American Baptist Home Mission Societies
at the American Baptist Churches USA Biennial

Friday–Sunday, June 24–26, 2011 San Juan, Puerto Rico

Bookmark this page and visit frequently for updates as American Baptist Home Mission Societies continues to develop Biennial programming that celebrates God’s love, glory and power!

Pre-Biennial Volunteer Opportunities
Wednesday-Friday, June 22–24
Live the power of God's healing love by participating in the pre-Biennial, three-day construction of an outside worship space at Las Cruces Retreat Center. Construction skills are not required; an architect, construction manager and skilled volunteers, all of whom speak English, will be on site to assist volunteers. Housing and food will be provided at Las Cruces; transportation between Las Cruces and the Biennial will also be provided. Volunteer registration fee and housing are covered by an American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS) grant. Volunteers must be at least age 15. Thirty volunteers are needed.

Thursday, June 23
Serve food, distribute clothes and administer health screenings to clients of the neighborhood action center Corporacion Milagros del Amor (CORMA). Volunteers are responsible for their own housing; transportation will be provided between CORMA and the Biennial. Volunteer registration fee is covered by an ABHMS grant. All ages are welcome to participate, including youth. Fifty volunteers are needed.

For more information about either of the Pre-Biennial volunteer opportunities, contact Victoria Goff, national coordinator, Volunteer Ministries, ABHMS, at Victoria.Goff@abhms.org or 800-222-3872, x2449.

Listen to ABHMS national coordinator of Volunteer Ministries Victoria Goff discuss volunteer mission opportunities.

Pre-Biennial Events for Chaplains and Pastoral Counselors
Thursday, June 23
Calling all chaplains and pastoral counselors! Come to the Biennial early for these events designed specifically to recognize and support your life-transforming ministries.

8:30 – 11 a.m.         Chaplaincy and Pastoral Counselors Training Experience
11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. Chaplaincy and Pastoral Counselors Merit Award Luncheon
2:15 – 4:45 p.m       Chaplains and Pastoral Counselors Plenary

Listen to the reverends Paul Clark and Fela Barrueto talk about chaplaincy events and the presence of chaplains at the 2011 Biennial.

Pre-Biennial Training for Latino Pastors (CECALI XXI)
Entrenamiento para pastores y pastoras
Thursday, June 23

El propósito fundamental de CECALI XXI (Centro de Capacitación Ministerial para Líderes del Siglo XXI) es tocar las vidas de nuestros pastores y proveerles herramientas prácticas para ministrar efectivamente y de manera transformadora en sus iglesias y comunidades.

The purpose of CECALI XXI is to touch the lives of our pastors and to provide practical tools to enable them to minister effectively and in a transforming way in their churches and communities.

Talleres (Workshops)

         • Salud y fidelidad en el ministerio pastoral (Desarrollo espiritual del liderazgo pastoral)
         • Resolución de conflictos y manejo de personas conflictivas
         • Pastoral de la juventud (Pastoral para la nueva generación — adolescentes y jóvenes adultos)

8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Seminario Evangélico de Puerto Rico, 776 Avenida Ponce de León
Matrícula (Registration): $20.00

Para más información haga clic aquí.

Judson Press Book Store

Authors’ Reception
Saturday, June 25, 10 a.m. – Noon
You’re invited to meet Judson Press authors and editors, including Manny Santiago and Juan Ángel Gutiérrez, during a reception and book signing at the Judson Press Book Store on site at the Biennial.

Throughout the Biennial, visit the Judson Press Book Store for new releases by a number of American Baptists, including:

• Elizabeth Conde-Frazier's timely bilingual resource Listen to the Children: Conversations with Immigrant Families/Escuchando a los niños: Conversaciones con familias inmigrantes
• When the Spirit Moves: A Guide for Ministers in Transition by ABCUSA regional executives Riley Walker and Marcia Patton
• Ministry with Prisoners & Families: The Way Forward by W. Wilson Goode Sr., Charles E. Lewis Jr., and Harold Dean Trulear
• ABC NJ's Lee Spitzer's Making Friends, Making Disciples: Growing Your Church through Authentic Relationships

American Baptist Home Mission Societies Luncheon
"Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land"
Saturday, June 25, 12:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy a luncheon meal with American Baptist Home Mission Societies, while journeying, via multimedia presentation, to Hyde Park, Chicago—site of not only the University of Chicago, McCormick Theological Seminary, Northern Seminary, and Judson University, but also Hyde Park Union Church, where the reverends Susan B.W. Johnson and Zachary Mills provide a unique multicultural, interracial, multigenerational ministry in a theologically diverse context. Things as seemingly innocent as words—such as church, congregation and community—bear radically different meanings, they observe, depending upon the cultural lens through which they're viewed. While committed to serving a diverse community, Johnson and Mills represent a diverse ministry partnership: black and white, female and male, extroverted and introverted, seasoned and emerging. Offering Taize worship one day and pounding Chicago's mean streets the next (as did President Barack Obama), Johnson and Mills will inspire you to grow and embrace ministry in your own changing context. For more information on Hyde Park Union Church, visit www.hpuc.org.

Listen to ABHMS Executive Director Dr. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins III share his excitement about this luncheon presentation.

Listen to the reverends Susan B.W. Johnson and Zachary Mills discuss their multimedia luncheon presentation.

American Baptist Home Mission Societies Pavilion
Saturday, June 25, 9 a.m. – Noon
Amidst the Biennial’s hustle and bustle, remember to drop by the American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS) pavilion for speakers, panels and resources spotlighting ABHMS’ guiding principles: Discipleship, Community and Justice.

Learn about exciting home mission opportunities and meet American Baptist leaders in the field who are engaged in meaningful, connective and cutting-edge ministries that are making disciples, building community and seeking justice. Talk with Tysha Sellers, executive director of Edna Martin Christian Center, Indianapolis; Kelli Foreman, summer/after school administrator/public educator at Kodiak (Alaska) Baptist Mission; the Rev. Yamina Apolinaris, executive director of Corporacion Milagros del Amor, Caguas, Puerto Rico; the Rev. Dr. Wungreiso Valui, senior pastor of Fort Wayne (Ind.) Baptist Church; the Rev. Adam Taylor, vice president of advocacy at World Vision and author of Mobilizing Hope: Faith-Inspired Activism for a Post-Civil Rights Generation; and Sister Patricia A. Daly, O.P., executive director of the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment.

Listen as the Rev. Marilyn Turner, ABHMS associate executive director of Missional Life and Leadership, shares her excitement regarding Biennial speakers.

The American Baptist Latino Pavilion
"Celebrating God's Mission and the Ministry of Latinos in the ABCUSA Family"
Saturday, June 25, 9 a.m. – Noon
This pavilion will celebrate the work and mission of American Baptist Latinos in the United States and Puerto Rico. We invite all American Baptists to come and see what Latino churches and communities are doing on behalf of the Kingdom of God. It will be an opportunity to also strengthen the relationship between our Latino churches in the United States and Puerto Rico. Along with the wider denomination, we will celebrate and commit to missional opportunities available for "the harvest." For more information, contact Leda Carter, ABHMS' assistant for Latino Ministries, at Leda.Carter@abhms.org or 800-222-3872, x2410.

Pabellón Latino Bautista Americano
"Celebrando la misión de Dios y el ministerio de los latinos en la familia ABCUSA"
Saturday, June 25, 9 a.m. – Noon
Será un tiempo para celebrar el trabajo y la misión de los latinos Bautistas Americanos en Estados Unidos y Puerto Rico. Invitamos a todas y todos los Bautistas Americanos a saborear y apreciar lo que nuestras iglesias latinas están haciendo para el reino de Dios.  Será una oportunidad para fortalecer las relaciones entre nuestras iglesias latinas en Estados Unidos y en Puerto Rico. Además, celebraremos y nos comprometeremos con la gran oportunidad misional de ser partícipes de la gran cosecha. Para más información, contacte a Leda Carter, asistente para Ministerios Latinos: Leda.Carter@abhms.org, 800-222-3872, x2410.

Escuche a la Dra. Laura Miraz, Pastora Laura Ayala y al Rev. Salvador Orellana dialogar sobre este evento en la Bienal del 2011.

Escuche a la Dra. Laura Miraz, Rev. Luciano Márquez y a la Rev. Lydia Rivas dialogar sobre este evento en la Bienal del 2011.

Discipleship, Community and Justice Breakfast sponsored by American Baptist Home Mission Societies
“Hope in Troubled Times”
Sunday, June 26, 7 – 8:30 a.m.
Noted for his legacy of leadership, ministry and social justice, Dr. J. Alfred Smith Sr. brings his message of hope to the Biennial as speaker at the Sunday morning breakfast. Smith is a renowned scholar, an acclaimed preacher and an accomplished author of more than 16 books, including Speak Until Justice Wakes: Prophetic Reflections from J. Alfred Smith, Sr. He is pastor emeritus of Allen Temple Baptist Church, Oakland, Calif., professor of Preaching and Church Ministries at American Baptist Seminary of the West, and past president of American Baptist Churches of the West and the Progressive National Baptist Convention. An advocate of justice, peace and righteousness, Smith speaks out for the poor, the downtrodden, the left-outs and the left-behinds and against such injustices as South African Apartheid.

Your gift from ABHMS: Be one the first 100 individuals to register for the breakfast and receive a free copy of Speak Until Justice Wakes: Prophetic Reflections from J. Alfred Smith, Sr.!

American Baptist Home Mission Societies’ Exhibit

• Back this year by popular demand is ABHMS' "Name that Question" quiz game, featured at various times at the American Baptist Home Mission Societies exhibit. Match wits with your peers on brain-bending facts about ABHMS, Judson Press, mission history, discipleship, community and justice.
• Neighborhood Action Program (NAP) directors and chaplains will be available to chat at various times.
• Showing of video about IMMERSE, the gathering of American Baptist youth slated for 2012.
• Stop by to pick up a "Home Mission Passport" and find out how you can receive a free ABHMS aluminum water bottle and/or ABHMS baseball hat.

Biennial Volunteer Opportunities
Roll up your sleeves for a hands-on volunteer opportunity that allows you to work directly with local individuals and organizations:

Saturday, June 25
Help Brigada del Amor, a community service outreach of CORMA, to perform general maintenance and to paint at Primera Iglesia de Caguas. Transportation will be provided between CORMA and the Biennial. Allages are welcome to participate, including youth. Fifty volunteers are needed.

Saturday & Sunday, June 25 & 26
Go to the exhibit area to prepare back-to-school packages for local children; distribute packages in the community the next morning after worship at Iglesia Bautista Betesda

Sunday, June 26
In the exhibit area, assemble personal hygiene kits for local homeless persons and for those receiving services from CORMA

For more information about any of these volunteer opportunities, contact Victoria Goff, national coordinator, ABHMS Volunteer Ministries, at Victoria.Goff@abhms.org or 800-222-3872, x2449.

Listen to ABHMS national coordinator of Volunteer Ministries Victoria Goff discuss volunteer mission opportunities.

Post-Biennial Volunteer Opportunity
Monday-Wednesday, June 27-29
The blessings of giving time and talent as God’s agents of change continue as you help with general repairs and painting at current facilities as well as to construct new worship facilities at Iglesia Bautista de Aguas Buenas and Iglesia Bautista de Santurce. Construction skills are not required; an architect, construction manager and skilled volunteers, all of whom speak English, will be on site to assist volunteers. Housing and food will be provided at Las Cruces; volunteers are responsible for their own transportation between Las Cruces and the Biennial. Volunteer registration fee and housing are covered by an ABHMS grant. Volunteers must be at least age 15. Thirty volunteers are needed.

For more information, contact Victoria Goff, national coordinator, Volunteer Ministries, ABHMS, at Victoria.Goff@abhms.org or 800-222-3872, x2449.

Listen to ABHMS national coordinator of Volunteer Ministries Victoria Goff discuss volunteer mission opportunities.

Free Downloadable Biennial Resources for Your Church or Ministry

• Bulletin Insert (94kb pdf)
• 8 1/2 x 14-inch poster (128kb pdf)

Visit the ABCUSA Biennial Web site to register now.