BCNE News
The latest news from our network of New England churches. Looking for our New England Perspectives Articles? Click here.
Relief Teams Bring “Help, Hope, and Healing” to Flooded Central Vermont Homeowners for a Second Consecutive Summer
Exactly a year after rain-soaked rivers escaped their banks, filling many basements with mud and many hearts with despair, torrential rain returned July 10 to Barre and other Vermont communities, destroying or causing major damage to more than one hundred homes, according to a preliminary report.
CrossWalk 2024 Recap: Running the Race Together
The verse above is one of the verses we looked at in our Bible study groups at Crosswalk this year. And to me, this verse really captures the heart of Crosswalk. For anyone wondering, Crosswalk is a weeklong Bible camp for middle school and high school students throughout New England, taking place at Nichols College. Youth pastors, leaders, and parents take a week off to chaperone these students - 30 congregations being represented! - and give them a chance to learn the Bible and worship the Lord with other believers.
Antioch Baptist Church Serves the Global Academic Community of Boston and Plants Churches Around the World
An abiding passion to live as disciples of Jesus has attracted a church full of college students, graduate students, and people with advanced degrees to Antioch Baptist Church, which is located in the world-class academic community of Greater Boston.
Brazilians Learn About Multicultural Ministry in a Post-Christian World and Explore New England’s Revival History
Seven church leaders from Brazil traveled to New England in July to explore the benefits and challenges of multicultural ministry in a post-Christian world and return home with fresh ideas on how to effectively serve their neighbors from Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, and other Latin American countries.
Vietnamese Church Makes New England Baptist History While Struggling to Reach Second Generation With the Gospel
A monumental slice of New England Baptist history happened on June 2 when the first Vietnamese church in the Baptist Churches of New England network ordained their first pastor.
Near the ‘Shot Heard ‘Round the World,’ Church Connects Town’s Founding to Current Need for the Gospel
BEDFORD, Mass. (BP) — Ministry in a place that witnessed the first shots of the American Revolution demands an appreciation for history. Trinity Church of Bedford works to honor that connection while hoping to draw residents back to a commitment made long ago.
Lessons Learned by a Massachusetts Pastor Over Decades
It can take decades to grow a thriving church in the spiritually rocky soil of New England, and it can take a lifetime to learn the essential lessons of faithful discipleship. Consider the forty-year ministry of Neal Davidson.
BCNE’s Vacation Bible School Training Draws Church Leaders From 19 States
“When it comes to kids’ ministry I want to soak in every bit of training I can and hear the curriculum taught from different perspectives,” wrote Renee Hauser, an experienced Vacation Bible School leader from North Carolina.
Couple Who Brought Fresh Perspectives to BCNE’s Church-Planting and Partnership-Development Strategies Are Relocating to Florida
Associate Executive Director Hal Haller, who strengthened the Baptist Churches of New England’s church-planting efforts, developed a church “multiplier team,” and led in the creation of an interdenominational partnership to start new congregations, completed his ministry in New England after nearly four years of leadership at the BCNE. He plans to move to Florida later this month to coach business executives.
Kiwanis Club Honors Fellowship Church Granite State with a Community Impact Award
Aaron Cockrum takes seriously God’s challenge to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you . . . and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” Apparently, town officials and civic leaders in Hooksett, NH, concur.
Soft-Spoken Bengali Pastor Combines the Mind of a Scholar and the Heart of a Shepherd
The late Pentecostal scholar Gordon D. Fee, who taught for almost two decades at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA, once told an academic gathering at which he was being honored that he “was spurred on to scholarship in part when he heard a minister say from the pulpit, ‘I would rather be a fool on fire than a scholar on ice’”—which led Fee “to the conviction that it should be possible to be a ‘scholar on fire.’’’
Haitian Leader Does “Whatever I Can to Bring the Gospel” to Migrants in Boston
The urban ministry that W. Ruben Exantus and the thirty Haitian pastors he serves has been anything but predictable in the last few years. The challenges they confront every day have been complicated by the influx of migrants arriving in Boston by the thousands.
New England Reportedly Is the “Only Region Where Southern Baptist Churches Are Growing Numerically”—BCNE Counts 33,664 Baptisms This Century
The “only region where Southern Baptist churches are growing numerically is in New England,” reported Lifeway Research in September 2023. The Baptist Churches of New England Annual Church Profile data for 2001-23 confirm that bold statement.
New England Youth “encounter God in new and fresh ways” through YEC retreat and Quest training
It’s never been easy to be a teenager and today it’s never been more challenging. More than 550 teens and their ministry leaders from 39 churches found solace from the pressures of life when they took part in the Youth Encountering Christ (YEC) retreat January 26-28 in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, and in the twenty-fifth annual Quest discipleship experiences.
A Certified Public Accountant Helps the Baptist Foundation Invest and Disburse Its Endowed Funds to Advance Gospel Witness Throughout New England
When Shaunna M. Varin was invited to join the Baptist Foundation of New England Board of Trustees, she agreed to serve because “I like the unity of purpose among the board members, who are seeking God’s will and discernment on how to be good stewards of the monies that have been entrusted to the foundation.”
BCNE Starts Multiplication Center to Cultivate a New Generation of Pastors and Leaders
A missiological initiative that started inauspiciously with a dream, will likely have a profound impact on the Baptist Churches of New England (BCNE) for years to come, according to Hal Haller, the Associate Executive Director, who was awakened in the middle of the night by a divinely inspired idea to multiply existing training options to cultivate a new generation of pastors and leaders.
After Decades of Ministry, a Church-Planting Pastor Returns to Vermont to Grow a Rural Church and to Mentor Other Pastors
A former hippie, Robby Pitt was so inspired by God after reading a counterculture oral history, Going Up the Country: When the Hippies, Dreamers, Freaks, and Radicals Moved to Vermont (2018), that he moved last summer to the Green Mountain State—for a second time—to be a church-planting pastor.
New England Hispanic Churches Launch Mission Partnership in Spain
Momentum continues in the partnership between the Baptist Churches of New England and the International Mission Board in Europe. This began with a request from IMB Vice President John Brady, who believes that New England churches are best suited to help in Europe because New England and European Baptist churches have similar postmodern ministry contexts.
Retired Houston Pastor’s Birthday Party Continues to Make a Lasting Impact on New England Baptist Students
When many senior adults see a birthday approaching, their thoughts turn to retirement, rocking chairs, health issues, and time with grandchildren. When asked why he does not slow down at age 72, George Moore, a retired pastor who eschews rocking chairs, is reasonably healthy and enjoys thirteen grandchildren, said, “I can’t sit still. I’ve got to be active and engaged. I consider myself to be a people person.” When his seventieth birthday was imminent, he discouraged friends and family from giving gifts. Instead, he took a completely different approach that continues to make a lasting impact on New England Baptists.
Boston Ministry Coordinator Is Developing Leaders With a “Missional Approach for the City”
Joe Souza’s decision to interview pastors in Greater Boston about their goals for urban ministry “was a game-changer” that helped him better “understand the perspective of the people already doing the work.” What he heard helped him begin to shape a cohesive and effective “missional approach for the city.” Baptist Churches of New England pastors said they “need to be involved in some of the big issues around the city” and the region—urgent social concerns such as the epidemics of hunger, homelessness, poverty, and addiction.