By Bob Allen
Emily Hull McGee, a third-generation Baptist minister, was elected March 22 as 12th pastor of First Baptist Church in Winston-Salem.
McGee, 33, is the first female to be called as leader of the historic congregation affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Decatur, Ga., and the Winston-Salem-based CBF of North Carolina.
Previous pastors include Randall Lolley, who served at the church from 1962 to 1974 before becoming president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., and David Hughes, who served the church 22 years before retiring in 2013.
McGee, currently associate pastor to young adults at Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., is a 2009 graduate of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity.
Both of her parents are ministers. Her father, David Hull, chaired a blue-ribbon committee charged with retooling the CBF for effectiveness in the 21st century that reported in 2012. Last year he retired at age 58 after 12 years as pastor of First Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala., when his wife, Jane, was elected as pastor of Union Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Watkinsville, Ga. In August he became coordinator for The Center for Healthy Churches-Southeast.
Her grandfather, Bill Hull, was a professor and administrator at both Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville and Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. A prolific author, he died in 2013 at age 83 after battling for several years against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS for short and also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Married to Joshua McGee and mother of a 2-year-old, McGee plans to continue working full-time at her church in Louisville until the birth of her second child, due April 20. She will resign officially when the child is born but spend six weeks of maternity leave in Kentucky before moving in June to get ready for her new job in North Carolina, which begins July 6.