NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Four regional specialists have been named to provide consultative services for the national church media program at the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Program director Mancil Ezell said the redesign of the church media program and its services in October 1997 has made possible regional specialists located nearer to church media directors and more immediately accessible to their needs.
“This approach will provide a more localized team to enhance media support to the congregation, its leaders, homeschool parents and Christian schools,” Ezell said. “These specialists will fulfill engagements as full-time consultants have in past, and they will provide the highest level of training and consultation at major state media library events throughout the year.”
Beth Andrews, Rita Kirkland, Eva Nell Hunter and Sue Berthelot will lead regional events and provide on-site consultations representing the board.
Andrews, a member of Travis Avenue Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas, is director of the Tarrant Baptist Association Media Ministries in the greater Fort Worth area and president of the Texas Media Library Convention. She has worked in all areas of the media library ministry through local churches and associations for more than 34 years. She has been a library director, conference leader, consultant and writer. She is the author of the new “Church Media Library Desk Book” and is the author of numerous articles and book chapters.
Kirkland is media library director at First Baptist Church, Euless, Texas, and has led national, regional, state and associational conferences. She has been a special worker for the Sunday School Board and will become director of the Tarrant Baptist Association Media Ministries in 1998.
Hunter, with more than 40 years in media library work, is the full-time, volunteer library director for Central Baptist Church, Decatur, Ala. Her ministry at the church began in 1957, and today the library is open six days a week and is a community ministry to persons in other churches and to homeschoolers. Hunter has been a teacher and assistant principal in Mississippi and Alabama public schools.
Berthelot is media library director for the Ascension Baptist Mission, Gonzales, La., as well as a contract consultant for the Louisiana Baptist Convention and media library director for the Judson Baptist Association, Baton Rouge. She has served in a variety of media services positions since beginning volunteer media program work at First Baptist Church, Gonzales, in 1985. A product of the national media program, she has earned diplomas in media skills and media services and is continuing study through the Christian Growth Study Plan.
Ezell, who also is editor-in-chief of Church Media Library Magazine, said the new regional specialists will continue to contribute as appropriate to print resources for the program, as well as fulfilling teaching and consulting assignments.
