Rev. Lisa Harris-Lee
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American Baptist Home Mission Societies Work Phone: 800.222.3872, x2158 |
The Rev. Lisa R. Harris-Lee, director of Mission Engagement and National Network Initiatives, joined American Baptist Home Mission Societies’ (ABHMS) staff in September 2008. She brings to her position the same passion that helped her answer the call to ordained ministry in 1994—“a passion to bring people as close to God and as close to one another as possible,” based on the great commandment to love God, neighbor and self.
She previously provided leadership to ABHMS’ Neighborhood Action Program (NAP) Christian centers and Children in Poverty initiative.
For Harris-Lee, mission is a “call to be witnesses in a world that is out-of-balance spiritually, emotionally and materially. It is a call to be missionaries in a cross-cultural, cross-generational, cross-economical way that sometimes requires we cross oceans and borders and, other times, requires we just cross the street or county line.”
Ministry has called Harris-Lee to communities in 34 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guyana, Haiti, Thailand, Burma and South Africa. Prior to attending seminary, Harris-Lee served for two years in public policy positions in New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
“It is hard to have a commitment to mission without also having a commitment to stewardship,” she says. “I have often quoted a statement of Gandhi that is truly a Kingdom of God truth: ‘God has provided enough for the world’s hunger, but there will never be enough of anything for the world’s greed.’ I am fairly certain that the real problem in our world is not poverty. It is greed. There is a simple promise rehearsed and realized from Genesis to Revelation summarized in Philippians 4:19: ‘My God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to [God’s] riches in glory in Christ Jesus.’ As Christians, God does not put more in our hands in order for us to gain more—but so we may give more!”
EDUCATION:
- M.Div., The Divinity School, Duke University, Durham, N.C.
- B.A., Douglass College, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.
EXPERIENCE:
- Executive Director of Bethel Neighborhood Center, Kansas City, Kan., a NAP Christian Center. In that position, she also served as pastor of Bethel New Beginnings Baptist Church, Kansas City.
- Associate Executive Minister for Mission, Stewardship and Communication, Philadelphia Baptist Association
- Minister of Mission Support – American Baptist Churches NJ, Philadelphia Baptist Association.
- Associate minister congregations in North Carolina and New Jersey.
- Congregational Support, Mission Interpretation, and Development, Hinton Rural Life Center – Mission Agency Southeastern Jurisdiction United Methodist Church.
- Domestic and International Mission Team leadership
IMPORTANT DATES:
- Joined ABHMS’ staff: Sept. 2008
- Ordained: May 28, 1998
- Birthday: May 2