(By: Rev. Mindi Welton Mitchell)

I had the honor and privilege of accepting an invitation, along with four other Regional Executive Ministers and staff, to visit The Border Church and other related ministries along the US-Mexico Border. Our group was met by Rev. Seth Clark, pastor of First Baptist Church of National City, California and with The Border Church, and Rev. Deliris and Moise Carrión-Joseph, our Global Servants through International Ministries who serve in Tijuana, Mexico.

I’m still struggling to put into words everything we experienced. We began by visiting with deported US Veterans. These are (mostly) men who were in the US legally. The current director of the Deported Veterans organization in Tijuana came to the US before he was six months old and doesn’t speak Spanish. They came to the US with green card status and served in the US Military and received honorable discharges. But due to struggles after war with PTSD, some got into trouble with drugs or other such crimes and once they served their prison time, they were deported.

We visited three different migrant shelters, two of which are Baptist churches that have converted their space to also house migrants, and one shelter which houses LGBTQIA+ migrants that have come from around the world. We also visited Deborah’s House, a domestic violence shelter for women and children supported by International Ministries. We were told some horrific stories of abuse, but also the love and peace that has been shown by those who work in the shelter. They shared deeply personal stories of how they have experienced the transformative love of God in a place that loves them unconditionally and accepts everyone as they are. We also learned about a new migrant ministry that Moise is helping with Haitian refugees in Tijuana to receive education and technical training, and one of the church shelters is specifically helping the Haitian migrants who have come to Tijuana but have been denied entry into the U.S.

On Sunday, we participated in The Border Church, a church that began in 2011 at Friendship Park. Friendship Park was established in 1971 by First Lady Pat Nixon as a place where people of the two countries could come together in friendship, but in 2006, the US Federal Government seized the park by eminent domain from the State of California and constructed a fence through it. Friendship Park is a place where people with family and friends on the other side of the border can come together and meet, and over the years, the chain link fence has become a wall, then a larger wall, and today, two walls to keep people separated. However, there is a gate on the US side and in 2011, Border Patrol began opening the park again on the US side for a few hours on Saturdays and Sundays. A Methodist pastor began meeting there and offering communion through the slats of the wall. Other pastors and volunteers from many denominations (or none at all) came to help. Then metal meshing was added, so they began only sharing the “kiss of peace” by touching pinky fingers through the wall. Since Covid, the park has been closed, with no plans to reopen, so the migrants on the US side gather in another space and join by phone for a few minutes at the beginning of the service.

I had the deep pleasure of being invited to preach, with my friend Rev. Doug Avilesbernal of the Evergreen region of ABC translating. My friend Rev. Mary Hamel of Massachusetts led us in communion. We gave each other the sign of peace by connecting our pinkie fingers, but perhaps the most powerful moment was the prayer of confession, in which we set our hands on the wall and confessed where we have gone astray, individually and collectively. We also prayed at the end of the worship service for a migrant member of the LGBTQIA+ community who had died on Friday. You can view the service here (it is about 40 minutes long in total, and please note that Facebook will delete the video after 30 days).

This is the power of God’s love. This is a place of separation and violence (there are makeshift memorials to migrants who have gone missing and have died crossing the border) but on the Mexican side it is a fiesta. There are vibrant paintings and the garden continues to be built. We worship together and all are welcome. Casa de Luz, the LGBTQIA+ shelter, provides the meal for the church. Our friend from the US Deported Veterans organization attended (and it turns out, he lived in Fond du Lac, loves Wisconsin, and hopes to visit again someday if he is able to!).

What I am still processing is the awesome power of God’s love we witnessed. The sense of peace the people we met with have, and the sense of God’s purpose. We truly experienced a welcome and witnessed the welcoming power of love in the name of Jesus. No one is turned away. All are welcomed as they are, and it is God’s love that has transformed these people.

I’d love to come to your church and share more about these ministries. I also hope to have Deliris and Moise visit us in 2026 here in Wisconsin when they are on home assignment, but also to plan a future region trip to visit the beautiful people of Tijuana and to help share God’s love and the stories of God’s people. For God is doing something amazing in Tijuana, and I believe that it may inspire us to broaden our partnerships and care for the most vulnerable among us in Wisconsin.

Rev. Dr. John A Jones IV – ARM-Education

Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;
his appearing is as sure as the dawn;
he will come to us like the showers,
like the spring rains that water the earth.  ~Hosea 6:3

               Several years ago there was a meme going around from the popular television show “Game of Thrones”: “Winter is coming.” I don’t know for sure what it meant in the show because I didn’t have HBO, but I did pick up on how people used the phrase. I think it was meant as an ominous warning of looming dark times. “Hard times are coming. Better get ready!”

As I look around today, there’s a foot or more of snow on the ground. The wind chill is in negative double-digits. And lately I’ve had to warm up my car in my garage, just so that the garage door will work. I think winter is HERE.

And there are a lot of people going through hard times right now. Some of our most vulnerable brothers and sisters are living in fear. Some have lost jobs for no apparent reason. Some are afraid to go to the grocery store. Some have had their very identity “defined” out of existence. Many are becoming afraid, either of a strong-arming government or of other brothers and sisters justifying violence. These are dark times.

But Christians who know the Jesus of the gospels know that dark times aren’t permanent. We know that Easter is coming. Winter is here, but spring will soon follow. And the God of life and love cannot be thwarted forever.

Easter is coming. But we have to go through difficult darkness to experience light. We have to gather our resources and survive the winter. Lent begins this month. In the face of fear, we have to be disciples of Jesus, not just admirers. I read something on Facebook that said, “It’s much easier today to say ‘Jesus died for my sins’ than to say ‘Jesus was killed for standing up to evil.’”

As disciples of Jesus, let us be encouraged during these cold, dark times to follow what Jesus DID and SAID in the gospels. Let us trust the God of life and love and resurrection who is more powerful than any winter. Take up your cross and stand with those who are fearful in full confidence of the Lord of life and love.

By: Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell, Regional Executive Minister

Pete Seeger wrote this song in 2010 at the age of ninety, in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Born in 1919, the folk singer and activist was known for his antiwar anthems and songs for racial justice, and helping to popularize “We Shall Overcome” during the civil rights movement of the sixties.

Nonetheless, it is this song, the last anthem that he wrote (he died in 2014 at the age of ninety-four) that has been in my mind lately. With all the turmoil in the world, the anger and rage, the real life concerns that many in our churches are facing right now, I’m reminded of these simple words:

When we look, and we see,

Things are not what they should be,

God’s counting on me, God’s counting on you.

Representative John Lewis (Civil Rights Leader and an American Baptist) is known to have made popular the phrase, “When you pray, move your feet.” When Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel participated in the Selma to Montgomery voting rights march with Dr. Martin Luther King in 1966, he was asked, “Did you find time to pray?” His response? “I prayed with my feet.”

We may feel helpless, even hopeless, at times, with the pain and suffering occurring right now. We may also feel the urge to draw inward, to think that what happens in the world is out of our control, so the only thing we can do is turn to God. I believe that God is calling us to repent and turn back to God, and at the same time to go forward with God into this broken and sinful world that desperately needs the Gospel, the Good News. Indeed, this was Jesus’s first sermon:

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:16-22).

Christ came to bring good news to the poor, and right now, programs are being cut or eliminated. Christ came to proclaim release to the captives and instead we are detaining and deporting people. Christ came for the recovery of sight to the blind—whether we read that as assisting those with disabilities or helping us to see our neighbors in need—we cannot look away and cannot be silent when the most vulnerable among us are harmed. Christ came to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Instead, we are hearing of plans of forcibly removing Gazans from their homeland to build resorts.

You might be reading this and wondering, “Rev. Mindi, you’re getting too political.” The separation of church and state is foundational to who we are as Baptists, but we should never separate faith from our politics. Faith informs how we vote. Faith informs how we act. Faith informs how we call our legislators and representatives and support policies. Churches have supported public policies for years, whether you personally agree with them or not, such as women’s right to vote, abolition, abortion, and public education. We know that no political party will ever truly live out the Gospel. But as faithful people we must speak out against politics and policies when they are in direct opposition of our call to live into the Gospel as Jesus directed.

Our God isn’t passive, sitting back and letting things fall into place as God has foreseen. Our God is active. Why else did God send Jesus, the Only Son, into the world? To save us. That is an action of an active God. And in turn, Jesus also was active in this world. He sent out the disciples two by two to share the Gospel, the good news:

Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere (Luke 9:1-6).

When we look at what Jesus sent the disciples out to do, and what he is calling us to do, this is a ministry of healing and hope. Only when they are fully rejected do they shake the dust off their feet. And there are times we will face rejection in what we do. But we are called to go share the Gospel, to bring good news to those who are in economic hardship, to live into healing and hope, to visit those who are imprisoned and be in solidarity with the oppressed.

Because God’s counting on me, and God’s counting on you.

Watch the video with Pete Seeger here.

Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell – Regional Executive Minister

By now you probably know that we have moved our Regional Office, having sold our building in Elm Grove and relocated to Wauwatosa in a nice office building. I won’t go into all the details, but after many years of maintaining an old building, a shrinking staff and different needs of the region, it made sense to rethink our needs and how we can best support our ministers, ministries, and congregations.

Change is difficult—we all know that—and change is necessary. We know that the church in the United States has gone astray from God’s purpose for us. True change means transformation in Christ. It means getting down to the core of your purpose, your vision and ministry, who God has called you to be, and reorienting yourself back to God.

The vision of the American Baptist Churches of Wisconsin is “to engage with churches, ministers, and ministries in collaborative and transformative work with our local and global communities by modeling integrity, pursuing justice, and fostering resilience while affirming the sacred worth of each person as beloved in Christ and by His church.” In order to engage our churches, ministers, and ministries in collaborative and transformative work, we have to listen so we can change. We’ve heard your need for more support for youth and young adult ministries and leadership. We’ve listened to the desire for more engagement with digital ministry. And we’ve also noted the need to help churches in revisioning and rethinking purpose and ministry.

We are reconfiguring our regional staff and support. We are shifting a focus to Next Generation ministries, which means both the next generation of your church will become as well as youth and young adult ministries. We are prioritizing opportunities for learning to engage with digital tools and in digital spaces. And we are listening to our ministers and congregations when it comes to where we need to pursue justice. As a region, we have encouraged social action when necessary to speak up for the most vulnerable, especially for our Baptist siblings in the Republic of Georgia, for Christians in Burma, and raising awareness of religious nationalism at work in the United States, India, and around the world.

We’d love to listen to you. Please don’t hesitate to invite me or a Regional Staff team member to visit your church, to bring greetings and/or preach, and to listen. In the meantime, stay tuned for an Open House invitation to our new office in Wauwatosa; we’d love you to visit.

Epiphany takes place on January 6, marking the arrival of the Magi and the revealing of Christ to the world. It falls in the first week of our new year, and is a wonderful alternative to the festivities and resolutions of New Year’s Day. Instead, it’s a reminder that this is what we are called to do—to follow the light, to reveal the light to the world, and to live into the light—which may lead us down a road we didn’t expect. Just as the Magi in Matthew 2:1-12 were warned in a dream not to go back the way they came but to return home by another road, so we sometimes must shift our expectations.

Ironically, as I write this, we are in the midst of moving the regional office after 59 years in Elm Grove (we are moving to 1011 N. Mayfair, Suite 205, Wauwatosa WI 53226). I knew we couldn’t keep doing what we were doing, having an office space much larger than what we needed, with the maintenance and repairs that would need to be completed in order to remain in the same too-large space. We will never again need the size of staff the regional office once contained. Central Seminary, which once held its satellite campus with us, moved most of its courses online, as did most seminaries during the pandemic. We are embodying a larger shift among churches in the United States and heading out on a new journey. The resources from the sale of the building will be used for supporting and growing new ministries in the region.

Most of our church buildings came from an era of planting and growth. During the 50’s and 60’s, many churches built an “education wing” adjacent to the sanctuary with offices and classrooms. We now know that church attendance peaked in 1960. Church buildings will never look like they once did. However, this is good news, because church buildings can be flexible. The building is not the church, the body of Christ is, and that can include our neighbors down the street and in the surrounding community, if we share Christ’s love. The building can be used for Christ’s mission in so many ways: food pantries and community meals, community centers with different community partners, spaces for choirs and musical groups and artists, childcare centers—the list goes on. Many of you here in Wisconsin are already sharing with others and partnering with organizations to connect with the community surrounding your building.

Nonetheless, I wonder if some of our ministries and churches are stuck in spaces that no longer fit them. There are many ministries that meet online now, and people are finding ways of connecting to congregations across the country. What started in the pandemic has continued to grow and change. I spoke with one pastor recently about how to help people who may be far away connect in discipleship. While they may worship online and participate in Bible Study, those who are not in-person for worship still need to find a way to connect to the physical community they are in. We’re still figuring out the role of online ministry, but it is real, and it’s not going away. I’m not suggesting it replaces our need for a building, but thinking outside the box and doing ministry together in digital spaces can also expand our thinking about ministry in physical space. Perhaps a classroom can become a digital studio, or a breakout space for hybrid Bible study, or a space for afterschool tutoring or digital learning.

As we move into 2025, we’re still figuring out what regional ministry looks like, with all of you. We know it’s supporting our churches as they look for pastors and navigating congregational transitions and questions. We know it’s resourcing new leaders in our ministries. We know it’s caring for God’s creation at Camp Tamarack and elsewhere, including our parks and gardens. And we know that God is calling us into seed planting new ministries to share the light. But we don’t know exactly what that looks like yet. I’m comforted that the early church didn’t know, either, except to worship and fellowship together, care for one another’s needs, and have the goodwill of their neighbors (Acts 2:43-47). This was before Paul began his ministry, before the house churches were planted in the New Testament. Before churches began building their own buildings and determining orders of worship and organizational structure, they followed the work of the Spirit. They followed the light and shared the light of Christ by loving their neighbors.

In this new year, may we follow the light of Christ, reveal the light in the shadows of hopelessness and despair, and live into the light that shines in us as followers of Jesus. May we not be afraid of going on a different road than we expected. May we be open to being surprised by the Holy Spirit at who God may be calling us to do ministry with. And may we help one another by praying for one another (see the prayer calendar to pray for each church and pastor through the year), reaching out to each other to ask for help or to share ideas, and may we live into the light that Christ has called us to be.

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”

~ Ecclesiastes 3:1

We have entered the season of Advent, the beginning of the liturgical calendar, a season of preparation, awe and wonder, as we await the celebration of the incarnation, of Christ revealed to the world. Advent is a reminder for us that even though we may keep up traditions and practices year after year, God is always doing something new, and as we await to celebrate the birth of the Christ-child, we are indeed watching and waiting for signs of Christ at work in our lives and in our world in new ways right now.

We are also moving from autumn to winter, with the first snows and very cold temperatures the last couple of weeks. We are reminded that seasons stay with us for a time, but then it is time to move on. Spring seems a long way off, but it will only be a few months before the bulbs in the earth begin to push up, and the days will grow long again even though daylight is brief right now.

There are seasons in church life, where we stick with one practice or one ministry, and then it’s time to move to the next. We are in a seasonal change in the region. We have a small number of churches in the last year that have decided to close. We have some churches that are growing. But we have a number of churches that are in that middle season—they are not near closing, but have not been growing, let alone sustaining. They are in a slow decline. This is why we have created a new ministry position at the Regional Office: The Associate Regional Minister of Next Generation Ministries. You can read the job posting here. This position will focus on two major areas: churches in transition, and youth and young adult ministry.

For churches in transition, this focus will be on any church going though a time of discernment about it’s future, whether it is to refocus mission, vision and values, restructure its board and governance, choosing a new pastor or a new pastoral model, re-starting, planting a new ministry, or closing—whatever the next generation of the church’s ministry may be. And just a note that closing is not necessarily the least desirable outcome. Sometimes a congregation has done all they can and they do not have the resources to keep moving forward. Sometimes a congregation recognizes they do not have the leaders to re-imagine how their church can fulfill their mission, but that the seeds of their ministry can be planted for new ministries. This is the wonderful joy that has blossomed from Memorial Baptist Church in Fond du Lac sharing their seeds in their Legacy fund—a portion of which is helping to fund this new position and will be used for new ministries beginning here in the region. Underwood Memorial Baptist Church recently gifted their building to Milwaukee Chin Baptist Church, a congregation that has struggled to afford a church home for their growing church. What wonderful seeds God has planted!

The second focus for this new position on youth and young adult ministry will help our churches raise up the next generation of leaders, because we (generally speaking, across all denominations around the country) have failed to do so. The person in this position will help connect our youth leaders and work with our churches to cultivate opportunities for leadership and growth.

Another season is coming to an end: our time at the Elm Grove office, where we have been since the late 1960’s. We have sold the building (you might remember we were in an agreement last year that fell through) and will be moving at the end of January. We hope to be able to announce our new address in the new year, and we will be soliciting help with packing and cleaning (we will hire movers for the heavy lifting). The building has aged and is much larger than what we need, but the space is not suitable for subdividing and renting out. We hope to rent a smaller space and use the funds from the sale to help support more ministry initiatives as well as our local churches.

In a letter I sent out to our local church financial leaders, I shared that 39% of our 2024 budget is for local church support, and 7% is used for Next Generation and community ministries. With this new position, we are increasing our budget as well as our focus in those areas. Please consider making a contribution to the American Baptist Churches of Wisconsin in this season of giving, so we can continue to do the work Christ is calling us to. You may give online or write a check to ABCWI (mail will continue to reach us in Elm Grove and will be forwarded after we move). As this new season dawns, we pray and hope for God’s blessing to live into the Gospel through our churches and ministries.

Seasons Greetings, and Merry Christmas, as we celebrate Christ’s incarnation and watch for signs of what God is doing new right now, in our world and in our lives.

Rev. Carolyn Dugan – Associate Regional Minister of Outdoor Ministries

There must be always remaining in every one’s life some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathlessly beautiful and, by an inherent prerogative, throws all the rest of life into a new and creative relatedness, something that gathers up in itself all the freshest of experience from drab to commonplace areas of living and glows in on bright white light of penetrating beauty and meaning — then passes.

— Howard Thurman

I have been drawn to angels lately. The beings that play pivotal roles in the nativity story: they tell Zechariah and Elizabeth they will be having a child; they come to Mary and share the plans God has for her and she says “yes”, who go to Joseph and convince him in a dream to take Mary as his wife, and then the angels that herald the birth to the shepherds.

I wonder how I would respond. If I would need to be told to “not fear” and be able to listen to the message that is meant for me. In the quote above it make me long to hear the singing of angels this season and sit in a space of breathless beauty.

Recently I learned of this way to enter into contemplative prayer called “Marveling” through the Center of Action and Contemplation from a Trappist monk -it’s simply this: let yourself be overcome with awe while observing a simple object or thing. It could be anything—a flower, bird, a running stream, a human smile, or even one’s own hand. The exercise is to simply visually cherish what is before you.

In this busy Advent and Christmas season I hope you can take moments to marvel in the drab and commonplace and as you find that wonder may you be able to entertain angels unaware.

Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.

– Luke 2:14 (NLT)

Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell – Regional Executive Minister

When we think of November, we often think of Thanksgiving. While we may think of this holiday as a long-held tradition going back generations, did you know it was only in 1941 that Thanksgiving was set on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States? Though Abraham Lincoln declared a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863, according to the Library of Congress blog, President Andrew Johnson forgot about it until December in 1865. Before that, it was a less formal declaration, and James Madison proclaimed it in September in 1813 and March in 1815. It appears our long-standing traditions are not as long-standing as we might think.

Thanksgiving has a lot of mythology around it. The Potawatomi Nation has facts about the myths of the origins of Thanksgiving on their blog. Most of us know that “the first Thanksgiving” really did not happen the way we were taught in elementary school. That by the time the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims may have come together for a feast (it’s still disputed if this actually happened), over 90% of the tribes of New England had been decimated by disease brought by colonists to the “New World.” Though many associate Lincoln’s declaration in 1863 with a moment of hope for unity in the midst of the Civil War, the declaration came after the assassination of 38 Dakota men at the end of the Dakota War.

It is important for us as Christians to be truth-tellers, and to find the real reasons to give thanks. We give our thanks and gratitude to God who is our Creator. We give thanks for the wondrous diversity of life and all of God’s children. As Christians in the United States, we recognize that colonizing Euro-centric Christianity has at times brought unbelievable hardship, suffering, and death for Native Americans as well as for enslaved Black Africans. We give thanks that the message of Christ is a liberating message, that in Christ “there is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). We give thanks that the true meaning of Christ as one who frees us from sin, from the ways of this world of power over and domination, continues to prevail.

This November, may we all learn to be truth-tellers. May we listen to our Ho-Chunk family (Indian Baptist Church is in the Ho-Chunk Nation) along with the Potawatomi, Mohican, Chippewa, Menomonie, Oneida, Ojibwe, and many other nations, some not federally recognized such as the Brothertown Nation. We can learn more by visiting the tribal websites as well as resources from the Wisconsin Council of Churches: https://www.wichurches.org/indigenous-justice May we give thanks to the Creator of us All, and that the message of Christ continues to be one of freedom and hope.