Leadership Development Director Sandra Coelho Invests in the Endowed Fund That Will Underwrite the Salaries of Future Ministry Training Staff
In March 2025, Sandy Coelho led an ESL training workshop at the BCNE Multiplication Center.
After nearly three decades of ministry, Sandra Coelho, the Leadership Development Director for the Baptist Churches of New England (BCNE), has been pondering the “distant future” when she retires and a successor is named.
Rather than simply contemplating a future with uncertain funding for “the next generation of leaders who will be serving our churches,” Coelho and her husband decided to donate seed money each year to a new BCNE endowed fund that the next person in her key position will come to depend on for a salary.
Discovering and Serving Jesus
When asked about her Christian faith journey, Coelho said, “I was born into a home where church was important to my mother. We were faithful to go to the Catholic church every week. One of my earliest memories was being taught about Jesus by my mother in Sunday School. I knew all the stories and knew that Jesus loved and cared for me, but what didn’t connect was the need for a relationship. I was doing good things so I thought that was my ticket to heaven.”
“It was when I was fifteen years old that a classmate asked me if I was born again,” she continued. “He had the same faith tradition, but he was taking it to a whole new level. He talked to me about a personal relationship with Jesus. I realized that I knew lots of things about Jesus but did not know him personally and I was certainly not putting Jesus first.”
“I was missing God’s best for my life. My classmate shared a “Four Spiritual Laws” tract with me and that night I gave my life to Christ. That was forty years ago—and since then so much has changed.”
Coelho is a church member and leader at Church of the Vine, Carver, Massachusetts, the Boston South Shore community where she and her husband also live. She serves as the Church Administrator and Financial Coordinator and also teaches a weekly women’s Bible study.
A native of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Coelho has been serving in leadership development roles with the BCNE since 1998—the longest-serving BCNE staff member. She and her husband, Gerry, have been married for forty-five years; they have two children and four young grandchildren.
Training Church Leaders
An educator, consultant, and coach, Coelho’s various responsibilities connect her with many leaders throughout New England for the sake of equipping churches.
These include, but are not limited to:
Training church leaders in intentional discipleship best practices.
Partnering with churches to develop small-group Bible studies.
Creating an extensive library of leadership development webinars.
Helping pastors and church leaders flourish in ministry.
Serving through the Multiplication Center, which exists to equip and encourage church leaders to engage in missionary activity.
Teaching about a variety of children’s ministries including Sunday School and Vacation Bible School, which are central to every church’s ministry.
Developing resources for compassion ministries for those struggling with grief, addiction, or trauma.
Guiding church leaders to develop safety and security plans that protect children, youth, and “the most vulnerable” people.
Since, by God’s grace, the BCNE has become a “majority-minority” church network, with more immigrant-ethnic churches than English-speaking churches, one of the many ministries Coelho has nurtured over many years is English-as-a-Second-Language certification training, which she wrote about in a recent article.
Giving to the Leadership Development Fund
“When I began to serve at the BCNE twenty-seven years ago, I certainly was not thinking about my legacy or the distant future, but it looks like it is arriving sooner rather than later! As I reflect on the time I have been serving, lots of things have changed—and one of those is funding streams,” said Coelho.
She expressed appreciation for the BCNE’s “forward thinking in developing a way to ensure that ministry continues long term.”
Future leaders who create, develop, organize, schedule, promote, teach, and implement training seminars, workshops, curriculum, brochures, webinars, and online resources—as Coelho has done for decades—and other administrative and program staff will rely, in large part, on endowed funds.
BCNE Executive Director Terry Dorsett and the Baptist Foundation of New England trustees established “Chair of Ministry” funds last year to underwrite the salaries of nine essential missionary staff.
Coelho encourages New England Baptist churches, supporters, affiliates, and friends to prayerfully consider making a generous investment in the future of leadership training and teaching. She decided to give to the BCNE’s “Chair of Leadership Development” endowed fund on an ongoing basis because:
The fund is a way to give thanks to God for his generosity to me and for giving me a way to serve New England Baptists.
It’s a viable solution for keeping ministry alive in New England for the long haul.
It’s a way for me to honor those who have gone before me and poured into this ministry to leaders.
It’s a way to encourage and challenge others to give for the next generation of leaders who will be serving our churches and,
It gives me a way to invest in something bigger than myself.
Give to a Baptist Foundation of New England Chair of Ministry Endowment Fund
A donor may invest in a particular “Chair of Ministry” endowment or decide to divide the gift equally between nine chairs.
Pastors and their leaders need inspiring and informative training on an array of topics including but not limited to children’s ministry and
VBS, trauma counseling, addiction recovery, ESL teaching, and digital evangelism. The BCNE’s Leadership Development Ministry offers encouragement and assistance as needed.
This article is part of an ongoing series. Click here to read the other “Chair of Ministry” stories.