By Lauren Lamb

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship staff members were recognized for excellence in faith-based communications at the 2023 annual meeting of the Religion Communications Council (RCC) in Chicago. The communications staff received five awards, including the top honor “Best in Class” for the Offering for Global Missions Campaign.

The awards are given annually to members of the RCC, the oldest public relations professional organization in the U.S. They honor the late Victor DeRose and Paul M. Hinkhouse, who were leading lithographers in New York City.

The CBF Communications and Identity team of Jeff Huett (Associate Coordinator for Identity and Communications), Aaron Weaver (Director of Communications), Carrie Harris (Director of Fellowship experiences) and Jeff Langford (graphic designer and webmaster) won “Best in Class” in the Campaigns category for their work on CBF’s Offering for Global Missions (OGM). Huett, Weaver, Harris and Langford were recognized with the 2022-2023 theme for OGM. “A Place at the Table for Everyone.” CBF offered churches resources like bulletins, posters, leader’s guides, photos and logos to help promote OGM. The Offering for Global Missions Campaign also won an Award of Merit in Fundraising.

Weaver, Harris and Langford won an Award of Merit in Magazine series with fellowship! magazine. Four issues of fellowship! magazineare published each year, highlighting CBF’s work globally.

Meg Lacy Vega, Langford and Weaver were the category winner in Booklets- Single Work with the Prayers of the People (2022-2023) year-long guidebook to prayer.

Andy Hale, host of the CBF Conversations podcast, and Weaver won an Award of Merit for best Single Work podcast with the episode featuring religion historian Anthea Butler. The podcast was launched in 2016 to share ideas, stories and innovations from churches, pastors and practitioners.

Other DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Award winners honored for communications and marketing work includes Beeson Divinity School of Samford University, the Baha’i National Office, Presbyterian Church USA, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Northeastern University, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, American Jewish Committee, the National Catholic Reporter, Alabama Baptist, Hartford International University and Women of the ELCA.

To learn more about the Religion Communication Council, click here.

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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.