Three Questions is a semi-regular series introducing individuals across the NAB by asking them about their story, their ministry, and what they are learning. These features on members of our NAB family also provide great opportunities to pray for them as we get to know more of their story. This week, we hear from Reid Kisling, the new CFO and VP of Ministry Support for the North American Baptist Conference.
What’s your story?
My name is Reid Kisling. I’m the NAB’s Chief Financial Officer and VP of Ministry Support. My wife Carrie and I have been married for thirty-three years and have four adult children.
Carrie has been the quiet backbone of everything we’ve built together. While I’ve carried various leadership roles in theological education and pastoral ministry over the years, she has been consistently shaping and forming our kids in faith, and she continues to pour that same love into her work with college students in disability services at George Fox University. Her steadiness and faithful support have enabled me to grow in ways I couldn’t have otherwise. I’m genuinely grateful for her.
I was one of the founding elders at our church re-plant, Hope Fellowship, an NAB church in Hillsboro, Oregon, and that community has been home to us for ten years now. One of the things I’m most excited about in this new role is that it will allow Carrie and me to engage in ministry together in ways my previous work didn’t make possible. We’re looking forward to that chapter.
What’s ministry like for you? What drew you to this role in the NAB?
Honestly, the story of how I got here is the most compelling part.
I spent the past five years in a technology startup environment, and it became increasingly clear I could no longer sustain that kind of work. After much prayer, Carrie and I made the difficult decision together for me to leave that role—without another position lined up. That’s not a comfortable place to be, but we felt God’s peace about it. Four days later, I received an email asking whether I would be interested in the NAB CFO position. We’ve seen God’s hand in the entire process since that moment; each step has confirmed that this is where we’re supposed to be.
Beyond the way it came about, the role itself fits in ways that matter deeply to me. While I’m most familiar with the NAB Northwest region, I’m growing to understand the conference’s culture and values more broadly. Since 2014, I’ve been president of ARM Ministries, an international missionary-sending organization, so I understand the financial and operational side of mission-driven ministry firsthand. And I hold a deep conviction that financial stewardship in a ministry context is ultimately an act of faithfulness. My job is to make sure resources are deployed with clarity and accountability toward the mission, not manage a budget for its own sake.
What are you learning?
Probably the most honest answer is that God’s teaching me to trust the timing I can’t control. Leaving a role without something next in line required a kind of surrender that doesn’t come naturally to me. But, as with other challenges in the past, this experience further deepened in me a confidence that trust in God’s faithfulness and guidance in the present moment is enough, even when the future isn’t yet visible.
I’m also learning what it means to lead from a place of genuine rest rather than striving. Carrie’s steady, grounded faith has been a model for me in this. She has always known how to hold things with open hands; I’m still learning that. I hope to bring some of that posture into how I lead the Ministry Support team and serve the broader NAB family—genuine curiosity before offering opinions, being present before being productive, and grateful for the privilege of doing this work alongside people who love the same mission.
What a blessing it is to be part of the great North American Baptist Conference community. Would you please take a moment to pray for Reid and Carrie Kisling?