Attendees unanimously approve CBF’s ‘path to the
future’ with votes on new organizational structure and leadership

By Jeff Huett

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Cooperative Baptists have laid what Moderator Keith Herron
called the “path toward the future” with three unanimous votes in the Friday
morning business session at the 2013 CBF General Assembly.

Attendees passed a new constitution and bylaws that replace the Cooperative
Baptist Fellowship’s representative Coordinating Council with four smaller
bodies. Attendees also approved the 2013-2014 Ministries and Missions Budget of
$12.4 million and the Nominating Committee report that includes new CBF
officers and provides leadership to some of the newly created organizational
structure.

Under the new structure, a Governing Board will provide oversight for CBF with
the help of three other bodies – the Nominating Committee and the Ministries
and Missions councils.

The two new officers for 2013-14 are Kasey Jones, senior pastor of National
Memorial Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., as moderator-elect, and Jason
Coker, pastor of Wilton Baptist Church in Wilton, Conn., as recorder. Approved
were 13 members of the Governing Board, with Bill McConnell leading the group
as moderator; six members of the Ministries Council with Michael Cheuk, senior
minister at University Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Va., as chair; and
five members of the Missions Council with Mimi Walker, pastor of Druid Hills
Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., as chair.

McConnell stressed that “this is a new day” for CBF with the new organizational
structure and the new leadership of CBF Executive Coordinator Suzii Paynter. He
promised close collaboration between CBF members and the Governing Board.

During the session, Paynter presented two Vestal Scholarships for theological
education, named after the former CBF Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal, to
Abigail Pratt, a student at Wake Forest University School of Divinity, and
Robert Matteson, a student at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological
Seminary.