Terry Dorsett Completes “An Exciting Decade” as BCNE’s Executive Director: Years With Challenges, Changes, Growth, and Missional Faithfulness
Dr. Terry Dorsett leads a recent BCNE staff meeting
When Terry W. Dorsett was elected Executive Director-Treasurer a decade ago, he outlined a vision for the Baptist Convention of New England that included “engaging ethnic pastors in key leadership roles, increasing our leadership development ministries, [and] building a sense of team ministry.”
The former Vermont church planter and Green Mountain Baptist Association director of missions said another goal for the years ahead would be “enhancing our efforts through the Baptist Foundation of New England to provide additional resources for ministry and partnering with other New England evangelicals who share our love of the Bible and burden for lost souls.”
Dorsett added, “I plan to invest a portion of my time building relationships with pastors and key leaders so that I can hear their real needs and respond accordingly.”
By any measurable standard, he has fulfilled and even exceeded those objectives during his first decade leading the church network that now incudes 380+ churches from Caribou, Maine, to Greenwich, Connecticut.
During the past decade, Dorsett led the BCNE to:
Reshape the network when four of the seven autonomous associations decided to collaborate directly with the BCNE and thus streamline their effectiveness.
Open the BCNE Multiplication Center in February 2024 to equip and encourage church leaders to engage in missionary activity.
Update the name to “Baptist Churches of New England” in March 2022, for the first time since its founding, to give “clarity to what the BCNE truly is and always hopes to be.”
Commence mission partnerships with Baptists in Brazil and Europe, as well as churches in Florida.
Grow the Baptist Foundation of New England’s endowment funds. The total endowed was $80,000 in 2015 and $3,837,082 at the end of the 2024 fiscal year.
Prepare for the next generation of key BCNE staff leaders by creating “Chairs of Ministry” endowments.
A record number of baptisms in recent years: 6,582 since 2022; out of 17,710 baptisms since 2015.
Restructure the BCNE staff and guide the six-state church network through the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Dorsett Notes Faith Commitments and Challenges Encountered
“It was ten years ago [on April 1] that I began my tenure as the executive director of the Baptist Churches of New England. What an exciting decade it has been!” Dorsett commented, as he recounted six of God’s accomplishments in which he had a part:
Terry and Kay Dorsett
Thousands have come to Christ during this decade.
Dozens of churches have been started.
Dozens more churches have been revitalized.
Thousands of church leaders across New England have been trained.
Dozens of pastors and deacons have been ordained.
Friendships have been built.
“It has been an incredible experience. As a relatively young leader, I have the joy of anticipating another decade and a half of ministry in New England before I enter retirement.”
“The decade has not been without its challenges,” he stated:
Changes in denominational funding have resulted in a significantly smaller staff in the organization.
Changes in culture have resulted in less influence in the broader society.
Changes in the economy reduced our financial flexibility.
Good friends have moved on to other places of service, or retired, or passed on to glory.
“The greatest challenge, of course, was losing my wife to cancer. That was something I could’ve never anticipated or prepared for in advance. It is a challenge I am still learning how to overcome each day. But by God’s grace I am learning.”
His wife, Kay, 58, died July 31, 2023, of pancreatic cancer. They married in August 1988. She homeschooled their children, Katie, Taylor, and Jonas, and helped her husband in every aspect of ministry.
“I think God’s doing a great work in New England, and it’s cool that I get to be part of that,” he said.
“Our ethnic pastors and young church planters have really stepped up to the plate to become leaders in the convention, instead of just sitting on the edges, and I think that’s exciting,” Dorsett commented immediately after a recent board meeting.
He also expressed enthusiasm that “native New Englanders are really becoming the leaders of the convention. We’re grateful for everyone from the South. I’m from the South, but I think it’s cool that native New Englanders are becoming the leaders of our network, which is what should happen.”
Appreciation Expressed for Dorsett’s Faithful Leadership
The Board of Directors surprised Terry Dorsett with a giant cake and words of appreciation in recognition of his 10 years of leadership at the BCNE
After the Board of Directors surprised Dorsett with a giant cake and words of appreciation at a regularly scheduled meeting on March 20, Chairman Tim Vamosi, who is pastor of Cider Mill Christian Fellowship, Tolland, CT, said “Terry has been very consistent in everything that he’s done. He shows a passion for the position and for the churches throughout New England. His wisdom has been used by God to guide us and to lead us, to counsel us—and he is beloved and appreciated in every way.”
When asked about how the BCNE has improved over the past ten years, Sandra Coelho, the Leadership Development Director, who currently is the longest serving staff member, said, “I think the biggest thing is that he has brought a lot of energy, and also he has found a lot of different types of partners to work with the Baptist Churches of New England, and we really needed that over the years.
“God has used Dr. Terry Dorsett in every leadership role in New England he has assigned to him, and especially in this role of executive director. Terry’s skills in clear communication, in administration, in fundraising, and in building partnerships have been exactly what the BCNE needed during his (first) decade of leadership,” said Jim Wideman, the BCNE executive director who preceded Dorsett.
“If the Lord tarries, history will show that Dr. Terry Dorsett will be seen as the most influential Executive Director-Treasurer BCNE has ever had because of the expansion of God’s Kingdom under his leadership," added Wideman, who now is retired in Oklahoma.
Close Friends Comment on “The Great Impact He’s Made”
John and Becky Pellegrini of Barre, Vermont, have been among Terry and Kay Dorsett’s closest friends in Vermont. They are charter members of Faith Community Church, the congregation that the Dorsetts planted and that they continue to serve, John as an elder and Becky as a deaconess. The couple reflected recently on what they described as “the great impact he’s made in New England.”
(Left to right from top left) Katie Loveday, who is Terry and Kay’s daughter; Terry Dorsett, who completes ten years at the BCNE on April 1; Logan Loveday, pastor of First Baptist Church, Marlborough, MA; and the Lovedays children: Emery, Ellie, and Lawson.
The Dorsett family moved to Washington, Vermont, in 1994. When they left the previously struggling Washington Baptist Church pastorate, she said, “the church was thriving” and when, a dozen years later he resigned from the Green Mountain Baptist Association to accept the BCNE’s leadership call, “it was a similar situation. In the past ten years, Terry has grown the BCNE and given it financial security in the time that he’s been there.”
“There are bodies there and things happening. Many people have been saved,” Becky Pellegrini added. She also praised Dorsett’s ability to cultivate donors. “There’s concrete evidence of improvement” in the BCNE network.
John Pellegrini reflected on the day decades ago when he and Becky were sitting with Terry and Kay on the Dorsett’s front porch in Barre, as they often did. A plan was hatched that evening to start a Wednesday night youth group in the Dorsett’s home.
He said fifteen people participated in the first weekly meetings, but the group continued to attract other young people, and then “the youth group just exploded and it grew to as many as 100 kids within a period of two or three years.”
John Pellegrini also recalled the time that “Terry arranged a donation, a grant for our [church’s] basketball team. While people will think that might have been a frivolous donation, two of our players got saved the first year we had our basketball team.”