 (84%)
• $299,350 for resources, up $240,050 (405%)
• $51,300 for the newly revised Dawnings program, a gain of $31,750 (162%)
• $1,259,992 for partnerships with states and regions, an increase of $254,310 (25%)
• $229,510 for racial justice and leadership, increased by $58,502 (34%)
• $3,444,424 for field personnel salaries and benefits, up $218,458 (7%)
• $138,495 for missions programs and impact, a gain of $108,745 (365%)
• $132,991 for Global Missions member care and wellness, an increase of $57,800 (77%)

Juan Garcia also was ratified as CBF’s moderator-elect. He serves as pastor of the Hispanic congregation — Primera Iglesia Bautista de Newport News — of First Baptist Church in Newport News, Va. He will become moderator a year from now, succeeding the incoming moderator, David Hull.

General Assembly participants also approved 27 individuals to fill a variety of governance vacancies. They include:

Governing Board

• Jeff Hayes, senior pastor, Oakland Baptist Church, Rock Hill, S.C.
• Brad Jernberg, minister for administration, South Main Baptist Church, Houston
• Israel Loachamin, associate pastor of Spanish ministry, First Baptist Church, Waco, Texas
• Connie McNeill, associate pastor of administration and discipleship, Second Baptist Church, Liberty, Mo.

Missions Council

• Felipe Candelaria Cepeda, senior pastor, Iglesia Bautista de Quebrada, Gurabo, Puerto Rico
• Scott Ford, chief operations officer of Passport Inc.; member, Crosscreek Baptist Church, Pelham, Ala.
• Eric Howell, senior pastor, DaySpring Baptist Church, Waco, Texas
• Alex Lockridge, senior pastor, First Baptist Church, Corbin, Ky.
• Janine Williams, hospital chaplain, St. Stephen Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky.

Ministries Council

• Christopher Adams, resident chaplain, Covenant Baptist Church, Garden Ridge, Texas
• Bruce Gourley, historian; member, First Baptist Church, Bozeman, Mont.
• Kheresa Harmon, minister for children and their families, St. John’s Baptist Church, Charlotte, N.C.
• Jeffrey Howard, minister of Christian education and community outreach, Welfare Baptist Church, Belton, S.C.
• Kristin Koger, associate pastor for spiritual growth, First Baptist Church, Waynesboro, Va.

Nominating Committee

• Mera Corlett, senior pastor, Okolona Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky.
• Jesús García, senior pastor, Church of the City, New London, Conn.
• Aimee Hobbs, associate pastor, First Baptist Church, St. Petersburg, Fla.
• Coach J. Livingston, senior pastor, Remnant Fellowship, Atlanta
• Kristin McAtee, associate pastor, Spring Creek Baptist Church, Oklahoma City
• Omayra Rivera, co-pastor, Iglesia Bautista de Metropolis, Carolina, Puerto Rico
• Joby Tricquet, pastor, Fairfax Baptist Church, Fairfax, Va.
• Marty Watts, minister of music, Vestavia Hills Baptist Church, Birmingham, Ala.

Recorder

• Marnie Fisher-Ingram, associate pastor for youth and their families, River Road Church, Baptist, Richmond, Va.

CBF Council on Endorsement

• Paul Byrd, program director, Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center, Mercer University School of Medicine, Cumming, Ga.
• Deborah Reeves, pastor to children and their families, First Baptist Church, Austin, Texas

CBF Foundation

• Zach Graves, auditor; member, South Main Baptist Church, Houston
• Ramon Masso-Flores, attorney manager; member, Church of the City, New London, Conn.

CBF presented Missions Excellence Awards to Trinity Baptist Church in Seneca, S.C.; First Baptist Church in Abilene, Texas; and First Baptist Church in Mount Olive, N.C.

The CBF Ministries Council presented six ministry grants totaling $20,000. They included:

• Central Baptist Church of St. Louis, Mo., $5,000 for Kilalo Rites of Passage, a bridge for boys ages 12 to 16 to develop into manhood with appropriate knowledge and life skills.
• Faith Baptist Church of Georgetown, Ky., $1,000 for its Racial Justice Tour for children.
• The Faith Community in Atlanta, $5,000 for its Altars of Remembrance: Black Women and African Spirituality project.
• First Baptist Church of Rio Pedras in San Juan, Puerto Rico, $5,000 for its Academy of Music, which offers music lessons to low-income children in its community.
• King’s Cross Church of Tullahoma, Tenn., $2,000 for its Loved by the Load project, which funds free laundry services for people who cannot afford it.
• Nevertheless She Preached of Woodway, Texas, $2,000 for its Decolonizing the Church project to lift up marginalized voices and invite them to reshape the theology and practices of the church.

Gerry Hutchinson, who served 26 years as a chaplain in the U.S. Naval Reserve and manager of CBF’s Chaplaincy and Pastoral Care Ministries from 2014 to 2020, received the Carl Hart Award for Excellence in Chaplaincy and Pastoral Ministry.

In addition to conducting business, participants heard the dreams of their new moderator, David Hull, a consultant with the Center for Healthy Churches and a retired pastor; reflections from the outgoing moderator, Debbie McDaniel, a lay member of First Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala.; and a report from CBF Executive Coordinator Paul Baxley.

Hull said his dream is for the Fellowship to focus on three words — community, faith and adventure — that can “help join our hearts and minds together.”

“This Fellowship has been my community,” he said. “Community does not always happen easily and automatically. You must work at it. … But CBF needs you; you need the community of CBF. … My dream is transformational, life-giving community will happen in my life and yours through CBF.”

McDaniel recounted multiple developments, events and changes to the CBF staff in the past year and summarized: “You are a wonderful group of Christ-followers. You model Christ’s command to love one another. God is indeed working in our world, and CBF is right there. … You are the kind of Baptists I want to hang around.”

Echoing the 2023 assembly theme, Baxley called on CBF to be “holy ambitious,” which reflects God’s work in the world.

“The God we meet most clearly in Jesus Christ is unmistakably, remarkably, resiliently, resurrectingly, reliably ambitious,” he said, recounting stories of God’s “ambition” in the Old Testament stories of Abram and Moses and in the New Testament’s account of Jesus’ resurrection.

God intends for Christians to share holy ambition, Baxley said. “What would it be like if we were overcome, mesmerized, defined by God’s holy ambition?” he asked. “What if people called us ‘ambitious’ instead of ‘moderate’?”

“Holy ambition” does not equate with selfish ambition, Baxley said. Rather, it is missional, reflecting God’s “expansive mission in the world.”

He called for humility as a key to embodying God’s holy ambition, but that ambition still is expansive and embracing.

“The risen Jesus wants more from us and is equipping us for more,” he said. “God has an ambition for this Cooperative Baptist Fellowship — a reflection of the cooperation that lives in the heart of God.”