wfn.org | ABCUSA: Bell Appointed Mission Partnership Coordinator for IM

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

American Baptist News Service (Valley Forge, Pa. 5/3/05)--The Rev. James
D. Bell has been named Mission Partnership coordinator for American
Baptist International Ministries, effective June 1, 2005.  The
appointment was announced yesterday by Rev. Charles Jones, acting
executive director of International Ministries.

Bell comes to International Ministries from Crossway Community Church,
Harrison, Ohio, where he has served as church planter and pastor since
January 1998.  Previously Bell had been youth pastor and minister of
Christian education at First Baptist Church of Hamilton, Ohio, for more
than a dozen years.

In addition to his depth of pastoral experience Bell has been an active
contributor to the health of the larger American Baptist movement,
serving on the new church development bodies of both his local
association and the American Baptist Churches of Ohio, as well as doing
peer group facilitation for National Ministries' Church Planters
Institute.

Bell's passion for mission has been evident throughout his years in
ministry. As a youth pastor he involved students in both local and
international mission projects, including mission trips to the Dominican
Republic and Jamaica. At Crossway Community Church he was instrumental
in sending 12 people on a Discovery Team trip to work with International
Ministries missionaries Ketly and Vital Pierre in Bluefields, Nicaragua.
As a result the congregation is now actively engaged in partnering with
the Pierre's ministry.

"I am excited to see Jim bring his gifts and experience to the work of
International Ministries," said Jones. "We are grateful to have someone
on the cutting edge of ministry in the U.S. come to help guide IM's
growing work with Mission Partnership Networks and the teams that
energize them."

K/2005ABNS/05ABN37

American Baptist News Service: Office of Communication, American Baptist
Churches USA, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851; (800)ABC-3USA
x2077 / (610)768-2077; fax: (610)768-2320; www.abc-usa.org;
richard.schramm@abc-usa.org