Note #9259 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06228 April 21, 2006
Mission Initiative changes leaders
Big-city pastors chosen to head up final phase of $40 million campaign
By Jerry L. Van Marter
NAPLES, FL - Having raised $25.5 million of its $40 million goal, the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands (MIJHH) steering commitee has realigned its work and leadership for a final campaign push.
During an April 19-20 meeting here, the committee reluctantly accepted the resignations of Elders Bill Saul of Long Beach, CA, and Lucimarian Roberts of Biloxi, MS, who have headed the campaign since its inception in 2002.
The MIJHH is a five-year campaign to raise funds for overseas mission personnel and church growth in the United States and Puerto Rico, particularly racial-ethnic and immigrant congregations.
To succeed Saul and Roberts, the committee elected two high-profile pastors - the Rev. David Peterson of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, and the Rev. Joanna Adams, pastor of Morningside Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.
The choice of Peterson and Adams reflects the committee's determination to focus the next phase of the campaign on presbyteries and congregations, rather than on potential large-gift contributors. Two teams of steering committee members will direct their attention to those two constituencies.
In a letter to members of the steering committee, Saul and Roberts stated: "For over 3 years as co-chairs of the campaign, we have focused our efforts on the initial phase of the campaign, of successfully launching the initiative and developing key relationships across the denomination. However, with Joining Hearts & Hands moving into the more public phase of the campaign, we have reflected on how God can best use us. Our joint resignation will allow us to focus on those aspects of the campaign that we are most committed to personally."
The steering committee unanimously passed a resolution expressing thanks to Roberts and Saul; it called Roberts the "heart" and Saul the "hands" of the fund-raising campaign.
The resolution read, in part: "We are grateful to Lucimarian for her prayerful presence at our meetings. Her grace, her faith, and her unwavering commitment to the church have provided inspiration for us. We think of her as the 'Matriarch of Mission.' We are grateful for Bill's powerful tenacity in pursuit of funds for the mission of the church. His persistence, his vision, and his tireless energy for the campaign resulted directly in pledges totaling millions of dollars."
Adams added: "As the public faces of the campaign, Bill and Lucimarian invited our denomination to think a new thought and care about our neighbors. I can speak for all of us in expressing our deepest admiration and gratitude for both of them. We wouldn't be who we are without the two of them."
Some information for this story was furnished by the Rev. Emily Enders Odom, the MIJHH communications officer.
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