VALLEY FORGE, PA (12/11/2025)—Through the Nurturing Children Initiative (NCI), American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS) hopes to fuel a culture shift that embraces children’s natural curiosity, creativity, and forms of physical expression in the corporate, intergenerational worship environment. NCI will convene a total of 36 congregations in three cohorts (12 congregations per cohort) from 2025-2029 and provide them with child-development experts, youth programmatic leadership, and resources. NCI encourages participating churches to create opportunities within the context of corporate worship and prayer for the youngest among us to be affirmed and nurtured in who they are, encouraged in their faith, empowered in their gifts, and incorporated fully into the body of Christ.

VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 12/05/2025)—American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS) is pleased to announce that Rev. Ciarra Smith-Bond, senior pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, has been selected to receive the 2025 Beyond the Stained-Glass Ceiling Grant.

VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 11/14/2025)—Registration is now open for the 2026 Space for Grace & Spiritual Caregivers Conference, the signature national gathering of American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS). The event, themed “Storytelling: Discovering Its Power for Faith Leaders Today,” will take place April 21–23 in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.

VALLEY FORGE, PA (11/14/2025)—American Baptist Home Mission Societies’ is hosting the second gathering in its new clergy wellness initiative, “You Are Not Alone: A Sanctuary for Clergy Wellness,” on Tuesday, November 19, 2025, at 2 p.m. ET. The online event, “Sanctuary for the Soul,” will be led by Dr. Yvonne Martinez Thorne, founder and CEO of Cultivating Wholeness Counseling Associates.

VALLEY FORGE, PA (10/31/2025)—In this interview, Anna Piela, senior writer for American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS) and associate editor of The Christian Citizen, speaks with Autumn Blalock, program coordinator of ABHMS’ Nurturing Children Initiative (NCI), a recently launched cohort-based effort helping congregations reimagine worship through the eyes of their youngest members.

VALLEY FORGE, PA (10/31/2025)—The Storyteller Recruitment Committee of American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS) is calling storytellers of faith and imagination to submit requests to share their stories at Innovators Hall, a central feature of the upcoming Space for Grace & Spiritual Caregivers Conference, which will take place April 21–23, 2026, in Cleveland, Ohio.