Bonita Joyner Shields, Associate Director, North American Division Stewardship Ministries, Columbia, Maryland
Bonita Joyner Shields currently serves as the Associate Director of Stewardship Ministries for the North American Division. She served in the General Conference Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Department from 2007 to 2015, where she was as an editor and assistant director of discipleship. Prior to joining the SSPM staff, she served for five years as an assistant editor of the Adventist Review, and for almost seven years as an associate pastor of the Spencerville Church in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Pastor Shields holds the distinction of being the first full-time female pastor in the Chesapeake Conference and the first female pastor for the Spencerville Church. On January 19, 2002, she was commissioned as a minister of the gospel in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Pastor Shields received her undergraduate degree in theology at Columbia Union College (now Washington Adventist University), and her master’s degree in pastoral ministry from Andrews University. She is the author of the book, Living in a Man’s World: Lessons I’ve Learned (and even some I haven’t), published by the Review and Herald Publishing Association in 2013.
Pastor Shields counts it a privilege to live out her pastoral calling at the North American Division headquarters, where she has the opportunity to minister to God’s people throughout the territories of Bermuda, Canada, Guam/Micronesia, and the United States. She believes that an understanding of our identity in Christ as stewards will help God’s people live more joyfully and generously.
Bonita lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with Roy, her husband of 32 years.