Association of Baptist Churches in Israel

The Association of Baptist Churches in Israel (ABCI) is a Baptist association of churches in Israel. It is a member of the European Baptist Federation and the Baptist World Alliance.

Association of Baptist Churches in Israel
ClassificationEvangelical Christianity
TheologyBaptist
AssociationsEuropean Baptist Federation, Baptist World Alliance
HeadquartersNazareth, Israel
Origin1965
Congregations17
Members900
Official websitebaptist.org.il

History

Shukri Musa, the maternal grandfather of Edward Said,[1] who was baptized by George Truett at the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, was the first known modern Baptist to enter in Israel (then the British Mandate of Palestine) in 1911 with the support of the Illinois Baptist State Association. He began in Zefat, where he baptized his first convert. He later founded a church in Nazareth. The Southern Baptist Convention sent missionaries in 1923. A congregation was established in Jerusalem in 1925, and another in Haifa in 1936. The Association was founded in 1965.[2]

In 2001, the Association of Baptist Churches established a "twinning" agreement with the Baptist Union of Great Britain, which is promoted by the organizations as "a means to support each other in prayer, developing ministry, mutual benefit from the experience of the other, fellowship and encouragement.[3]

A "K-12" school (founded 1949), which is housed near the Evangelical Baptist Church at Nazareth, is related to the organization. The Nazareth Baptist School[4] is rated very high in the ministry of education criteria of best schools in the country.nationally in the percentage of excellent students in the matriculation exam. The general director of the school is Botrus Mansour, and the high school principal is Mr. Aziz Banna and Primary school principal is Mrs. Anne Haddad . The leading Baptist congregation is the Local Baptist Church (LBC) in Nazareth.

A majority of Israel's Baptists live in the Galilee. The congregations are ethnically and linguistically diverse, with 13 Arabic-speaking, two Hebrew-speaking, two Spanish, one Filipino, and one Russian. The majority of Baptist believers live in Galilee. Chairman of ABC board is Mr. Fuad Haddad. Treasurer from Association is Bader Mansour, the owner and general manager from Nazareth Data Quest a technology provider corporation. In June 2006, the ABC elected a new chairman:Mr. Monther Naum, a nutrition engineer from Shefa-Amr.

In 2006, ABC initiated the establishment of the Nazareth Centre for Christian Studies[5] and asked Dr. James Bryson Arthur from Scotland to lead it. Later it merged with Galilee Bible college to establish Nazareth Evangelical College (NEC).Today it is led by Rev. Azar Ajaj (director) and Rev. Dr. Hanna Katanacho (college academic dean).[6] This was later renamed Nazareth Evangelical Theological Seminary (NETS) and presently offers BTh, BDiv, MTh, and MA degrees.

According to a denomination census released in 2020, it claimed 17 churches and 900 members. [7]

Beliefs

The Association has a Baptist confession of faith. The churches of the ABC are conservative in their theology. They oppose the practice of women pastors. Due to their circumstances, individual churches often emphasize their positions on the Old and New Covenants. The Jerusalem Church, having suffered the original body adopting charismatic practices, emphasize their stand on spiritual gifts. Premillennialism is the predominant eschatological belief, though some are adopting Amillennialism.

References
  1. Susan Slyomovics, "http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/framework_the_journal_of_cinema_and_media/v050/50.1-2.slyomovics.html Edward Said's Nazareth", Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, 2009
  2. Azar Ajaj, Duane Alexander Miller, Philip Sumpter, Arab Evangelicals in Israel, Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2016, p. 56
  3. "Twinning" started in the Bedfordshire Association (which is now part of Central Association) circa 1999, then the entire Baptist Union later adopted the idea.
  4. http://www.nbs.org.il
  5. Association of Baptist Churches (January 2007). "The Nazareth Center for Christian Studies". Global Missiology. 4 (2). Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  6. Naom, Monther (September 2007). "A Word from the ABC Chairman". Al Kalima. 2.
  7. Baptist World Alliance, Members, baptistworld.org, USA, retrieved December 5, 2020

Literature
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