CBF’s General Assembly highlights FSW leaders, start to finish

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Fellowship Southwest featured prominently in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s 2021 General Assembly, conducted online again this year due to resurgence of the COVID pandemic.

At the beginning of the opening worship service, Lois Gagne, pianist at Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio, provided special music from the congregation’s sun-dappled Atrium. At the end of the closing worship service, Fredricc Brock, co-pastor with his wife, Kan’Dace, of The Message Church in San Antonio, presided over communion. And as the assembly ended, Patricia Wilson, a professor at Baylor University’s law school and member of Seventh and James Baptist Church in Waco, became CBF moderator, the Fellowship’s highest elected position.

Rosalío Sosa, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Tierra de Oro in El Paso and a leader of Fellowship Southwest’s immigrant relief network, was one of three recipients of the Emmanuel McCall Racial Justice Trailblazer Award. To watch a video of the award presentation, click here. 

During the business session, participants elected five people from the Southwest to CBF leadership positions:

  • Chris Adcox, a certified public accountant from Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, to the CBF Church Benefits board of directors.

  • Anyra Cano, coordinator of Texas Baptist Women in Ministry and youth pastor at Iglesia Victoria en Cristo in Fort Worth, to the CBF Missions Council.

  • Hannah Coe, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, to the Missions Council.

  • Isa Torres, pastoral resident and pastor of Cliff Temple en Español at Cliff Temple Baptist Church in Dallas, to the CBF Nominating Committee.

  • Patty Villarreal, co-founder of the Christian Latina Leadership Institute and member of Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio, to the Missions Council.

CBF included four ministers from the Southwest among the current class of CBF-endorsed chaplains and pastoral counselors:

  • Jonatan Amaya, chaplain candidate at Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston.

  • Margaret Harvey, chaplain at Ascension Seton in Austin.

  • Doug Jackson, chaplain at Good Shepherd Hospice in Ardmore, Okla.

  • David Potter, chaplain at the Oklahoma City VA Health Care System in Oklahoma City.

During breakout sessions, six facilitators from the Southwest provided leadership:

  • Marion Armstrong, associate general counsel of HighGround Advisors in Dallas, “Legacy Giving 101.”

  • Carlos Cardoza-Orlandi, professor of world Christianity at Baylor University, “De-colonizando a Jesús.”

  • Kellie Morrison, senior director of client investment solutions at HighGround Advisors in Dallas, “Case Studies: Investment Solutions for Local Church Assets.”

  • Elket Rodríguez, immigrant and refugee advocacy and missions specialist for CBF and Fellowship Southwest, “Migrational Religion: How Migration Molds Our Faith.”

  • Meredith Stone, executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry from Abilene, Texas, “Cultivating Congregational Cultures That Empower Women.”

  • Steve Wells, pastor of South Main Baptist Church in Houston, “Preaching in the Pandemic.”

To watch any of the workshop presentations or other videos from the assembly, click here.

In the CBF Advocacy Network session, Stephen Reeves, executive director of Fellowship Southwest and director of advocacy at CBF, unveiled one of the Fellowship’s newest programs, the Amplify Congregational Advocacy Initiative. 

Several CBF state and regional organizations conducted business during the General Assembly. In that sessions, CBF Texas elected an incoming slate of leaders. They included Moderator-elect Matt Walton, minister for discipleship at South Main Baptist Church in Houston, and Recorder Amy Wilkins, associate pastor of Valley Ranch Baptist Church in Coppell.

Newly elected members of the CBF Texas governing board are: 

  • Kan’Dace Brock, co-pastor of The Message Church in San Antonio

  • Israel Loachamin, associate pastor for Spanish ministry at First Baptist Church in Waco and executive director of La Puerta Waco.

  • Christopher Mack, minister to young adults, Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio.

  • Jake Maxwell, senior pastor of Second Baptist Church in Lubbock.

  • Kevin Pranoto, executive director of Mission Oak Cliff in Dallas.

The General Assembly experience even branched into the Southwest: Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth hosted listening shared-viewing groups during several sessions of the annual event.

And next year’s General Assembly will arrive back in the Southwest—to be held in Dallas, June 27-July 2.

Cameron Vickrey