News From The Assembly

Moderator Team Unanimously Selected at Fort Worth General Assembly
July 25, 2007 - Disciples News Service

The new moderator team (from left to right): D. Newell Williams, Ayanna Johnson and Robert Alvarez.

The new moderator team for the 2007-2009 biennium was selected by unanimous vote at the 2007 General Assembly in Fort Worth, Texas. The new team indicated that they were eager to begin serving their terms.

D. Newell Williams, president at Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University and professor of modern and American church history, is the new moderator for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Ayanna Johnson, pastor, social worker, community organizer and motivational speaker will serve as first vice moderator. Robert (Bob) Alvarez, president of the North Point Realty Partners in Atlanta, Ga., is the second vice moderator.

Williams is an author and editor who previously taught at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, where he also served as vice president and dean 1992-1998. Prior to his time at CTS, Williams was assistant professor of church history and assistant dean 1978-1983. He is a Disciples ordained minister and member of the American Academy of Religion, the American Society of Church History and the Association of Disciples for Theological Discussion. Williams earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tulsa, a master’s degree from Vanderbilt University and a doctorate from Vanderbilt. He and his wife, Sue McDougal, have three children.

Johnson is pastor of Family of Hope Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Blue Island, Ill., a church she began in 2005. Johnson also serves as new church pastor-in-residence at Disciples Divinity House, working with University of Chicago ministry students. Before becoming a new church pastor, Johnson served as youth minister at Park Manor Christian Church and project director for the Southwest Youth Collaborative, a youth-centered community development organization in Chicago. She is a fifth-generation Disciple, whose home church is Swope Parkway United Christian Church in Kansas City, Mo. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and master of divinity degree and social work degree from the University of Chicago.

Alvarez has held a variety of leadership positions in the Church, including serving as vice-moderator for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Georgia. He was in the U.S. Army from 1979 to 2000. After retiring from the service, where he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1994, Alvarez joined Fidelity Information Services, where he worked for years before becoming president of North Point Realty Partners, a commercial real estate firm. He is a member of Aposento Alto Christian Church ((Disciples of Christ) in Forest Park, Ga. He and his wife, Juanita, have three grown children. The moderator team will serve until the next General Assembly, which will take place in Indianapolis July 29-Aug. 2.

By: James Patterson, writer