Staff
Director of Women’s Ministry
Julie Burson
Julie Burson joined our staff in January 2025 as CGS’s first Women’s Ministry Director — a significant milestone in the life of our church. Julie has a teaching degree and has served as the librarian at Trinity School for the past several years. She has been a member of CGS for 15 years, participating on the women’s ministry steering committee, teaching children’s Sunday School, and serving as VBS director, among other things. She and her husband, Kris, currently lead a…
Assistant Director of Communications and Youth Ministry
Caroline Garrett
Caroline Garrett couldn’t be more grateful to work alongside our middle and high school students, and to serve with our staff on the communications team. She grew up here in Durham, and has now been a member of CGS for over twelve years. After pursuing a biology degree at Grove City College, she moved back to NC and loves getting to spend time with students in God’s word and with one another. When not at Cookout, she enjoys hiking the…
Interim Receptionist
Jessica Mason
Jessica grew up in Charlotte, NC and moved to Durham and CGS after marrying her husband, Levi. She has worked as a wedding photographer since 2020 and has served as a sound tech at CGS since about that same time. God called Jessica and Levi to work at CGS in 2024 after they decided to develop church software. In her role at CGS, Jessica enjoys developing systems and workflows to bring organizational clarity to the office. Jessica’s other hobbies include…
Interim IT Director
Levi Mason
Levi grew up in Charlotte, NC. He has been at CGS ever since college and has long been involved in the music ministry and sound team. In 2024, after working 15+ years as a software developer at a tech company, Levi quit his job in order to pursue a career developing church software with his wife Jessica. Shortly thereafter, God called Levi and Jessica to work at CGS. His passion for serving others by redeeming cumbersome, confusing systems makes him…
Director of Music Ministry
Matt McClure
Matt McClure’s first foray into church musicianship was in his 4th grade year on the stage of a little Presbyterian church in Knoxville, TN. Even then, he knew he was made to play music, and he focused his studies on that pursuit. In 2003, the McClures moved to the Triangle for Matt to work at UNC-Chapel Hill as one of the band directors and the saxophone teacher. In 2013, he started working part-time in the music ministry of Church of…
Director, Strategic Implementation
Julie McKeel
Julie McKeel moved with her husband Dale to Durham in 1989 and started working at Duke University, expecting to stay for two years while Dale completed his graduate degree. Thirty-five years later, she retired from Duke and almost immediately joined the staff at CGS! Julie and Dale become CGS members in 1989 and have served in a variety of roles, ministries, and programs over the years. While at Duke, Julie held multiple leadership positions focused on providing strategic, creative, and…
Director of Children’s Ministry
Bethany Porter
Bethany Porter is full of joy to be serving in the role of Children’s Ministry Director. She grew up as a missionary kid in Guinea, West Africa, spent late high school and college years in Ohio, then moved to Durham with her husband, Zach, and two children, Julia and Isaac. She has been a member of CGS for over twelve years, and has since added two more children to her family: Vincent and Caius. When she’s not hunting down strange…
Nursery Director
RiLee Robeson
RiLee Robeson was born and raised a proud Navy kid and moved coast to coast her whole life, with many treasured seasons in the southwest. RiLee attended Covenant College to pursue a degree in biology and while attending, met her husband, Alex. In 2009, Alex and RiLee moved to Durham where Alex attended graduate school and RiLee worked in research. Now CGS and Durham have been their home ever since! After having their second son, RiLee stepped away from research,…
Finance Assistant
Cindy Yancey
Cindy Yancey joined the church staff in 2024. She graduated from UNC with a degree in education. After a career as a middle school math teacher, Cindy finds the church office environment to be an engaging and challenging place to work. She enjoys the supporting the business operations of CGS and especially appreciates the community of the staff and congregation. Cindy moved to Durham with her husband Jeff from the Asheville area a couple of years ago to be near…