by David Melton
I live in a city like no other. Boston is old, by American standards, and to a history guy like me, it is a buffet to relish. I can show you where John Adams roomed during his Harvard years, where Robert Newman ran to avoid British troops once he signaled Paul Revere, where Edward Kimball won Dwight Moody to Christ in the stockroom of a shoe store, where Adoniram Judson and his college friends birthed American missions on their knees on a secluded knoll. Pilgrims, puritans, evangelists, revivalists, abolitionists. That’s Boston and that’s just a beginning.
Boston was the home of America’s first public school, first college, first subway, and first baseball team whose fans became a “nation” of their own. Greater Boston has been the home of more U.S. presidents than any other city in the country. We know where Boston cream pie was invented, where if seafood isn’t fresh it isn’t “legal,” and there is even a place where everybody knows your name!
No wonder we love this city — and we want to share it with you.
And our Boston is even more than all the famous sights. God has used our churches to raise up a strong Baptist ministry college here in this incomparable cosmopolitan metropolis. Boston Baptist College is God’s achievement through us. We see God’s hands all over this place. And many of you, by your partnership, have fingerprints on our campus as well. Yet most of you haven’t been able to visit us in a long time, some of you never have. So this fall it’s time to fix that and make more history in Boston!
For the first time in 15 years our Fellowship is coming to Boston. Three remarkable days this September 26-28 will be our chance to celebrate history — past, present, and future! The Lord has opened up extraordinary opportunities for this Baptist family reunion. In the mornings we will make our home — our campus — your home. At night, we will do Boston like Bostonians with you! We will worship, pray, preach, and celebrate in some of the most historic spots in our city. Do you really dare to miss worshipping Christ in the Old North Church as we celebrate the collective efforts of our missionaries? Don’t you think it’s time for God to ignite us into a holy tea party for spiritual freedom, and don’t you think He could launch it in the old Puritan Hall where the original Boston Tea Party broke out? When is the next time you will get to hear the paramount Baptist of our day, Paige Patterson, exhort us to our calling in Faneuil Hall, the cradle of American liberty?
I haven’t even gotten started talking about new missionaries, great preaching, and a college family of students and staff who will give you a Boston experience beyond what you can imagine. Check out our website, www.boston2011.net.
More history will be made in Boston this fall. That’s a fact. So this is your personal invitation.