The CMBA Family of Churches met for an Executive Team Meeting on September 16 at Palmetto Life Church to celebrate the ways that God is at work throughout the association in the past year and to conduct regular business. Associational Missions Strategist Jamie Rogers shared the podium with several CMBA leaders who gave reflections from the Serve Tour, among other ministry updates.
During the business session, messengers voted to approve the 2026 budget. The new budget reflects significant contract worker changes. David Waganer and Robbie McAlister have announced their retirements, effective December 31, 2025. In the New Year, JayWill Wilson will transition from the association’s payroll to a new SC Baptist Convention position. Additional changes have been made to the CMBA administrative assistant and communications coordinator roles.
According to Rogers, the changes enable an “increase in financial support of ministries” and a balanced budget “for the first time in recent years.”
In other news, messengers elected the following individuals to serve as CMBA Officers: Jean Miles, member of Crooked Run, will serve as Clerk; Doug Barnett, member of New Heights, will serve as Treasurer; and Blake Jenkins, pastor of Spring Valley, was named Moderator-elect.
The following individuals were elected to serve new terms on the Advisory Team: Phyllis Gutierrez from First Baptist Ridgeway; Freddy Johnson from North Point Community; Andre Rogers from Concord Fellowship; and Ed Stewart from New Creation. Andre Melvin, from Temple Zion, was confirmed to serve the remaining two years of Bill Wright’s term.
In his report to messengers, Rogers celebrated a variety of work from the association’s 88 churches. Eight team mission trips were taken this year through CMBA’s partnership with Spain, which has also seen progress in church planting in Segovia. Rogers said there will be more local missional partnership opportunities in the coming year, like the 2025 CMBA marriage conference that served members from five churches.
CMBA’s outreach to international teachers is expanding beyond the existing Richland School Districts One and Two partnerships to include recent Fairfield County church and school district relationships. Rogers reminded messengers that CMBA’s annual Walmart gift card collection for these teachers is about “building relationships in order to hopefully have an opportunity to share the gospel.” A game night for international teachers from all of these districts is planned for October 24 at 6:30 p.m., at the Carolina BCM building.
Recognizing the critical need for new pastors, Rogers asks CMBA congregations to pray for God to identify new men from within their church who might be called into ministry. In response, CMBA will launch a pastor’s collective in Fall 2026 to include an intensive leadership training for these new pastors to be led by Rob Nicholes, First Columbia’s College and Young Professionals Minister.
Several pastors shared ways that God has been working in their contexts, including City of Refuge Pastor JayWill Wilson, who detailed his church’s recent two-day Serve Tour experience. The team offered free hamburgers to apartment complex residents through a mobile grill walk that enabled them to lead 48 people to accept Christ. Wilson’s church is currently following up with the residents who made decisions.
Temple Pastor Gregg Heinisch shared about his unconventional calling to ministry. The former first responder was on staff at Awaken Church before serving at Temple, and encourages churches to value what a leader’s life experiences bring to the role of shepherding a flock. Rockton Pastor Cliff Evans worked in management at Lexington Medical Center before answering his call to ministry. Evans shared about Rockton’s growing community presence and recent basketball clinics that included gospel presentations.
Rogers concluded the meeting by presenting a list of ideas generated by CMBA church planters for how “every church can do something” to partner with them. “Your church can do at least one of the things on this list, and probably much more to help plant new churches,” Rogers says.
2026 CMBA Moderator Cameron DeBrew closed the meeting with prayer.