CBF Executive Coordinator Suzii Paynter announced on July 19 that she is working with the CBF Governing Board to transition her leadership of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. A search committee has formed from across the Fellowship to select CBF’s next executive coordinator.
The search committee has developed a position profile for the Executive Coordinator role. (Download the Executive Coordinator Profile)
Search Committee
Courtney Allen
Senior Pastor
Grace Baptist Church Richmond, Va.
Courtney Allen is senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Richmond, Va. She is a native of Jackson, Miss., and a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a degree in religious studies and sociology. She earned a Master of Divinity from the Wake Forest University School of Divinity in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Allen participated in CBF’s first Fellows Cohort from 2012-2014 and has also served on the CBF Missions Council from 2015 to 2018. She was previously the Minister of Community Ministry and Missions at First Baptist Church in Dalton, Ga., and served on the Baptist Women in Ministry Leadership Team from 2012-2015.
Juan García
Associate Pastor/Hispanics, First Baptist Church
Newport News, Va.
Juan L. García is a native of Puerto Rico. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Puerto Rico and a Master of Divinity Degree from the John Leland Center for Theological Studies. García serves as the Pastor of the Hispanic Congregation of First Baptist Church in Newport News, Va., Primera Iglesia Bautista de Newport News, a multicultural congregation, with people from Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. He is responsible for leading and providing pastoral care, as well as exploring ways to reach out to the Hispanic community in the Hampton Roads area for Christ. García is married to Monica and has two children, Natalia and Daniel.
Jennifer Hawks
Associate General Counsel, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty
Washington, D.C.
Jennifer Hawks, a native of Germantown, Tenn., has been at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty since 2014. A graduate of Mississippi College and the University of Mississippi School of Law, Hawks earned a Master of Divinity from George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University and was ordained to the Gospel ministry by McLean Baptist Church in McLean, Va. She has served in both paid and volunteer ministry positions in Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas, and on staff at the Family Abuse Center in Waco, Texas. Hawks currently serves on the Clergy Sexual Misconduct Task Force (a joint project of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Baptist Women in Ministry).
Emmanuel McCall
Pastor, First Baptist Church
East Point, Ga.
Emmanuel McCall is currently pastor of the First Baptist Church of East Point, Ga. From 1970-1996, he served as a visiting faculty member at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. During this time, he developed the Black Church Studies program that was used by three Southern Baptist seminaries. He was an adjunct professor at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology from 1996 to 2016, and served as the Vice President of the Baptist World Alliance from 2005 to 2010.
McCall is a graduate of Simmons Bible College, University of Louisville, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Emory University, holding five earned degrees including the Doctor of Ministry. He has honorary degrees from Simmons Bible College and United Theological Seminary. McCall has written eight books, contributed 42 chapters in others and frequently writes for denominational magazines and special publications.
He and his wife, Emma Marie, are the parents of two adult children and four grandchildren.
Jackie Baugh Moore
Vice President, Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation
San Antonio, Texas
Jackie Baugh Moore lives in Boerne just outside of San Antonio, Texas. After graduating from Baylor University in 1986 she taught first grade and kindergarten.
Vice President of the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation, Moore currently serves on the board of directors for Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Missions Council, the Advisory Board for Fellowship Southwest, the Religious Liberty Council of the Baptist Joint Committee, Passport and is President of the Baylor Line Foundation.
Her husband, Kim Moore, owns an HR and corporate financial services firm in San Antonio. They have three grown children and are members of Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas.
Jeff Roberts (chair)
Senior Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church
Raleigh, N.C.
Jeff Roberts returned to Trinity Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C., as Senior Pastor in 2000 after having served the church as Minister to Youth and Singles from 1986-1990. Jeff is a native of Knoxville, Tenn., and is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has served churches in Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina. Roberts is a founding member of the Raleigh Midtown Alliance Board and was named “Raleigh Midtown Hero” in 2017 for his work in North Hills and Midtown Raleigh. He is also the 2004 recipient of the Revis Scholar Award at Campbell University. Jeff is married to Robin and they have two adult children, Tyler and Jordan.
Chris Sanders
Attorney
Louisville, Ky.
Chris Sanders is a lawyer for working people, active in law, labor, faith and politics. In active terms, he litigates, arbitrates, and negotiates, campaigns, teaches, and advocates. Through the years, he’s taken on challenges in labor relations, discrimination, politics, faith-and-community coalition, unions, high-road partnerships, economic development, nonunion workers, wage theft, and class actions, to name a few.
He graduated from Georgetown College with a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies in 1981. He graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as a Master of Divinity in 1985, and then from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law as a Juris Doctor in 1988.
Sanders serves Simmons College of Kentucky as coordinator of Empower West Louisville, a city-wide coalition of black and white pastors and churches dedicated to the revitalization of West Louisville.
He is married to Sharon, a professor at the Kent School of Social Work at the University of Louisville. He’s the proud father of three grown children.
Steve Wells
Pastor, South Main Baptist Church
Houston, Texas
Steve Wells has served as pastor of South Main Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, since 2003. Wells received his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Baylor University and was a member of the first graduating class of Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, where he received his Master of Divinity in 1997. He previously pastored churches in Texas and Mississippi. Wells and his wife, Missy, are parents to Rachel, Ben and Joshua.
Rebecca Wiggs
Attorney, Watkins & Eager
Jackson, Miss.
Rebecca Wiggs is a layperson from Jackson, Miss., where she is an attorney with Watkins & Eager. She and her husband, Mark, are members of Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss.
Stephen Cook (ex officio)
Senior Pastor, Second Baptist Church
Memphis, Tenn.
Stephen Cook is a member of the CBF Governing Board, where he serves as Recorder. He graduated from Wake Forest University (Bachelor of Arts in Religion), Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond (Master of Divinity), Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University (Master of Theology in Pastoral Theology and Counseling), and Columbia Theological Seminary (Doctor of Ministry). He has served churches in North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia prior to coming to Second in November, 2010. He and his wife, Amy, have two small children, Benjamin and Jonathan. Stephen’s interests include travel (trying to get to all 50 states!), sports, reading, and investing time in his family.
Gary Dollar (ex officio)
Partner, EMD Consulting Group
Glen Carbon, Ill.
Gary Dollar serves as the Moderator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. He is a partner with St. Louis-based EMD Consulting, which assists nonprofit groups in fundraising, leadership development and building organizational strength. He retired in 2013 as CEO of the United Way of Greater St. Louis after leading the organization for 12 years and building it into the nation’s fifth largest United Way chapter. During Dollar’s tenure, the United Way of Greater St. Louis raised more than $1 billion and grew its annual revenue to more than $70 million. Dollar is a graduate of North Central College in Naperville, Ill., Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill., and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
For more than 20 years, Dollar has served both as a full-time and bi-vocational pastor and associate pastor for CBF churches in the Heartland region. He has served on numerous boards of faith-based and other nonprofit organizations. Dollar is a member of the CBF Governing Board and an adjunct professor at Washington University’s Brown School of Social Work in St. Louis, where he teaches a graduate course in marketing, resource development and community relations. Dollar resides in Glen Carbon, Ill., with his wife, Gale, a CBF-endorsed chaplain serving at St. Luke’s Hospital in St. Louis. The Dollars are members of Dayspring Baptist Church in St. Louis, and have two adult sons: Jordan, a CBF-endorsed hospice chaplain, and Nathanael, an adjunct professor of anthropology. They are proud grandparents to Callum and Aidan.