Boston church and its network make largest ever donation to BCNE
In celebration of the 40th anniversary since its founding, the Berkland Baptist Church network of churches (including Antioch Baptist Church in Cambridge, MA) has made a special gift to the Baptist Convention of New England in the amount of $1 million. This donation represents the single largest gift ever received by the BCNE and will be used to fund church planting, church revitalization and collegiate ministry.
An offering of gratitude
In addition to supporting work in New England, the Berkland Baptist Church network has also made a donation of $100 thousand to the Alaska Baptist Resource Network and $100 thousand to the California Southern Baptist Convention. The decision was made when more than 400 members of the extended church family gathered in Plymouth, Mass., in November 2021 to celebrate the network’s anniversary. Shortly after, it was voted upon and approved unanimously by all eleven congregations.
“As much as 2021 is a monumental landmark year for our church, we give God all the praise and glory,” said Drs. Paul and Rebekah Kim. “We hope and pray that our offering to the three conventions can encourage all local SBC workers to continue laboring tirelessly for the Gospel. May many churches be planted and revitalized so that a great number of souls can be saved in fulfillment of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.”
A passion for churches planting churches
Dr. Paul Kim and his wife, Dr. Rebekah Kim, founded Berkland Baptist Church in Berkeley, Calif., in 1981. Ten years later, they moved to Boston and planted Berkland Baptist Church – Boston, now Antioch Baptist Church in Cambridge, MA. The church continued to plant more churches over the next three decades, including Philadelphia Mission Baptist Church; Worthy Life Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore; Koinonia Community Baptist Church in Long Beach, Calif.; and Frontier Baptist Church in Fairbanks, Alaska; as well as churches in South Korea, the Republic of Georgia, Uzbekistan and the Republic of Armenia.
As a sign of gratitude for how God has blessed and multiplied the church network to include eleven churches in five countries, the churches prayed about how to make their annual Thanksgiving Mission Offering even more meaningful in this 40th Anniversary year. In light of their history, they collected an unprecedented amount this year and followed God’s guidance to give it all away—making donations to local Southern Baptist entities in some of the least-reached areas of the United States for the purposes of church planting, church revitalization and other local ministry.
Supporting New England ministry
Dr. Terry W. Dorsett, Executive Director of the Baptist Convention of New England said, “We are so thankful to Drs. Paul and Rebekah Kim for their gospel faithfulness over the last 40 years, for their ongoing partnership in ministry, and especially for leading their network to make this incredible gift to help expand God’s Kingdom in New England. Many souls will be saved as a result of their ministry, and many new ministers will be raised up because of this special gift.”
Dorsett went on to say, “Though the BCNE Board of Directors will make the final decision, in keeping with the long established ministry focus of the donor network, our current plan is to split the gift equally between church planting, church revitalization, and collegiate ministry and use it over the next three years to push back spiritual darkness and create a healthy foundation for future ministry in those three areas.”
Antioch Baptist Church has been an invaluable member of the BCNE since the church’s founding in 1991. With its long-standing commitment and passion for "churches planting churches," Antioch is consistently in the top five donors to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program in New England, leading the way in local collegiate ministry, church planting, ethnic ministry, and international missions. David Um now leads the church as senior pastor, while Dr. Paul Kim continues to serve as pastor emeritus. Members of Antioch have served in numerous positions in the national Southern Baptist Convention, as well as playing a leading role in collegiate ministry in Boston, where Pastor Um serves as a Southern Baptist Chaplain at MIT and both Dr. Rebekah Kim and College & Missions Pastor Daniel Cho serve as Southern Baptist Chaplains at Harvard University.
