2024-25 FBC MINISTRY LEADERSHIP TEAM
For congregational affirmation on May 5
Following 8 months of work with Ministry Architects, this Sunday, May 5, the congregation will be asked to affirm a proposed model of leadership and governance that emphasizes mission, ministry and lay leadership. This model relies on two primary leadership bodies: a Ministry Leadership Team (MLT) and Ministry Action Teams (MATs).
The main purpose of the Ministry Leadership Team is to guide decision-making processes, bringing essential matters before the congregation for discernment; to pray for and guide the spiritual, missional, and operational health and wholeness of the church. Individuals on the MLT are church members who lead and serve from a place of prayerfulness, humility, discernment, and attentive listening.
Meet the three candidates for the 2024-25 MLT:
Charles Berger, Rebecca Waugh, Lucy Plovnick
Rebecca Waugh (3-year term)
A native of Jackson MS with an MDiv from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary ‘77, Rebecca/Becky has life-long roots in Baptist life, with involvement along the way with American Baptists, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Alliance of Baptists, Baptist Peace Fellowship, Baptist Joint Committee, and the “former-days” Southern Baptist Convention. She’s been a summer missionary, pastor’s spouse, hospital chaplain, biblical studies curriculum writer, director of an urban ministry center in Providence, Rhode Island, board president of another center in New York City, and Church & Community Ministries Director of the Metro NY Baptist Association.
Since 2000, Rebecca has worked in international relief & development, primarily in ecumenical frameworks, including Church World Service and IMA World Health, and intersecting with the World Council of Churches. After 20 years in NYC followed by 2+ years in Juba, South Sudan, she came to DC and affiliated with a Church of the Saviour group. Feeling the “tug” to return to the Baptist fold and, in particular, to contribute to the unfolding of FBCDC’s future, she began attending FBC in October 2023, joined in November, and has been participating in the Contemplative Prayer Group, the Tapestry Sunday School class, and our future-oriented events with Ministry Architects, including the Prayer Team upholding this transition.
Rebecca’s prayer is that FBC will move ever more boldly, creatively, and joyfully into this new stage of its life, as a faithful and radiant partner in God’s work of loving and healing the world, starting where we are planted.
Lucy Plovnick (2-year term)
Lucy joined FBC in February, 2007, and has been an active participant in the life of the church ever since. Over the seventeen years that Lucy has been at FBC she has served in many different roles at different times, including as chair of the Faith Formation Team (FFT), co-chair of the Give It Forward Team (GIFT) and the Facilities Improvement Team (FIT), Moderator (2013-17), and also as a Deacon. Lucy has also helped organize and facilitate several Sunday School classes at FBC over the years. Most recently she has been helping to launch a new class for adults called The Wonder Years.
Lucy was drawn to FBC by its female pastors, high church service, Baptist traditions, and ecumenical perspective, but the most important factor that brought Lucy to FBC was (and has always been) the church’s strong commitment to children’s ministry. Lucy’s three children, Kevin, Rosemary, and Valerie, have grown up at FBC, and all them were baptized by Pastor Julie in the FBC sanctuary. Lucy, her husband Robert, and their kids live in northwest D.C. near Friendship Heights.
Lucy is an attorney and is a Partner at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP, and based in their D.C. office which is located in Dupont Circle, only about three blocks from FBC. Her legal work is focused in the areas of intellectual property, privacy, and commercial litigation.
Lucy’s prayer for FBC is that we will be able to use our new Community Building to as a tool to realize our church’s mission and provide a welcoming space for ministry to our Dupont Circle neighborhood.
Charles Berger (1-year term)
Charles sought out First Baptist Church in the summer of 2022 on the recommendation of his previous pastor in Washington State who had been inspired by Pastor Julie’s reputation as a woman in pastoral ministry. Charles joined FBC in June of 2023 and is now in his second year with the contemplative prayer group and participates in the Crossroads Bible study group. He also has served as a prayer partner throughout FBC’s journey with Ministry Architects.
Charles is a retired, ordained American Baptist pastor who served on the staff of a large church in Portland, Oregon before becoming a certified educator with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. In that role, for 20 years he ran education programs in the art of pastoral care for clergy and religious workers of many faiths at Oregon State Hospital, then for another 13 years in Columbia, South Carolina, at a level-one trauma center. When Charles retired he took a contract with Joint Base Lewis-McCord, near Tacoma, WA, to work with military chaplains, and later received education to become a spiritual director. He served on the Leadership Board at Belfair Community Church and, during Covid years, made weekly calls to homebound members. He trained laypeople to facilitate in-home small groups which helped generate more intimate connections in the congregation.
Charles recently moved to Bethesda, having sold the home he and his wife built sixteen years ago in Washington State. His wife died in 2015. He now lives with his daughter’s family and enjoys being PaPa to his 13-year-old grandson.
He says, “What drew me to FBC was learning more about ‘quieting the monkey mind’ to hear God’s nudging.” Charles’ prayer for FBC is that we be a community that lives out the good news we claim.
