April 20, 2021

By Jeff Huett

DECATUR ─ Seeking to better serve congregations as they join God’s work in the world in partnership with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, CBF announced today the addition of two strategic staff roles in the Fellowship.

A pastor active in CBF life with more than 20 years serving partner congregations in a variety of ministry settings has been named as the Fellowship’s Congregational Stewardship Officer. Rickey Letson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Laurens, S.C., will join the CBF staff in May.

Nell Green, who has ministered in cross-cultural missions since 1986—for the past 27 years as CBF field personnel—has shifted her focus as field personnel to serve as CBF’s Offering for Global Missions Advocate.

Funding for both positions was included in the 2020-2021 CBF Budget approved by the CBF Governing Board in October 2020. 

Rickey Letson | CBF Congregational Stewardship Officer

Letson joins the CBF staff to serve as a resource to congregations to help strengthen their financial health and to develop and cultivate partnerships as congregations seek to live out their passion for mission and ministry alongside the Fellowship. He will also work with CBF state and regional organizations, CBF staff and governance bodies to further develop and implement CBF’s annual giving program for churches.

He has served in leadership across the Fellowship as a peer learning group convenor, member of the CBF South Carolina Personnel Committee and as a member of the CBF Missions Council.

Letson said he looks forward to working alongside congregations in this new role.

“For over 20 years, I have served local congregations of all shapes and sizes connected to CBF,” Letson said. “The local church is at the very heart of what it means to be Baptist. It gives me great joy to join CBF in carrying on the critical work of helping congregations excel particularly as it relates to stewardship and financial well-being. I believe if our partner churches are able to live into their full potential, that means CBF will also be at its best. Together, we can do great things.”

Shauw Chin Capps, CBF’s Chief Development Officer and President of the CBF Foundation, said she is excited about Letson joining the development team.

“Local congregations are the heartbeat of our Fellowship,” Capps said. “CBF would not be able to carry out its mission and ministries without the partnership and generosity of our congregations. As the Congregational Stewardship Officer, Rickey, a pastor himself, brings a wealth of experience, empathy and knowledge that can increase CBF’s capacity to support congregations, cultivate relationships and engage churches with CBF in meaningful ways.”

Capps continued, “This is the first time in the history of CBF where we will have a full-time staff within our fund development department dedicated to supporting local congregations. We heard from the CBF community during our Toward Bold Faithfulness process that addressing financial strain is one of most urgent needs of churches. This position was created in response to that need. I’m very excited to work with Rickey within our fund development team to ensure that the generosity of congregations is elevated and supported.”

Letson earned a Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C. He is also a graduate of Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. Rickey and his wife, Ann Marie, have two children, Callie, a college student at Auburn University and Caleb, an eighth grader.

Nell Green | CBF Field Personnel, Offering for Global Missions Advocate

CBF field personnel Nell Green, who served with her husband, Butch, for 27 years in Africa, Europe and in the U.S. before he retired last year, is now focusing her field personnel service as CBF’s Offering for Global Missions Advocate.

After field service with CBF in Miami, Brussels and Houston, Green is working to help facilitate a culture where mission flourishes by engaging with field personnel, CBF fund development and identity and communications teams, ministry partners, and churches to strengthen the Offering for Global Missions for a new generation of Fellowship Baptists.

Green said that this new role uses her gifts and passions and her network built through decades of field personnel service to help build support for the Offering for Global Missions.

“As we fund the long-term presence of field personnel around the world, everyone is able to invest in not just transformative work but relational connections and mutual friendship,” she said. “It has been my privilege for the last 27 years to witness the amazing work and collaborative partnerships of our field personnel. This new role allows me to use my networks and passion for marketing and promotion to benefit all of our field ministries. I am grateful for this opportunity to undergird their endeavors by telling their stories, resourcing churches, organizations and individuals, and working to strengthen the Offering for Global Missions.”

Steven Porter, CBF’s Coordinator for Global Missions, said Green has the right gifts to thrive in this role and encourages congregations to help spread the love of Christ through support of the Offering for Global Missions.

“As one of our early commissioned Field Personnel, Nell’s creativity, tenacity and commitment are contagious, and she knows firsthand the impact of the Offering for Global Missions,” Porter said. “Please open the doors of your congregation—be they physical or virtual—to Nell that the Holy Spirit might use her to ignite the passion of a new generation of Cooperative Baptists to support God’s mission in the world.  During this pandemic, gifts to the Offering have never been more significant or more strained. If you believe the world still needs the good news of Jesus Christ, then please make a sacrificial gift to OGM to advance the gospel today.”   

Nell and Butch Green have two grown children, Christen Kinard and Brandon Green, as well as two grandchildren, Ava (7) and Jack (3). 

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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.