2025 is a year of transition for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia. We began the year with the resignations of both our executive coordinator, Dr. Jody Long and our assistant coordinator, Rev. Megan Doud. Both served our organization faithfully and with excellence. Their absences leave a hole in our fellowship.
We are blessed, however, to have extraordinary remaining staff members led by Rachel Greco and our part-time financial assistant Cheryl Browning. Rachel is almost single-handedly managing communications and event coordination right now, and Cheryl is doing the day-to-day financial work that an organization like ours requires.
In addition, Dr. Jimmy Gentry has been a godsend to us as our interim executive coordinator. His wisdom, experience, and careful leadership continue to be invaluable to our Coordinating Council, our office staff, and our partner churches.
With a limited paid staff right now, much of the organizational and operational work of our fellowship falls to volunteers—that’s always been true. A few volunteers deserve special recognition. Tricia Ethridge serves as the CBFGA treasurer. She works closely with Cheryl Browning on a nearly daily basis to keep our f financial house in order. We would be lost right now without her.
And Rev. Emily Harbin Glass is chairing our Executive Coordinator Search Team. Her organizational and leadership skills have us well on our way to finding the next right person to lead CBFGA.
Your Coordinating Council members are also diligently at work leading Missions, Congregational Life, and Leadership Development Ministry Teams who help us carry out successful events like Mission Madness, Senior Adult Retreat, and Together We Build— and who oversee scholarships, internships, and local church partnerships.
During these last few months of transition, CBFGA has continued to operate with incredible capacity thanks to the combined efforts of these outstanding Christian leaders. We are blessed to be engaged in our executive coordinator search process as an organizationally sound and financially healthy fellowship of like-minded Baptist churches and individuals all over our state.
If you are reading this, that means you are part of the CBFGA success story, too. Thank you for your continued and prayerful support of our organization.
The Executive Coordinator Matt Sapp Moderator CBFGA Search Team is preparing to conduct its first round of interviews the week of May 18. We have a group of highly qualified, supremely capable candidates to talk with, any of whom could lead our organization well.
Here’s what you can do to help. Pray.
Pray for our search team: Emily Harbin, Caitlin Brown, Wendy Peacock, Ron McClung, Bill Neal, Sarah Timmerman, Matt Sapp, and Jimmy Gentry. Pray for God’s presence in their collective wisdom. And pray for clarity as they seek God’s direction.
Pray for our candidates and their families as they explore the future of CBFGA with us. Pray for God’s blessing on them as they contemplate potential transitions. And pray for discernment as they seek God’s will alongside us.
And finally, pray for our fellowship. We are well- positioned for a bright future because of God’s strong and faithful presence in the churches and individuals of which we are comprised. Pray for God’s continued presence in us, through us, and among us.
It’s a privilege to be your moderator because it lets me see first-hand the extraordinary work of all the extraordinary people who make us who we are. Thank you for being one of them. Blessings, Matt