Standing Committees of the Board
FINANCE COMMITTEE
The Finance Committee (i) advises the Executive Committee on matters related to the financial management of CRM, (ii) supervises the management and investment of CRM’s funds, (iii) oversees CRM’s financial reporting and compliance with applicable governmental and financial rules and regulations, (iv) supervises CRM’s tax reporting and compliance, and (v) oversees the preparation of, and compliance with, the annual budget to ensure that expenditures do not exceed budgeted amounts.
David Crane
Cherryville, NC
President
(until December 31, 2026)
David Crane (David) graduated from Columbia Bible College in 1984 and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1988 with a Master of Divinity degree.
From 1986 to 1989, David and his wife, Renee, helped plant the Central Baptist Church of Henderson, North Carolina, where he served as Minister of Music, Youth, and Children. Thereafter, from 1989-1993, David served as the Senior Pastor of the Beulah Baptist Church of Kents Store, Virginia.
From 1993 to 2015, David and Renee served with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (IMB) as full-time “boots on the ground” missionaries in various leadership positions throughout East Africa. Their work in East Africa focused on church planting, mobilization, teaching, and preaching the Gospel to unreached people groups. Upon retiring from the IMB, David and Renee commenced serving with CRM. David assumed the CRM presidency in late 2019.
David and Renee have been married for forty-eight years and live in Cherryville, North Carolina. They have three adult children and four grandchildren.
Betsy Dellinger
Cherryville, NC
Treasurer and Chair
(until December 31, 2026)
Betsy Dellinger (Betsy) graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2000 with degrees in Journalism and Political Science. She is the CEO of Precise Power Service Corporation, an independent provider of critical industrial backup power systems, based in Belmont, North Carolina.
Betsy joined the CRM Board in 2020 following several years of participating in CRM short-term mission trips in East Africa. CRM’s goals and vision align with her mission mindset focused on taking the Gospel to unreached people groups with little or no access to the Bible. Betsy has also advanced her passion by creating a mission team at Venture Church, her home church, with the twin goals of extending love for the lost in western church culture and inspiring and preparing Christians to carry out the Great Commission.
Betsy has been married to her husband, Travis, since 2003. They are blessed with two sons, Jack and Ned. Jack attends the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Ned passed on to be with the Lord at age 9. Betsy and her family reside in Cherryville, North Carolina.
Austin Henry
Strawberry Plains, TN
MEMBER
(until December 31, 2028)
Mark Shepherd
Maryville, TN
MEMBER
(until December 31, 2026)
DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
The Development Committee is responsible for making recommendations to the Executive Committee and the Board regarding Development initiatives and other matters, and carrying out such initiatives after they are authorized.
Richard L. Coffman
Houston, TX
VICE PRESIDENT AND CHAIR
(until December 31, 2026)
Richard L. Coffman (Richard) is a trial lawyer based in Houston, Texas. He received a B.A. in Accounting from Texas Lutheran University (19780, and both his master’s in professional accountancy (1980) and law degree (1989) from the University of Texas at Austin.
Prior to attending law school, Richard, who also is a Certified Public Accountant, worked for two international Big 8 public accounting firms. He also taught courses in accounting as an adjunct professor at the University of Washington and University of Texas business schools.
As a trial lawyer, Richard principally represents individuals and businesses throughout the United States in complex commercial litigation, class actions, and mass actions. His litigation practice is focused in the areas of antitrust, agriculture, consumer, and other commercial disputes. He also represents individuals injured in ski accidents.
In addition to CRM, Richard has been active in several other civic and charitable organizations, having recently concluded a ten-year term on the Board of Trustees of the American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR), first as its Treasurer, and for the last six years, as the Board Chair. Richard also was a charter member of the Westchase Rotary Club in Houston, where he served as its first Treasurer, and later, was a member of the Downtown Houston Rotary Club, where he served on the Lombardi Trophy Committee for several years.
Richard and his wife and (retired) law partner, Sonya, live in Houston, Texas, and are members of Second Baptist Church. They have been married for over 35 years and have one daughter. Richard and Sonya are long-time supporters of CRM through giving, going, and prayer.
David Crane
Cherryville, NC
President
(until December 31, 2026)
Lori Bryan
Boone, NC
MEMBER
(until December 31, 2026)
Lester Nail
Moore, SC
MEMBER
(until December 31, 2026)
Governance Committee
The Governance Committee is responsible for administering the Officer and Director Succession Plan and making recommendations to the Executive Committee and the Board regarding same.
Mark Shepherd
Maryville, TN
Chair
(until December 31, 2026)
Mark Shepherd (Mark) graduated from Tennessee Tech University in 1990 with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering. Thereafter, he worked for over twenty-eight years at DENSO Corporation, a global automotive components manufacturer, where he held several engineering and manufacturing management positions. Mark retired from DENSO in 2018 after serving as the Southeast Regional Project Leader responsible for new product and manufacturing deployment in North America. Mark is active in the community, serving on the Tennessee Tech University Engineering Accreditation Board and working with various local charities, including Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee and the United Way of Blount County. Mark is married to his wife, Jennifer, a retired physical therapist. They have two children who are both pursuing their education at East Tennessee State University. Mark and Jennifer live in Maryville, Tennessee.
Lori Bryan
Boone, NC
Member
(until December 31, 2026)
Lori Bryan (Lori), a native of Lakeland, Florida, was raised in a Christian farming family that valued God, community, and family. At age 21, she committed her life and the right to determine her path to God. That decision took Lori on a journey that she could not have ever envisioned.
Lori has traveled to more than eighty countries, worked long-term in nine, and lived almost fifteen years of her life outside the United States. She has worked in both the corporate world and with multiple international humanitarian/mission-oriented organizations in a variety of roles—including teaching Vietnamese refugees in the Philippines; participating in and/or leading multiple short-term mission trips for World Changers and CRM; serving as an IT consultant and program manager in the Middle East, North Africa, Italy, South Sudan, and the West Bank; and teaching and serving as a dorm parent at the Rift Valley Academy in Kenya. During her career, Lori has created and overseen multiple programs benefiting various marginalized third world people groups, including leprosy village residents, the physically disabled, the elderly, students, survivors of genocide, persecuted Christians, the deaf community, internally displaced persons, war refugees, T1D patients, and African refugees.
Lori has over 300 hours of concentrated trauma/first responder/critical incident stress management training from the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) and other local and international organizations. She has utilized this training to create a 3-day debriefing program for an international humanitarian organization employing aid workers. Her current focus is teaching war victims and refugees about the effects of and healing from trauma.
When in the United States, Lori is based in Boone, North Carolina. She is an active member of Christ the King, a fellowship of Christians that worships God in the Anglican tradition.
Austin Henry
Strawberry Plains, TN
MEMBER
(until December 31, 2028)
Senior Leader Care Committee
The Senior Leader Care Committee is responsible for administering the Senior Leader Care Policy and Senior Leader Care Plan and making recommendations to the Executive Committee and the Board regarding same.
John Shepherd III
Harris, GA
CHAIR
(until December 31, 2028)
John Shepherd (John) serves as a shepherd to pastors with Standing Stone Ministry. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Tennessee Technological University and began his career as an aeromechanical engineer in Huntsville, Alabama. At the age of 24, he surrendered his life to Jesus Christ, and within a year, he sensed that God was calling him into full-time vocational ministry.
To prepare for ministry, he received his Master of Divinity from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tennessee, and a Doctor of Ministry in Missions Leadership from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
John has served in full-time ministry for more than three decades in a variety of ministry settings: Church Planter, Executive Pastor, Lead Pastor, Church Consultant, and Denomination Leader. Each of these settings has given him a deep understanding of the pressures and complex challenges that pastors and ministry leaders face today.
John and his wife Joy have been married for over thirty years. They live near Blairsville, Georgia, and have three grown sons and two grandchildren whom they adore.
When not spending time with his grandchildren, John loves University of Tennessee athletics, Atlanta Braves baseball, movies, and CrossFit.
REV. DAN RILEY
KNOXVILLE, TN
Member
(until December 31, 2028)
Dan Riley (Dan) graduated from Union University and then Mid America Seminary. After serving as a pastor in the Memphis area for several years, Dan moved to Knoxville, Tennessee in 1985 to serve as one of the assistant pastors at Calvary Baptist Church. He transitioned to senior pastor in 2001. Dan has a heart for missions and spent many Saturdays praying for Africa with John Shepherd, CRM’s founder. He has been a CRM board member for several years and trained pastors in Kenya on several CRM-sponsored short-term mission trips. Dan is honored to serve and brings a pastor’s perspective to CRM. Dan and his wife, Kathy, live in Knoxville, Tennessee. They have three grown children and three grandsons.
Kelly Rent
CROUSE, NC
MEMBER
(until December 31, 2028)
Kelly Rent serves as the CRM Prayer Coordinator. She is also a pharmacist specializing in hormone replacement therapy and supplemental wellness. Kelly has a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to serving on the CRM Board, Kelly recently took an on-call position with the Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Assistance Response Team. Kelly has served on several CRM-sponsored short-term mission trips to East Africa, training indigenous believers to teach the 42 stories on the CRM Creation to Christ Story Cloth to other East Africans.
Kelly and her husband, Justin, live on her family’s dairy farm in Crouse, North Carolina. She has two adult children: Will, who currently serves in the U.S. Navy, and Emily, who attends North Carolina State University.