CBF Oklahoma to honor four at annual Celebrating Excellence dinner

The Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma will honor a musician/composer, denominational leader, educator and pastor at its 2021 Celebrating Excellence awards dinner, Oct. 24 in Norman, reported Kyle Tubbs, the organization’s new coordinator.

The annual event recognizes individuals who honor Christ and strengthen the church through the excellence of their careers in service to others, Tubbs noted.

This year’s honorees are:

• Patti Drennan, former longtime high school choral director and music and worship arts director at First Baptist Church in Norman. She also is a composer and arranger with more than 700 choral, piano and piano/vocal compositions published and now is music director at NorthHaven Church in Norman.

• Steve Graham, recently retired coordinator of CBF Oklahoma. Previously, Graham served on the staff of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and before that was pastor of several congregations, including Spring Creek Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, which he founded, and Second Baptist Church in Liberty, Mo.

• Mary Christopher, an expert in leadership and gifted education, and a former professor and associate dean of education at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. She also is an educational consultant and adjunct professor at Abilene Christian University. Early in her career, she was a gifted-education facilitator at the Pyramid Project in Ardmore, Okla.

• Phil Christopher, who recently retired after more than 26 years as senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Abilene, where he was actively involved in civic life and leadership throughout the city. Across his career in ministry, Christopher served other churches in Texas, as well as in Kentucky and in Ardmore, where he was pastor of Northwest Baptist Church.

Meredith Stone, executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, will be the keynote speaker for the Celebrating Excellence event. She assumed that role in 2020 after serving on the faculty of Logsdon Seminary at Hardin-Simmons University.

The dinner will be held at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, 2401 Chautauqua Avenue in Norman. A reception and silent auction begin at 5 p.m., and the dinner starts at 6 p.m.

To register, click here.