March 16, 2021

By Aaron Weaver

DECATUR, Ga. — Co’Relous Bryant, a seminarian from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, has been named the 2021 recipient of the Daniel and Earlene Vestal Scholarship.

The Fellowship’s most prestigious scholarship, named in honor of former CBF Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal and his wife, Earlene, was created in 2011 to further CBF’s commitment to theological education, and is a foundational element in the Fellowship’s focus on nurturing young Baptists. Students who receive the Vestal Scholarship have demonstrated excellence academically and have displayed a deep commitment to the local church and to CBF.

Devita Parnell, director of CBF’s Young Baptist Ecosystem, expressed excitement for the selection of Bryant and praised his many gifts and talents.

“Co’Relous is one-of-a-kind. He is brilliant, an incredible speaker and preacher and an up-and-coming congregational leader,” Parnell said. “His joy and enthusiasm for life, for ministry and for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship are contagious. I am thrilled to announce that Co’Relous is the recipient of this year’s Vestal Scholarship and I look forward to opportunities for the Fellowship to get to know him.”

Bryant, a CBF Leadership Scholar and rising third-year student specializing in homiletics, is a graduate of New York University where he received a bachelor of Arts in Political Science. He completed additional study at Cornell University and the University of Michigan, and has been honored for his public speaking as the National Oratorical Champion (American Legion) and as the recipient of the John Claypool Preaching Award (McAfee School of Theology). He has been a Bible teacher and member of CBF partner congregation Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla.

Bryant noted that his vocational aspirations include homiletics, congregational leadership and pastoral care. He said that he “aspires to a pastorate that enables me to minister longitudinally to a group of people in a way that marks our journey together. Being the presence of Christ to a congregation in life’s heights of happiness and saddest sorrows fuel my passion for congregational leadership,” he said.

Bryant will be recognized at the upcoming 2021 CBF General Assembly, August 25-28.

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CBF is a Christian network that helps people put their faith to practice through ministry eff­orts, global missions and a broad community of support. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.