Ray Allen: A New England church planting pioneer
When Ray Allen was 13 years old, God called him to a life of ministry. Convinced that this calling would mean working as a pastor, missionary, youth minister, music minister or education minister, Ray began running from the Lord. Little did he know, God would lead him down a path of serving in each of these roles and more over a 51-year ministry in New England.
A prodigal returns
Allen was born Sept. 20, 1945, to a faithful Christian family in St. Petersburg, Florida. After his experience with God as a young teen, Allen lived a rebellious life for seven years until, at 20, he was kicked out of Bob Jones University and his fiancée broke off their engagement. Alone and in despair, Allen hit his knees, cried out and asked God for forgiveness.
“He forgave me and reissued my call,” Allen said.
Upon returning home, the people in Allen’s childhood church saw the difference in his life. In fact, what Allen describes as a “mini-revival” started in the college and career Sunday school class. After a short time of working at home, his grandmother offered to send Allen to Toccoa Falls Bible College, where he grew in his faith and met his future wife, Carolyn.
Early years in New England
Now committed to becoming a minister, Allen moved to New England to attend Gordon Divinity School in 1969 with Carolyn and their 7-month-old daughter, Michelle. For the first several years, the Allens moved frequently, often serving as live-in help for wealthy families in exchange for room and board. Ray also took part-time jobs pumping gas and flipping burgers.
Sometime during Allen’s second year at the newly formed Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, the family was offered a one-year contract to serve as youth directors for the Salvation Army Corps in downtown Lawrence, MA. During those twelve months, they helped grow the youth group from 30 students to 300.
Around this time, Allen had a divine appointment. Edith Lawrence, the church extension director for the Baptist General Association of New England, knocked on their door and introduced herself. She had heard about Allen and wondered if he would be interested in helping start a church in the Lawrence area. At the time there were less than 25 Southern Baptist churches in all of New England.
“We said yes, and she became my church planting mentor,” Allen said. “She taught me all I know about church planting.”
In addition to gathering people for a new church plant and attending seminary classes, Allen worked as the interim Sunday school director at Ft. Devens army base in Ayer, MA, and the family attended New Colony Baptist Church in Billerica on Sunday evenings. The Allens were also recommended for another live-in situation where Carolyn did housework and babysat while Ray took care of landscaping and snow removal on the grounds. They stayed in an apartment above a four-car garage.
When the pastor at New Colony resigned, the deacons asked Allen to consider becoming their interim pastor.
“I told them I didn’t know anything about being a pastor, but if they would help me, I would serve the church,” Allen said. “They backed me up 110 percent.”
The church had been meeting in a doctor’s home which contained an office space. During 18 months under Allen’s leadership, New Colony grew from about 40 to 150, in addition to breaking ground and dedicating a new church building. Allen also graduated from seminary with a masters of divinity in religious education in 1972.
The first church plants
During this time, the Allens had started a Bible study in Lawrence, and the new church plant was holding services at a YMCA building in North Andover. Handing over his duties to the newly affirmed pastor at New Colony gave Allen more time to focus on mission churches, doing things like holding services on a flat truck in a grocery store parking lot. The first church plant constituted as Judson Memorial Chapel in 1974. In addition, the Allens started a second church plant, New Life Chapel, in Dracut, MA. By 1977, Judson Memorial had grown to 125 people and was ready to build or purchase a church building, while New Life was running about 30 people.
Feeling called to plant churches rather than lead established churches, Allen left Judson Memorial and took an opportunity with the Home Mission Board (now North American Mission Board) to serve as a church planter in the South Shore and Cape Cod area of Massachusetts. Two local families had expressed interest in starting a church, and together the three families called their ministry South Shore Church Extension Ministries.
The early work of starting a church often consisted of knocking on doors, completing surveys, inviting people to Bible studies and asking to pray for people. One of the first churches the Allens helped start was Chatham Baptist Church in Chatham, MA. While going door to door one afternoon, Allen planned to take a lunch break but felt God pressing him to continue down a particular street. He knocked on the door of one of the last houses and introduced himself to the woman who answered. After staring at him for a moment, she disappeared, then came back and invited him into the home. Gathered in the back was a group of about six women who told him they had been praying for ten years, asking God to send someone to start a Bible-believing church in their town.
Other churches started during this time included Faith Baptist Church (now Church of the Vine) in Carver, MA; Victory Baptist Church in Marshfield, MA; and Bourne Baptist Fellowship in Bourne, MA. Allen also helped Bob Remick lay the groundwork for a church plant in Hanover, Fellowship Baptist Church, and worked with Ivan Watts on a church plant in the Fairhaven/New Bedford area, which later become Haven Baptist Church.
“Many times I thought how good God was to take a prodigal and use him,” Allen said. “Our testimony is that God grew the churches and made us look good!”
A leader in the convention
In 1983 Allen was asked to be the evangelism director for the Baptist General Association of New England, which later became the Baptist Convention of New England. For twenty years, Allen led ministries in evangelism, youth evangelism, brotherhood, stewardship and Disaster Relief. He also filled a variety of other roles, serving as interim pastor in numerous churches and interim director of missions for the Maine Baptist Association. Additionally, the Allens worked with Charleen Ratlif, Ray’s secretary, and her husband, Bob, to start another church, Faith Baptist Church in Milford, MA (now Faith in Christ Church in Mendon). In all, Ray and Carolyn personally started or helped start nine churches throughout Massachusetts.
Allen retired from the BCNE in 2003, but became the interim director of missions for the Greater Boston Baptist Association. In 2005, he was asked to serve as the interim director of missions for the Massachusetts Baptist Association. The association made him the full-time director of missions in 2008, and he served there for another ten years. During this time, Allen also served as the BCNE’s property manager until his final retirement in March 2020.
The BCNE would like to thank Ray Allen for so many years of faithful service to Christ. Allen is truly one of the pioneers of Southern Baptist work in New England, and the members of our staff are grateful for the opportunity to know and work with this humble, dedicated servant of God.
Kimber Huff is the communications coordinator for the Baptist Convention of New England.