Mission agency names new director for Advance
|
Shawn S. Bakker |
Oct. 30, 2006
By Elliott Wright*
NEW YORK (UMNS) -- Shawn S. Bakker, who has broad professional
experience in religion, nonprofit management and fundraising, is the new
director of the Advance for Christ and His Church, the designated
mission-giving program of the United Methodist Church.
Her selection was announced by the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries. The Advance is a major funding channel for the support of
missionaries, mission projects, and humanitarian relief and
rehabilitation around the world.
Bakker, who starts Dec. 1, succeeds the Rev. William T. Carter, who
retired in June after 28 years with the mission agency and the Advance.
She is "dynamic and bold," according to Cashar W. Evans, a North
Carolina layman who chairs the Advance Committee. Bakker also is
well-grounded in theology and United Methodist practice, said the Rev.
R. Randy Day, chief executive of the mission board.
The Rev. Jan Davis, secretary of the Advance Committee and executive
pastor of Christ United Methodist Church, Plano, Texas, called Bakker a
"young, bright woman with a strong track record of innovative program
experience. She will bring new vision to our work."
The
Advance represents what is known in United Methodism as "second-mile
mission giving," that is, donations beyond congregational apportionments
for the World Service fund. Annual giving through the Advance in recent
years has averaged between $30 million and $35 million, not including
the amount given for disaster relief.
Bakker is a native of Sioux Falls, S.D., and grew up in a Christian
congregation there. She joined the United Methodist Church while at
Bethel College in St. Paul, Minn., where she graduated in 1996. She then
worked for a decade with United Methodist-related ministries in Dallas
and studied at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist
University, earning a master of theology degree.
In 1998, she became the first director of Project Transformation, a
program developed in the North Texas Annual Conference that employs
college and university students in urban ministries with children and
youth. This involved the annual coordination of more than 300 students,
1,200 volunteers, 90 local churches and 15 institutions within the
conference.
Bakker also had served as a missionary through the former 10-10-10
program of the mission agency and worked for the Wesley-Rankin Community
Center, a national mission institution in Dallas.
She left Texas in 2005 to accompany her husband, Jeremy Bakker, to New
Haven, Conn., where he was entering a doctoral program in theology at
Yale University.
*Wright is the information officer of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Related Articles
Carter sees changes in 27 years with United Methodist Advance
Advance giving program undergoes leadership transition
Resources
The Advance
How to Give
Board of Global Ministries
|
|
|