VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 4/28/10)—In a day devoted to worship and celebration of mission and ministry carried out in the name of Jesus Christ by devoted disciples spanning three centuries, executive director Dr. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins III announced on April 27, 2010, that National Ministries, reclaiming its historic names, will now carry out ministry as American Baptist Home Mission Societies.
Wright-Riggins made the announcement as the organization unveiled a new logo during worship at Mariner’s Temple Baptist Church in New York City. At the site of Mariner’s Temple on April 27, 1832—when it was known as Oliver Street Baptist Church—a number of Baptists attending the Sixth Triennial Convention of the General Missionary Convention of the United States of America for Foreign Mission recessed to the nearby Mulberry Street Baptist Church to found The American Baptist Home Mission Society.
“We are excited about reclaiming our historic names and reaffirming our missional identity by boldly proclaiming ourselves American Baptist Home Mission Societies,” says Wright-Riggins. “Outside of American Baptist circles and often within it as well, we spend a lot of time explaining what National Ministries is. American Baptist Home Mission Societies is much more straightforward and self-explanatory. Our birth names state clearly who we are and what we are called to do in this second decade of the 21st century. We are American Baptists, networked and focused on doing and enabling mission here in the United States of America and Puerto Rico.”
The name represents the joining of the organization founded in 1832 with the Woman’s American Baptist Home Mission Society (founded in 1887) in 1955 and the eventual assimilation of the Baptist General Tract Society, founded in 1824, along with The American Baptist Education Society, founded in 1888, through the absorption of Educational Ministries in 2003. Board President Dr. Clifford Johnson says, “By doing ministry as American Baptist Home Mission Societies, we honor the various threads of our history.”
Morning worship lifted up the legacy of two historical figures in The American Baptist Home Mission Society. Rev. Dr. Al Staggs—a performing artist from Albuquerque, N.M.—presented an original dramatization of John Mason Peck, a founder of The American Baptist Home Mission Society who traveled throughout the early 19th century frontier preaching, teaching and planting churches. Dr. Anthea Butler, associate professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, shared the story of Joanna P. Moore—who devoted her lifetime to working with freed slaves—challenging those present to look at 21st century mission with the same sacrificial perspective.
Lunch at The Interchurch Center featured American Baptist historian Dr. William Brackney—a professor of Christian theology and ethics at Acadia Divinity College in Nova Scotia—who addressed “Heritage & Home Mission: Connecting with 21st Century Missional Synergies.”
The day closed with worship, which included a service of communion and consecration, at The Riverside Church. Rev. Dr. Al Staggs dramatized excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech, delivered at the church in 1967. Dr. Adam Bond—assistant professor of historical studies at Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology in Richmond, Va. —preached, reminding those gathered of the sacrifice of God the King, through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, that offers redemption to all believers as well as a model for ministry and service.
National Ministries’ website is being retooled in conjunction with the organization’s reclaimed name. A redesigned home page as American Baptist Home Mission Societies will launch by April 29 at www.abhms.org and include a new weekly podcast feature: “Home Mission in Action” launches with an interview with Wright-Riggins about National Ministries reclaiming its historic names.
Graphic files of the new logo and a bulletin insert to announce the reclaimed name to congregations will be available on the Web site, www.abhms.org, soon.
American Baptist Home Mission Societies minister as the caring heart, serving hands, going feet and prophetic voice of Jesus Christ, bringing God’s transformative love—through chaplains and pastoral counselors, urban Christian centers, American Baptist-related colleges and seminaries, volunteer mission trips and much more—to individuals, churches and communities across the United States and Puerto Rico.
American Baptist Churches is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with 5,500 local congregations comprised of 1.3 million members, across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God’s mission around the world.