wfn.org | American Baptist Churches: Chetti Named Executive Minister

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American Baptist News Service_____________________
Office of Communication / American Baptist Churches USA
P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851
Phone: (610)768-2077 / Fax: (610)768-2320
E-mail: RICH_SCHRAMM.PARTI@ECUNET.ORG
Richard W. Schramm, Director
___________________________________________________________________________
_____ __________

June 3, 1996

CHETTI NAMED EXECUTIVE MINISTER
OF LOS ANGELES BAPTIST CITY MISSION SOCIETY

     VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (ABNS)--The Rev. Samuel S. Chetti, former associate
executive minister and director of the Division of Congregational Renewal
and Development for the Los Angeles Baptist City Mission Society, has been
named executive minister of that region, effective June 1, 1996.

     Chetti was elected May 28 by the region's Board of Directors.  He has
served as the interim executive minister of Los Angeles Baptist City
Mission Society since the death of Dr. Emory C. Campbell in January 1995.
Chetti is the first Asian American to lead a region within American Baptist
Churches USA.

     Since 1986 he has been responsible for developing and implementing
congregational renewal and re-start projects in the region.

     Previously, Chetti directed ministries in higher education with young
adults in the American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest, was an
American Baptist chaplain at the University of Southern California, and
served as pastor of the Campus Baptist Church at the University of
California Los Angeles.  He began his ministry in 1971 in ministries to
youth and international students at Temple Baptist Church in Los Angeles.

     He has been a member of the national American Baptist Higher Education
Team and Metro-Christian Education Team, and currently co-chairs the Public
Mission Team.

          He holds degrees in Bio-chemistry and Comparative Religions and
Theology.  Since 1989 he has served on the faculty of the University of
Southern California.

     The Los Angeles Baptist City Mission Society includes 135 churches and
approximately 28,000 resident members.  It also includes a college
preparatory high school and an adult/youth conference center.

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