Carolyn McClendon has joined the CBFNC team as the new Welcome House Community Network (WHCN) coordinator. She serves as a team member at WHCN with CBF Field Personnel Kim and Marc Wyatt in the Triangle region. WHCN is a newly formed collaborative ministry between CBFNC, the Wyatts, local individuals and partner congregations to provide hospitality ministry to vulnerable neighbors in communities throughout North Carolina. Read the announcement about WHCN HERE.
Carolyn’s primary responsibility will be to coordinate and facilitate the ministry of presence in Welcome House through community and hospitality. Welcome House is a temporary residence for arriving sponsored refugee families awaiting long term affordable housing in the Triangle region. Temporary housing is one of the practical ways to bear witness to Jesus Christ through transformational ministry in relationship with the Beloved Community. This is the ministry model that will be replicated and expanded by the Welcome House Community Network.
A member at Millbrook Baptist, Raleigh, which has nurtured, encouraged, and ordained her, Carolyn works with members of the Labyrinth Committee to offer spiritual, personal growth and outreach opportunities at the Labyrinth. Carolyn is a native of Louisiana and loves working with interfaith, inclusive and vulnerable communities who continue to enhance, challenge and enlarge her world/worldview and her relational community.
Before joining WHCN, she was assistant director at Catholic Charities Support Circle Program for Homeless Families in Raleigh. Her work/ministry history includes Faith Ministries program director at Alliance of AIDS Services Carolina in Raleigh and director/missionary with Baptist Friendship House in New Orleans, LA. She earned her M.R.E. and Ed.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in New Orleans, LA and her B.S. from Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, LA.
Special thanks to Westwood Baptist, Cary, for their generous support of this mission, which helped fund Carolyn’s new position.
