BOARD MEMBERS

Board Chair: Rev. Dr. Andrea Clark Chambers Rev. Dr. Andrea Clark Chambers, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a second-generation preacher who follows in the footsteps of her paternal grandmother, Rev. Hazel Gordon Clark. Rev. Chambers accepted her call to ministry in 2002 and was ordained in 2007 at Antioch Baptist Church, where she faithfully served as the Assistant Pastor for almost 17 years. She now serves as the Lead Pastor of Restoration Community Church, a virtual faith community that serves members and communities across the country.

In addition to her pastoral responsibilities, she was elected as the first female President of the North Tulsa Baptist Minister’s Conference, co-founded the Women’s Clergy Fellowship, and served on Leadership Tulsa’s North Tulsa Development Council, WomanPreach! Inc. Leadership Team, Alliance of Baptists Community Member, and is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Rev. Chambers has also served on various boards including the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice (OCCJ) Tulsa Chapter, the North Tulsa Community Education Task Force, the Phillips Theological Seminary Alumni Board, the BeWell Community Development Corporation, and Equity for Women in the Church, where she developed their flagship program Calling in the Key of She, an empowerment program that focuses on empowering women and girls for leadership in the church. She has done mission work with women and children living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa, served as a delegate of the first ever women’s delegation to explore the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East, and was one of only 65 Baptist clergy from across the country invited to the White House in 2012 to have meaningful dialogue with President Barack Obama around issues, concerns, and struggles of her community.

Rev. Chambers holds a Master of Divinity from Southern Methodist University, a Master of Theological Studies and a Doctor of Ministry degree in Pastoral Leadership in Church and Society from Phillips Theological Seminary. Her passion for education has led her to serve as a professor at Tulsa Community College to educate and empower students of all ages, and is often invited to preach, teach, and facilitate workshops at various churches. But her deep joy is found in journeying with Restoration Community Church, the beloved community that she founded in December 2021, where they strive to follow the ways of Jesus by connecting people to God, to others, and to themselves. Alongside her husband and two sons, she leads this community in doing church differently in new and creative ways as they seek to make a difference in this world.

Co-founder: Rev. Sheila Sholes-Ross was ordained through American Baptist Churches and called as the 30th pastor of First Baptist Church of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, November 2013; historic as the church's first African-American female pastor. She is "Recognized Clergy" in the Alliance of Baptists, and a former board member.  As Executive Director of Communities in Schools of Orange County, North Carolina, she obtained two US Education Department grants at $1.3 million each for drop-out prevention programs. With a 2011 request to the Alliance of Baptists, she initiated Equity for Women in the Church. An advocate for women's issues across cultures and ethnicities, she co-chairs this group--a nonprofit that became a reality after a 2013 conference held at Wake Forest Divinity School. Thirty people across cultures and denominations gathered at this conference and made a recommendation to create a non-profit, which began in 2014. She retired from First Baptist Church of Pittsfield, MA on December 31, 2024 after serving as its senior pastor for eleven years.

Rev. Lynn Casteel Harper serves as the pastor of Olivet Congregational Church UCC in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Prior to Olivet, Lynn served as the Minister of Older Adults at The Riverside Church (NYC) and as a nursing home chaplain.  Lynn is an essayist and aging justice advocate. Her debut book, On Vanishing: Mortality, Dementia, and What It Means to Disappear (Catapult, 2020), was named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Lynn’s essays and interviews have appeared in Kenyon Review Online, Salon, The Paris Review, North American Review, The Christian Science Monitor, NPR’s Think, The Sun Magazine, and elsewhere. In August 2021, Lynn served as the Chautauqua Institution’s featured author and guest preacher. Originally from southeastern Missouri, she is a graduate of Wake Forest University Divinity School and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital’s chaplain residency program. She can be reached at lynncasteelharper.com.

Board Secretary: Christopher Hutson, PhD, is Professor of Bible, Missions & Ministry and Associate Dean of the College of Biblical Studies at Abilene Christian University. He previously taught at Hood Theological Seminary in North Carolina. Among his interests are the letters of Paul in their social contexts and issues pertaining to racism and gender, which he approaches through studies of biblical texts and American religious history. His commentary First and Second Timothy and Titus (Paideia; Baker Academic, 2019) offers an egalitarian reading of the Pastoral Epistles. His current research focuses on Galatians from the perspective of ethnic conflict and misunderstanding. 

Rev. Abraham Smith, PhD, The Reverend Abraham Smith is Professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology/Southern Methodist University. His research interests include ancient and modern slavery; violence studies; and African American biblical hermeneutics. His most recent publications include Mark: An Introduction and Study Guide—Shaping the Life and Legacy of Jesus (Bloomsbury, 2017); Black/Africana Studies and Black/Africana Biblical Studies (Brill, 2020); and “Incarceration on Trial: The Imprisonment of Paul and Silas in Acts 16,” in Journal of Biblical Literature 140 (2021).