wfn.org | AMERICAN BAPTIST NEWS FOR APRIL 21, 1999

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AMERICAN BAPTIST NEWS FOR APRIL 21, 1999
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: RICHARD.SCHRAMM@ABC-USA.ORG)

April 20, 1999

REV. IVAN GEORGE NAMED DIRECTOR OF MINISTERIAL LEADERSHIP COMMISSION
By Eleanor Lundy, American Baptist Educational Ministries

 VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (ABNS)—The Rev. Ivan E. George of Cherry 
Hill, N.J. has been named executive director of the American Baptist 
Ministerial Leadership Commission, effective June 1. Rev. George has 
served as Minister of Mission Support for both American Baptist 
Churches of New Jersey and the Philadelphia Baptist Association since 
1994. In that position he has led American Baptist mission support 
efforts and provided churches with resources for stewardship and 
financial management. 

 Rev. George, known to many persons as “Brother George,” has 
played an active role in American Baptist life for more than forty 
years. A graduate of Florida Memorial College, Saint Augustine, Fla., 
he earned a Master of Divinity degree from Andover Newton Theological 
School, Newton Centre, Mass. and a Master of Religion degree from 
Temple University. His pastoral ministry has included serving local 
churches in California, New York, and Philadelphia, Pa. He has served 
on the staff of American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest 
and American Baptist Churches of Los Angeles. He held positions with 
Rankin Christian Center, Braddock, Pa., a ministry of American 
Baptist Churches National Ministries, and also served with American 
Baptist Churches International Ministries as Area Secretary for 
Africa from 1986-1992. His experience with ecumenical partners 
includes work with the National Council of Churches and the 
Ecumenical Center for Black Church Studies, Los Angeles. 

“Rev. Ivan George demonstrates bicultural fluency and has the 
capacity to bring together a wide variety of theological 
perspectives,” said the Rev. Dr. Aidsand Wright-Riggins, chair of the 
Ministerial Leadership Commission. “More than anything else, Rev. 
George has a heart for pastors and other professional church leaders. 
I am certain that he will do an exceptional job leading our 
denomination in improving the missiological commitment and 
professional competence of our church leadership.” 

 “Ivan George’s broad experience within American Baptist 
Churches USA will be most valuable in this position as the Commission 
coordinates concerns about ministerial leadership on behalf of the 
denomination. We look forward to his leadership,” said Dr. Jean Kim, 
executive director of American Baptist Churches Educational 
Ministries, who served as chair of the search committee for the 
position. 

April 20, 1999

AMERICAN BAPTISTS PARTICIPATE IN TRAINING FOR EFFECTIVE BLACK 
PARENTING
By Eleanor Lundy, American Baptist Educational Ministries

 VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (ABNS)--Three American Baptist educators 
recently participated in an ecumenical training event, held on March 
24-27 in Atlanta, Ga., aimed at strengthening Black families by 
teaching effective parenting skills. Brenda Tribett, director of 
Black Church Education and Children’s Ministries for American Baptist 
Churches Educational Ministries, has been involved in project 
planning and training sessions. Barbara Waller of  First Baptist 
Church, Waukegan, Illinois and Rev. Mylion Waite of Antioch Baptist 
Church, Cleveland, Ohio were also among church leaders who completed 
the training. 

 The event, the first of two aimed at training church leaders 
as consultants in Effective Black Parenting, was part of the Black 
Family Ministry Project, a joint initiative of the National Council 
of Churches (NCC) and ten denominations. The project’s staff team 
hopes to train a total of 50 consultants in effective parenting 
skills.
 
The NCC’s program is a faith-based adaptation of Effective 
Black Parenting, a program created by the Los Angeles-based Center 
for Improvement of Child Care. Effective Black Parenting recognizes 
the central importance of the family in successful parenting, and 
draws on the faith resources, history, and strength of the Black 
family. “We are testing ways this faith-based adaptation can move 
into congregations, for presentation from a Christian perspective,” 
said Josselyn Bennett of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 
chair of the NCC’s Black Family Ministry staff team. 

 Consultants completing the program are committed to working 
with at least two local churches in their regions for a year 
following completion of their training. The program will be evaluated 
by December 2000 for the purpose of recommendation for wider use in 
local churches. 

 Church and Family Together: A Congregational Manual for Black 
Family Ministry, was developed during the initial phase of the Black 
Family Ministry project and published by Judson Press. The manual was 
edited by Rev. Karen Jones Bernstine, staff coordinator for the Black 
Family Ministry Project. More than 100 consultants were trained in 
the first phase of the project.  

 Rev. Dr. Bennie Thompson of Chicago, trainer for this spring’s 
sessions, is a United Methodist pastor who developed the faith-based 
adaptation of Effective Black Parenting for the NCC. A second group 
of consultants will be trained in Nashville during May and June. 

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