CPA Shaunna Varin Invests Seed Money in the Endowed Fund That Will Underwrite for Decades the Salary of Future Rhode Island Regional Coordinators
Randall Curtis, pastor of Frenchtown Church, East Greenwich, Rhode Island, preached an online sermonduring Holy Week 2024. He is the BCNE regional coordinator for Rhode Island.
Shaunna M. Varin, a certified public accountant, invested seed money in an endowed fund that, when fully subscribed, will underwrite for decades the salary of the Baptist Churches of New England (BCNE) regional coordinator in Rhode Island, America’s smallest state by geographical area and one of the least evangelical states by faith commitment.
Rhode Island is also among the most significant for Baptists because of its history. Roger Williams, a Puritan minister and a refugee from religious persecution, planted the first Baptist church in the American colonies. He founded Providence on land purchased from the Narragansett and created the first settlement in North America that was based on principles of religious liberty and church- state separation.
Long-Term Benefits of the Endowed Fund
When asked about the long-term benefits of the Chair of Rhode Island Ministry endowed fund, one of nine staff-focused giving options, Varin referenced the state’s significant history and said, “Those of us in ministry also know that today it is difficult to reach people for Christ.”
Shaunna M. Varin
“Many churches in Rhode Island are seeing a decline in membership or a lack of growth. Although Rhode Island had the first Baptist church in America, it is also one of the most Catholic states in America. That, coupled with the continued cultural shift away from church or faith-based involvement, is also impacting the success of Rhode Island churches in reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ,” she added.
As the New England Baptist News Service reported in March 2024, Varin is the treasurer and an active member of Frenchtown Church, East Greenwich, Rhode Island, where Randall Curtis has been the senior pastor for a decade, since August 2015.
As BCNE’s regional coordinator since October 2018, he meets with pastors for prayer and encouragement. “Relationships are developed that will enhance the unity and partnership of churches working together to advance God’s kingdom in Rhode Island,” commented Varin.
A Baptist Foundation of New England (BFNE) trustee since November 2022, she and the other trustees advise Terry Dorsett, who is both Executive Director and Treasurer of BCNE, on how to best invest and disburse the financial resources the foundation receives from churches and individuals in the region and around the nation.
“BCNE partners with pastors for church planting, church revitalization, and pastoral development. By providing regional coordinators, the pastors can know that they are supported in their ministries of reaching their communities with the gospel of Jesus Christ,” noted Varin, a principal in the middle-market department of DiSanto, Priest & Co., Warwick, Rhode Island.
Investing in Future Regional Leadership
“To help the BCNE support salaries of regional coordinators, the BFNE has established endowment funds that, we pray, will grow to the point of guaranteeing that funds are available in the future for these positions to remain staffed,” she added.
“As a member of a Rhode Island church that is part of the BCNE, I believe this position is important to support pastors and enhance the unity of the Rhode Island BCNE churches,” she added.
In addition to leading Frenchtown Church and BCNE churches in the region, Curtis teaches Koiné Greek for the Ministry Training Network of Southeastern New England and serves Small Town Summits, a ministry that aims “to see the small places of New England filled with gospel-centered, community-engaged churches and Christian workers, for the glory of God. (BCNE cosponsors some of the summits.)
Give to a Baptist Foundation of New England Chair of Ministry Endowment Fund
A donor may invest in the Chair of Rhode Island Ministry endowment or decide to divide the gift equally between nine chairs.
Give to the CHAIR OF RHODE ISLAND MINISTRY
Rhode Islanders live in towns or cities that need gospel-preaching churches. The BFNE started this endowment fund to provide for ministry leadership in the Ocean State, where life can be expensive, difficult, and lonely.
He meets with pastors and visits the twenty-five churches in the Ocean State and in Eastern Connecticut, which formerly were a single entity called the Southeastern New England Baptist Association, or “SNEBA.”
Curtis has long been an advocate of the regional coordinator model adopted by BCNE when four of the seven state associations (Greater Boston, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island) merged their ministries with the “state convention” network of nearly 400 churches for mutual benefit, shared edification, and administrative efficiency.
His primary responsibility is to listen, offer encouragement, pray for, and resource others as needed, rather like a Christian ambassador in keeping with the mandate of Matthew 20:26 (NLT): “Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant...”
“One of my big goals as a regional coordinator,” Curtis commented in a recent interview, “is to make sure that local pastors and churches are encouraged, that people have what they need and, if they need something, I ask them, ‘Is there some way that BCNE can meet that need?’”
The endowed fund is one of nine that, after enough donors decide to invest, will underwrite salaries “for key missionary staff positions that are critical to accomplishing our mission,” wrote Dorsett. “Your generous gift to one or more of our Chairs of Ministry endowments will help us proclaim the gospel across New England until Jesus comes again,” he added.
“As America’s smallest state, it will be more of a challenge for the Rhode Island fund to grow than for other BCNE funds, but we believe God has people in place who love Rhode Island and have the ability to give generously to support our ministry there—and thereby plant seeds for the future growth of the church network where Baptists started in the United States,” Dorsett stated.
Varin also encourages individuals and churches to invest in the Chair of Ministry fund which, she said, will make it “possible to maintain the spiritual support and encouragement of Rhode Island pastors well into the future. Having that position continually staffed will allow for a sense of community, camaraderie, and partnerships that will result in Rhode Island churches working together to spread the good news of Jesus, which will help our Baptist churches thrive well into the future.”
Pew Research’s “Massive” Religious Landscape Study
Among adults in the Providence-Warwick metro area, almost two-thirds (63%) self-identify as “Christian,” a total that includes Roman Catholics (41%), “Evangelical Protestants” (10%), “Mainline Protestants” (8%), “Historically Black Protestants” (2%), Jewish (1%), and Others (1%). Nearly one-third (32%) self-identify as “Religiously Unaffiliated.” The 2023-24 US Religious Landscape Study, published online February 26, 2025, by the Pew Research Center, also reports on “beliefs and practices” and “social and political views.”
Other online research reports give wildly differing percentages depending on the definition used for “Evangelical.” Christianity Today (CT) published an informative article online about Pew’s “massive new survey of the religious landscape,” asking and offering a nuanced reply to an important question: “Who Are Evangelicals?”
The author called the study “the most comprehensive look at religion in the United States, with more than 36,000 people filling out a 116-question survey in all 50 states—shows significant evangelical variety. Evangelicals are diverse: racially, politically, economically, and even in terms of religious practice.”
Pew researchers say their work captures the “complicated reality of religion in America.” They reportedly “sort Protestant denominations into three groups: evangelical, mainline, and Black, based on historical associations. So people who tell Pew they are Southern Baptist are counted as evangelical, people who say ‘American Baptists’ are counted as mainline, and people who say ‘National Baptist’ are counted as Black church,” wrote Daniel Silliman, CT’s senior news editor.
“The Pew study shows notable regional variation among these Christians. More than half of evangelicals live in the South. Less than 10 percent are in the Northeast,” he also wrote.
This article is part of an ongoing series. Click here to read the other “Chair of Ministry” stories.