Annual Meeting

April 4, 2011

Annual Business Meeting

The meeting featured a presentation of annual reports from the boards and committees. Mr. Earl Norman, presented the report of the Nominating Committee to elect members to the Board of Directors, the Board of Trustees, and to the Committee on Christian Work. Steve Robinson was presented with a pin indicating that he is a past president of the Boston Baptist Social Union. Mr. John List, Sr. will be the new president for the April 2011 to March 2012 term.

Rev. Kevin Patterson, Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Townsend, gave the Invocation and led us in a moment of silence as we remembered those who passed on to glory this year.

Program

The Committee on Christian Work, who is responsible for the decisions on applications for Christian work grants, highlighted the Christian work of some of the recent grant recipients. Fred Draushke, Chairman of the Committee on Christian Work introduced our guests as each gave a presentation.

Rev. Larry Showalter, Pastor of the Ruggles Baptist Church in Boston, reminded us that Daniel Sharp Ford, the founder of the Boston Baptist Social Union, had been a member of Ruggles. He shared how Ruggles has helped form new churches in the city, by helping them grow and start with space at Ruggles. He recounted how the last time he had spoken to us about the new church congregations at Ruggles, and then shared how some of those churches succeeded and others did not. Dale Karasek, Youth Pastor at Ruggles also shared about his ministry not only at the church but also in the Brookline High School. With support from the grant from the BBSU, Dale has been able to volunteer in activities at Brookline High School, be a coach in sports, and be an advisor in the student led Bible club. This has allowed him to develop mentor relationships with students.

Rev. June Cooper, Director of the City Mission Society of Boston, shared how the grant from the Boston Baptist Social Union has helped in the Humboldt neighborhood with their after after-school program and the summer program for youth. She shared how four church congregations are working together to make a difference in their part of Boston.

Rev. Dr. Mar Imsong, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Multicultural Ministries, gave PowerPoint presentation of the work Multicultural Ministries is doing in helping ethnic churches grow, understand American culture, assist pastors in getting standing in the American Baptist Churches, foster community across cultural lines, summer retreats, festivals and picnics, and one on one counseling.

Mr. Richard Wolf, Director of Finance and Conferencing and Camping for the American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts, showed pictures of boys and girls from Boston churches at winter camp at Grotonwood. A grant from the BBSU helped make this possible. His presentation also showed improvements being made at Grotonwood and Oceanwood. He indicated that the camps are now on better financial footing and ended the year in the black. When talking about Oceanwood he mentioned the CYC, another recipient of a grant from the BBSU.

The Naga Choral Group of Boston Provided the special music for the evening. Nagas are from Nagaland of North East India. In Naga folk tradition, music is the integral part of communication. The Naga sing different songs during festivals, rites and rituals, agricultural work, community and religious events. There are also different ballads that narrate their history, culture, love and admiration between lovers.

In Nagaland, Christians constitute 90.02% of the population, with 80% professing the Baptist faith and thereby earning the sobriquet of “the most Baptist state in the world.” Nagas have a very unique history, politically, religiously,culturally, racially and ethnically. The Nagas are quite distinct from the mainstream Indian population. Ever since India started political independence from the Britishm the Nagas also started self-determination movement. More than two hundred thousand Naga people have been killed in their struggle for independence.

The repertoire of their musical presentation included Naga Christian music in folk tunes, a blended music of Western and Naga folk music that speaks about Naga aspiration for justice, peace and liberation.

In closing the program with the benediction, Rev. Deborah Jackson, brought John List, the BBSU's new president, over to the podium and sang an Irish blessing to him and us.