New Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Moderator Juan Garcia launched his tenure with a challenge to the Fellowship to honor its reputation as a collaborative and inclusive community of faith.
“My question for us is: Will we be intentional to continually open spaces to welcome and include our fellow human beings, whoever there might be to journey alongside us in our quest for a deeper relationship with God?” Garcia asked during the June 21 business session at CBF’s annual General Assembly in Greensboro, N.C. “Will we be intentional to invite our neighbors — those fellow human beings, whoever they might be — to have a place at our table so that together we can discern and fulfill the calling God has for us and for our fellowship and within our own communities as we move forward?”
In succeeding outgoing Moderator David Hull, Garcia became the first Hispanic to hold the position in CBF’s 33-year history. He currently is pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista de Newport News in Virginia.
Growing up in a Pentecostal family with a white father and Black mother in culturally Catholic Puerto Rico, and moving to the U.S. 20 years ago helped prepare Garcia to serve as moderator of an increasingly diverse CBF, he said. “I think I may know a few things about diversity, the kind of kingdom diversity that we are guided by the the Holy Spirit to fully embrace and experience.”
Garcia said he saw the image of that kingdom among those gathered before him at the business session. “That’s my dream for us: to be a community that abides, welcomes and embraces everyone God has put in our way — the full spectrum of humanity — to be part of this spiritual and redeeming journey we have been called to because that’s where we will find our fullness and flourishing as a fellowship, as churches and as followers of Jesus Christ.”
David Hull
Hull also challenged the Fellowship to adhere to its distinctive identity as Baptists who collaborate without requiring rigid agreement in matters of advocacy, worship, theology, LGBTQ inclusion, ministry or missions.
“Does our appearance match our ID? Does our current appearance as Cooperative Baptists match our identity as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship?” said Hull, a longtime pastor who has served as a consultant with The Center for Healthy Churches.
“We’re a fellowship of partners in different organizations that have separate structures. We are not all together in one structure organizationally, in any sense of the word,” he said. “If we try to force agreement on our entire fellowship in any of these important issues of the day, we will be surrendering to the pressures of our culture that are increasingly trying to sort us out into like-minded groups who agree with one another.”
In addition to selecting Garcia as moderator-elect, CBF ratified a slate of incoming members of governance and advisory groups, and approved a near-flat budget.
Tanya Parks
Participants in the assembly elected Tanya Parks, co-pastor of University Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, La., as moderator-elect. Parks formerly served as field personnel — the CBF term for missionaries — in Slovakia with her husband, Jon, who ministers alongside her as co-pastor of the Baton Rouge congregation.
Parks will immediately join the CBF Governing Board and will become moderator for 2025-26 at the conclusion of next year’s General Assembly. Moderator is CBF’s highest elected office.
David Hull, a retired pastor from Winston-Salem, N.C., who now works as a church consultant, presided as moderator at this year’s assembly.
Maintaining CBF’s governance structure, participants also elected 28 members of seven groups, plus one officer. They included:
Governing Board
- Henrietta Anderson, minister to young adults at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Hopewell, Va.
- Ruth Cuellar, senior pastor of Iglesia Bautista El Buen Pastor in Newnan, Ga.
- Jeff Hayes, senior pastor of Oakland Baptist Church in Rock Hill, S.C.
- Crissy Tatum Williamson, senior pastor of Greystone Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C.
Missions Council
- Alex Lockridge, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Corbin, Ky.
- Waylan Upchego, pastor of All Tribes Baptist Church in Geary, Okla.
- Marisol Mendez, lay member of Iglesia Bautista El Buen Pastor in Newnan, Ga.
- Aaron Glenn, pastor of serving ministries at University Baptist Church in Houston
- Joyce Glover, lay member of Providence Baptist Church in Cookeville, Tenn.
- Scott McGinnis, lay member of Vestavia Hills Baptist Church in Vestavia, Ala.
Ministries Council
- John Parker, lay member of First Baptist Church in Middlesboro, Ky.
- Phyllis Boozer, layperson and former coordinator of Baptist Fellowship of the Northeast, Wilton, Conn.
- Sarah Marie Lui, lay member of University Baptist Church in Baltimore, Md.
- Emmitt Drumgoole, senior pastor of Montgomery Hills Baptist Church in Silver Springs, Md.
- Sara Turpin, senior pastor of Buechel Park Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky.
- Kristen Mathis, minister of faith development at First Baptist Church in Rome, Ga.
- Wayne Smith, lay member of Central Bearden Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn.
Nominating Committee
- Ali Chappell DeHay, minister of youth and communications at Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas
- J Livingston, pastor of Remnant Fellowship in Morrow, Ga.
- Maggie Quisenberry, lay member of First Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tenn.
- Elaine C. Reales, lay member of First Baptist Church in Mount Airy, N.C.
- Natasha Nedrick Adzudzor, minister of discipleship at Central Baptist Church in St. Louis
- Robert “Rob” Wilson, lay member of Bayshore Baptist Church in Tampa, Fla.
CBF Church Benefits
- Tommy Hiebert, lay member of Southland Baptist Church in San Angelo, Texas
- Lynn Holmes, associate minister of First Baptist Church, Wilmington Street in Raleigh, N.C.
CBF Council on Endorsement
- Rhonda James-Jones, manager of spiritual health at Wellstar Paulding Hospital & Nursing Center and pastoral counselor at Spiritwork Development Group in Hiram, Ga.
- Ben Sandford, U.S. Navy chaplain from Washington, D.C.
CBF Foundation
- William J. “B.J.” Hutto, senior pastor of Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla.
Recorder
- Marnie Fisher-Ingram, member of the CBF Governing Board, member of the CBF Youth Ministry Network and minister of students at River Road Church, Baptist in Richmond, Va.
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