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Joy Yee |
ATLANTA – Joy Yee, senior pastor of New Covenant Baptist Church, San Francisco, Calif., has been nominated to serve as the next moderator-elect of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
Yee, who served on the Fellowship’s Coordinating Council from 1999 to 2001, will be presented to the General Assembly for a vote as moderator-elect during its annual business session 2 p.m., June 25, at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center in Birmingham, Ala. Nominations for moderator-elect can be made from the floor of the Assembly.
"Joy will provide excellent leadership in the moderator role," said Phill Martin, immediate past moderator of the Fellowship and chair of the nominating committee. "She has demonstrated her skills and spiritual depth in her work as senior pastor of a congregational plant in San Francisco. We are pleased to have a pastor from the West to serve in this key leadership role. There is great outreach and evangelistic opportunity in our state and regional networks. Joy’s experience will help us to move forward in these critical areas as we seek to be the presence of Christ."
Active in the CBF West regional organization, Yee holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California-Berkeley and a master of divinity degree from Golden Gate Theological Seminary. She was ordained to the gospel ministry in June 2000 by First Chinese Southern Baptist Church. Yee and her husband, Jimmy, have been married for 15 years and have two boys, Nathan, 12, and Kevin, 9.
In addition to Yee’s nomination, Martin reported that Susan Crumpler, an engineer from Cincinnati, Ohio, has been nominated for a second, one-year term as the Fellowship’s recorder.
The moderator-elect’s chief responsibility is to preside over the Assembly and the Coordinating Council in absence of the moderator. The moderator-elect automatically succeeds the moderator at the conclusion of a one-year term without a vote by the Assembly.
Bob Setzer Jr., pastor of First Baptist Church, Macon, Ga., is the current moderator-elect. He will assume the office of moderator on June 26, at the conclusion of the General Assembly. The moderator is the Fellowship’s highest elected position and has a one-year term. The Fellowship rotates nominees for moderator-elect by laity-clergy and by gender. This year’s moderator is St. Louis attorney Cynthia Holmes.
Founded in 1991, CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. Headquartered in Atlanta, the Fellowship holds an annual meeting called the General Assembly for worship, fellowship, education and business, such as electing national officers and approving an annual budget. There is no charge to attend the General Assembly.
With an annual budget of $16 million, the Fellowship is supported by more than 1,800 churches and an additional 3,000 individuals nationwide. CBF partners with 13 theology schools and has 150 Global Missions field personnel serving in North America and around the world.
During the Assembly, the Fellowship will emphasize its relationship to the Baptist World Alliance. The featured ministry offering at this year’s Assembly will go to BWA, and the Assembly will vote on a budget that doubles the Fellowship’s annual contribution to BWA from $20,000 to $40,000. Last year the Fellowship raised $175,000 in two special offerings for Partners in Hope, the Fellowship’s rural poverty initiative.
BWA voted in July 2003 to include the Fellowship as a member body. BWA is a fellowship of 211 Baptist unions and conventions comprising a membership of more than 46.5 million baptized believers. The Southern Baptist Convention will vote in June on de-funding BWA.
In addition to the special offering, BWA will host a workshop and a special breakfast at the Assembly on June 25 featuring BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz.
Last held in Birmingham in 1999, the General Assembly will feature John Kinney, dean of the school of theology at Virginia Union University, as the keynote speaker and singer-songwriter Kyle Matthews as the highlighted musician. The three-day schedule includes more than 120 ministry workshops on a variety of topics.
For more information on the General Assembly, visit www.thefellowship.info or call (770) 220-1600.