wfn.org | Re: AMERICAN BAPTIST NEWS FOR OCTOBER 26-28, 1996

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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 
Richard W. Schramm, Director (E-mail: RICH_SCHRAMM.PARTI@ECUNET.ORG)

________________________________________________________________________________
__________

UPDATE: OCTOBER 25, 1996
_____________________________________________________________________________

o  Dr. Donald R. Rasmussen, pastor of Phillips Memorial Baptist Church in
Cranst
on, R.I., has been named
executive minister of the American Baptist Churches of Rhode Island. 
Rasmussen 
was elected Oct. 21 by the
region's Board of Mission, which acted on a unanimous recommendation of the
Exec
utive Minister Search
Committee.  He will begin his new responsibilities Jan. 1, succeeding Dr.
Donald
 H. Crosby, who retired earlier
this year.  Rasmussen has led Phillips Memorial Baptist Church since 1975.  He
p
reviously had served as
associate pastor there, and as minister of education at Jackson Street Baptist
C
hurch in Scranton, Pa.
He has been active in ministries of his region, where he has served as a
member 
of the Board of Mission, the
Investment Committee and the Common Ground Conference Planning Committee.  In
de
nominational
responsibilities Rasmussen has served American Baptist Churches USA as a
member 
of the General Board and
its Executive Committee, and as chair of the Board's Credentials and Caucus
Comm
ittee.  He also has chaired
the Corporate Responsibility Committee of the Ministers and Missionaries
Benefit
 Board, and has been a member
of the Board of National Ministries, where he chaired its Social and Ethical
Res
ponsibility in Investments
Committee, among other positions.  Rasmussen holds degrees from Houghton
College
 (B.A.), Gordon Conwell
Theological Seminary (M.Div.), University of Scranton (M.S.), and Andover
Newton
 Theological School
(D.Min.).  He was ordained at Jackson Street Baptist Church in 1964.  His
wife, 
Virginia, also has served as a
member of the American Baptist Churches USA General Board and as a member of
the
 Board of National
Ministries, as well as president of American Baptist Women's Ministries of
Rhode
 Island.  Donald and Virginia
Rasmussen are the parents of two grown sons, Stephen and Robert.  In
announcing 
Rasmussen's appointment, Dr.
Robert L. Carter Jr., president of American Baptist Churches of Rhode Island,
no
ted, "He comes eminently
qualified by both training and experience for this task....  [We] look forward
t
o the many gifts that he brings
under the leadership of the Holy Spirit." The American Baptist Churches of
Rhode
 Island, one of 34 regions
within American Baptist Churches USA, includes approximately 76 churches and
13,
500 resident members.

o  Dr. John J. Jackson, executive minister of the American Baptist Churches of
t
he Pacific Southwest, has
announced his resignation, effective Feb. 15, 1997.  He has indicated plans to
u
ndertake a new church start in
Carson Valley, Nev.  Jackson has served as executive minister since January
1993
 .  Previously in the region he
was senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Oxnard, as well as region
president
, chair of the region's Committee
for New Church Development and co-chair of its Restrategizing and
Restructuring 
Task Force.  The American
Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest includes approximately 270 churches
an
d 57,000 resident members.

96U1025
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____________________________________

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