The Baptist Churches of New England made history Nov. 4 when they elected Lierte Soares Jr., a Massachusetts pastor from Brazil, as their president.
By a unanimous vote, the self-proclaimed “reverse missionary” to New England, who also calls himself a “pastor with a missionary heart,” became the first Brazilian state-convention president in the 178-year history of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant group in the United States.
His election was held during a two-day annual worship and business meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire, and came 14 decades after the predominantly white mission-focused denomination dispatched their first missionaries to Brazil.
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EDITOR’S NOTE —This story was written by and originally published by Baptist Churches of New England.
