News

ABC Tuesday Morning Chapels
Every Tuesday beginning the first week of classes.
10:00 am in Psych. 130
Please join us for fellowship, juice/coffee, snacks and
an opportunity to share, pray and
grow together at the beginning of each week.

UNIVERSITY OF LA VERNE PROGRAM FOR SPRING 2011

             Registration:       January 3 to 14, 2011

             Classes begin:    January 15, 2011

             If you are interested in applying for the Undergraduate Program in Religion &  Philosophy, or Psychology, request an Application Form and we will mail it to you.

CALENDAR FOR THE FALL SEMESTER:

Registration:  August 1-12, 2011

      Classes beging: August 13, 2011

LAY ACADEMY IN SPANISH

A new class will start on May 16, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. in Los Angeles: Mision Bautista El Paraiso, 5100 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA  90037.

                                                                                 SEMINARIAN'S BANQUET

THE ABTC CELEBRATED its 33th event, called "Seminarian's Banquet" on May 14, 2011, at the First Baptist Church of South Gate. The purpose of this event is to gather brothers and sisters from our ABC family and make our students, both from the ULV and Seminary program, visible to them. About 300 people attended this event. Here are some pictures:

On our

ABTC ANNUAL MEETING

February 5, 2011, 

The President of the Board of Directors, Dr. Eduardo Font, made the Following presentation to delegates and visitors:

AMERICAN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL CENTER

MEMBERSHIP ANNUAL MEETING

February 5, 2011

@eduardo font

Almost 23 years ago, on August 1, 1988, the American Baptist Theological Center came into existence. A few weeks before that date, on July 23, the ABC students transferring from the ABSW-Southwest Branch, met for the first time on the property of Fuller Theological Seminary, on Payton Hall, Room 303. Those students, as well as the new generations which would follow them, were the immediate reason for the ABTC creation. The enthusiasm and commitment of those students and of their president Robert Wilkins, the present and future theological needs of Southwest ABC churches and the mandate of our Lord, generated in us the vitality to dream, project, labor and serve.

Addressing the people present at the 84th Annual Meeting of the American Baptist Churches of Los Angeles, on May 5, 1990, I reminded them that we American Baptists have excelled in several areas of Christian ministry; however, with the exception of the University of Redlands created in 1909, in the area of higher education and particularly in theological education, we had made serious mistakes in Southern California.

I reminded them that in 1887, the Los Angeles Baptist Association founded the Los Angeles University which closed in 1893.  As a way of mitigating the loss, Dr. Daniel Read, pastor of First Baptist Church of Los Angeles, founded a Bible school which did not survived his death. It closed in 1898.

Twenty three years later, in 1921, the Spanish American Baptist Seminary was established as a collaborative effort of three institutions: the American Baptist Home Mission Society, the State Convention and the Los Angeles Baptist City Mission Society. Its doors were closed in 1964.

In 1944, the California Baptist Theological Seminary was organized, but closed thirty years later, in 1974. After four years, in 1978, the Southwest Branch of the American Baptist Seminary of the West opened its doors and closed them ten years later, in 1988. 

1988 was a year of deep frustrations and exciting hope. Desiring to assume responsibility for the theological education of at least 59 students from the Branch and future students who the Lord would call to serve our churches, and above all, believing that that was God’s will, prominent pastors, committed regional leaders and supporting church representatives, decided with determination and faith that accredited theological education for American Baptists should continue in Southern California. The doors of a new institution, the American Baptist Theological Center, were opened in August 1, 1988.

A few months before August 1, a Committee of Nine was formed; Rev. William Ebling was appointed its chairperson. With the charge to resolve the created crisis, Rev. Ebling and I approached Fuller Theological Seminary.  After a few meetings with its President, Dr. David Hubbard, and with the Dean of the School of Theology, Dr. Robert Meye, Dr. Cecil Robeck visited our Branch in Covina. Having a close and satisfactory observation of our operation, we we re able to form with Fuller Seminary a partnership beneficial to them and to us. At the same time, we were permitted to include the University of La Verne program I had negotiated with the University in 1983.

The special considerations from these two institutions, the Seminary and the University, allowed us then and allow us now, to offer our American Baptist constituencies a first rate quality accredited education at an affordable cost.  Since the organization of the ABTC, almost twenty three years have passed. Hundreds of students have populated our classrooms and graduated from one or both of these two schools. The majority of them are serving in Southern California; the rest of them are in other states or in foreign fields.  We have graduates in Mexico, Bolivia, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Bethlehem and Gaza and China, as well as in other places. At the present time we have registered more than one hundred students. 

There is a popular saying which says that history tends to repeat itself.  We are here today to demonstrate that, with God’s help, that saying is not true anymore in the history of our theological education.  We are here today to stay; to agree that our American Baptist work can not afford another disastrous institutional accident. We are here to break that negative and pernicious pattern of opening and closing theological programs.

In the name of present and future generations, I challenge you as individuals and church or institutional representatives, to join me and the new Board of Directors to make the American Baptist Theological Center our first mission project; after all it is our Jerusalem. In the name of those who will believe in Jesus through the word of the Center’s graduates, I challenge you to give sacrificially to our only regional theological educatio nal institution.

I challenge you not only to preserve the Center, but to work toward a betterment and development of its finances, faculty, student body and programs.

I challenge you to allow the Spirit of God to inflame your hearts and move your wills with the passion, zeal and generosity of the ABTC fathers, some of whom are already witnessing if we, who are still here, are running “with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at  the right hand of the throne of God” (He 12:1-2).

May God be gracious to us by helping you and me and the American Baptist people of this Region to live up to the challenges of the hour. To Him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

GRADUATION FROM FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY - June 2011

From left to right: John Lee, Pisey Sok, Bridget Casey, and Fabian García

From left to right: Lilian Puga, Administrative Assistant, James Carlson, and Camilo Gonzalez

From left to right: Pisey Sok, Fabian Garcia, & Bridget Casey

 Bridget Casey