Baptist Briefs: First woman elected to Missouri post

Missouri Baptist network elects woman as leader. Churchnet—ministry network of the Baptist General Convention of Missouri—elected both its first layperson and its first woman as president. The group elected Donna Potts, a member of Fee Fee Baptist Church in St. Louis, as the top elected leader during the organization’s annual gathering in Kansas City. Prior to her election, Potts served as the ministry’s vice president. She is a board member of the North American Baptist Fellowship, one of the six regional arms of the Baptist World Alliance. She has been active several years in Woman’s Missionary Union leadership in Missouri. Potts succeeds Doyle Sager, pastor of First Baptist Church in Jefferson City, Mo., who completed three years as the organization’s president.

Huett named to CBF communications post. Jeff Huett of Falls Church, Va., has been named the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s associate coordinator of communications and advancement, effective June 17. He served more than 12 years with the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, most recently as communications director. A graduate of Baylor University’s journalism and business administration programs, Huett served as editor-in-chief of the Lariat, the school’s student newspaper. He also wrote for the Waco Tribune-Herald and was named the Outstanding Journalism Graduate in 2000. Huett holds a master of arts degree in media and public affairs from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he was a Larry King Scholar.

Former Baptist editor Sommerkamp dies. Longtime Baptist journalist Theo Sommerkamp died April 19. He was 84. Sommerkamp, of Columbus, Ohio, met his wife of 60 years, Jean, while attending Oklahoma Baptist University. Theo SommerkampThey married in 1951. She preceded him in death on Christmas Day 2011. After earning a master’s degree at Florida State University in 1954, Sommerkamp worked as assistant director of Baptist Press, news service of the Southern Baptist Convention, in Nashville, Tenn. He left to direct European Baptist Press Services, then based in Switzerland, before becoming editor of the Ohio Baptist Messenger in 1976, where he worked until retirement in 1994.

D.C. pastor nominated as CBF moderator-elect. Kasey Jones, senior pastor of National Baptist Memorial Church in Washington, D.C., has been recommended by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship nominating committee to serve as the next CBF moderator-elect. Jones served on the CBF 2012 task force, which recommended significant governing and structural changes to the organization. The committee also recommended Jason Coker, pastor of Wilton Baptist Church in Wilton, Conn., as recorder. The nominating committee’s recommendations will be presented for approval at the CBF General Assembly in Greensboro, N.C., June 28. Bill McConnell, a businessman and lay leader from Knoxville, Tenn., is the current moderator-elect and will succeed Moderator Keith Herron at the conclusion of the meeting.