The California Southern Baptist Convention staff team is available to assist member congregations in every way possible. Our team consists of specialists and assistants who work to help churches in reaching their communities for Christ. Don’t hesitate to contact us for assistance.
Pete Ramirez is the CSBC executive director. Elected in May 2022, Ramirez is responsible for leading staff in the ministry areas of church planting, church revitalization, evangelism and missions. He also leads the area related to business services and communications.
His passion is for local churches to reach their communities and win people to Jesus. His primary goal is to work with California Southern Baptist churches to push back the darkness for 35 million Californians who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus.
He served as leader of the CSBC Evangelism and Missions Team and as associate executive director before being elected chief executive officer of CSBC.
Pete is married to Anabella. They have two daughters and one grandson.
Bill Agee is executive advisor for California Southern Baptist Convention. He is responsible to provide advice to the executive director as requested. The executive advisor advises on past practices and provides historical perspective for the decision-making process. He also may advise on internal affairs of the organization and denominational relationships since he has had a varied career across many platforms of Southern Baptist Convention life. He served as executive director from June 2017 until May 2022. He is married to Pam. They have a son and a daughter and three grandchildren.
Mike Bivins is volunteer mobilization and Disaster Relief coordinator for the California Southern Baptist Convention. His primary responsibility is to assist churches and individuals to engage in missions and Disaster Relief ministries. Bivins challenges CSBC congregations to be “disaster ready” for when calamity strikes their community.
Jason Blankenship is the leader of the Evangelism and Missions Initiatives Team for California Southern Baptist Convention. As team leader, Jason is an evangelism advocate for CSBC congregations responsible for developing and implementing a plan to assist churches with ministries to evangelize the unchurched in communities throughout the state.
Roger Byrd is a member of the CSBC Church Revitalization Initiatives Team. His primary responsibility is to work with churches in the Count the Cost ministry for new churches and those in need of revitalization. Roger also supports the ministry of music and worship for CSBC congregations, as well as prayer ministry.
Francis Chung is a life-long California Southern Baptists who will bring cultural, secular work and church leadership experience to the newly developed Missions Initiatives Team for California Southern Baptists.
Francis grew up as part of the Mandarin Baptist Church of Los Angeles in Alhambra, a leading church in missions involvement and giving among California Southern Baptists. The church for many years has been the top giver to special mission offerings – state, national and international – among California Southern Baptist churches.
Because of his leadership position in the Mandarin congregation, Francis also has been active in state and national fellowships of Chinese Baptists.
He is an honors graduate of Brandeis University in Massachusetts with a bachelor of arts degree in biochemistry. He attended Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (now Gateway Seminary) and received a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
Sarah Graham was saved in a Southern Baptist church – Green Hills Baptist Church in La Habra and has served several CSBC congregations, most notably, Green Hills where she served as director of family ministries and church administrator from 2001 until 2019. Her experience in dealing with the day-to-day operations of the church and her abilities to plan church events are possibly her greatest assets for the role as director of communications for CSBC since much of the work of the director is project management based in dealing with the overall communication strategy of the Convention. And planning and organizing events is an added benefit since the Office of Communications is responsible for planning and organizing the CSBC Annual Meeting.
Max Herr is a ministry specialist for Human Resources and Church Compliance for California Southern Baptist Convention. His primary responsibilities are to provide consultations/assessments for churches, pastors, staff, and leaders in matters involving church bylaws and governance, finance, budgeting and accounting, insurance, and strategic planning.
Max works with churches to help them remain compliant and up to date with state and federal laws including corporate responsibilities, labor and employment issues, tax regulations and compliance, and the Affordable Care Act.
Ralph W. Neighbour III is the leader of the Church Revitalization Initiatives Team for California Southern Baptist Convention. His primary responsibility is to provide leadership for implementing Count the Cost revitalization strategy for CSBC congregations. He also is responsible for prayer ministries of CSBC.
Oscar Sanchez is migrant ministries field specialist for California Southern Baptist Convention. His primary responsibility is to develop plans to train and enlist churches to adopt a California migrant community or center as part of the Convention’s Feeding Those Who Feed Us ministry.
Ross Shepherd is Church Planting Initiative Team Leader for California Southern Baptist Convention. His primary responsibilities are to formulate and implement strategies to start new churches. Ross directs the California funded church planting effort and works with the North American Mission Board to plant other new churches in the Golden State.
Cathie most recently served as ministry wives coordinator for the Great Commission Association. She will serve primarily in the areas of women’s ministry and ministers’ wives for California Southern Baptist Convention. She also will assist in the International Mission Board Partnership with the East Asia Peoples Affinity Group.
For 10 years, Cathie and her husband served the International Mission Board, primarily in Spain. However, Cathie’s international missions service also includes Ecuador, Japan and Guatemala. She also has served as a director of special needs for a local church, is bilingual and served as an
ESL teacher. Cathie holds a bachelor’s degree in family development from Oklahoma Baptist University. She also earned master of divinity and doctor of educational ministry degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.
Marc Tempesta, a Certified Public Accountant, is the chief financial officer for California Southern Baptist Convention. He also is the leader for the CSBC Business Services Team and provides oversight of risk management, human resources, data management, mail services and facilities management.
