wfn.org | ABCUSA: Ministers Council Senate Elects Kutter President

["SCHRAMM, Richard" <Richard.Schramm@abc-usa.org>]

American Baptist News Service (8/27/02)--Thee American Baptist Churches USA
Ministers Council Senate, meeting Aug. 16-21 at the American Baptist
Assembly, Green Lake, Wis., elected the Rev. Joe Kutter as Ministers Council
president and began a process of amending the Covenant and Code of Ethics
for Ministerial Leaders of American Baptist Churches USA. 

 Kutter, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Topeka, Kans., has served as
president of the Michigan and Kansas councils; as a senator and member of
the Executive Committee; and as editor of Minister.  Through 2005 he will
fulfill the term of Sara Day Cheesman, who concluded her service when she
was called to serve as a Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board member
services representative.

Suggested changes to the Covenant and Code of Ethics will appear on the
Ministers Council Web site, www.ministerscouncil.com, and input from
councils will be solicited for the next year.  The senate will vote on
changes in 2003; the amended Covenant and Code of Ethics will be submitted
to councils for the two-thirds ratification required during the following
year.

Sessions focused on the theme of transformation, through worship,
presentations and business.  Worship leaders included the Rev. A. Roy
Medley, American Baptist Churches USA general secretary; the Rev. Brad
Berglund, Educational Ministries' consultant for worship renewal and
pastoral spiritual formation; and the Rev. Harry Riggs, National Ministries'
director of congregational transformation.

The 2002 Ralph Garfield Schell President's Award for Excellence in the
Ministry was presented to the Rev. Georgina Rodriguez Escudero, pastor of
The Rural Baptist Church of Carrizales, Puerto Rico.  A Cuban refugee to
Puerto Rico, Escudero became a public school teacher and in 1974 established
a mission in mountainous southwestern Puerto Rico where there was no church
work. That mission has grown into a church affiliated with the American
Baptist Churches of Puerto Rico, and is in the final stages of completing a
church building that will accommodate 500 persons.  Its next project is to
establish a factory to process farm products, provide employment, improve
living conditions and enhance stewardship possibilities of the church.

Also noted at the meeting was planning for the Ministers Council's
pre-Biennial Meeting event, "Ministry to Millennials," to be held June 27,
2003 in Richmond, Va. The event will feature Bart Campolo, president of
Mission Year, Philadelphia, Pa., and the Rev. John Polite, pastor of
Panorama Baptist Church in Arleta, Calif. 

02ABN126

American Baptist News Service: Office of Communication, American Baptist
Churches USA, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851; (610)768-2077; fax:
(610)768-2320; www.abc-usa.org; richard.schramm@abc-usa.org