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MMBB Launches Centennial Celebration at ABCUSA Biennial

FOR MORE INFORMATION, please contact:
Harold Leibovitz – 212-870-8053 or harold.leibovitz@mmbb.org

NEW YORK, NY, June 21, 2011 – At its 1911 meeting in Philadelphia, the Northern Baptist Convention passed a resolution creating an organization “to promote interest in the better maintenance of the ministry.” One hundred years later, that organization, The Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board (MMBB), proudly launches its centennial celebration at the biennial meeting of the American Baptist Churches USA, the predecessor of the Northern Baptist Convention.

“It is only fitting that we begin MMBB’s centennial activities at the ABCUSA biennial,” commented Rev. Dr. George Tooze, president of MMBB’s board of managers. “It’s only through the visionary leadership of our founders and continuous support of the ABC that MMBB is here today.”

Areas where MMBB received critical support from the ABCUSA and its predecessors include:

  • Organizing a grassroots campaign to raise sufficient funds to build a self-sustaining financial services organization beginning in 1911.
  • Authorizing MMBB to establish one of the first defined benefit retirement plans in America in 1920.
  • Engaging a broad range of denomination resources to support a major member recruitment campaign from 1941-43.
  • Reinforcing MMBB’s devotion to human rights in the 1960s and 1970s.
  • Committing visionary leadership to guide MMBB that continues to the present day.

“Organizations that prosper over 100 years succeed because they stay true to their enduring values,” MMBB executive director Rev. Dr. Sumner M. Grant stated. “So it is with MMBB. Three principles are at the heart of MMBB’s longevity — generosity, justice and compassion. Our partnership with ABCUSA has helped us bring these values to bear in good times and bad and has enabled MMBB to secure the future of thousands of churches, faith-based organizations and their staff.”

Notes for Editors:

  1. MMBB (www.mmbb.org) is a church-based financial services organization promoting the better maintenance of the ministry by providing and administering retirement investment benefits and life, disability and health insurance for churches and faith-based organizations.
  2. Founded in 1911, MMBB manages more than $2 billion in assets for the benefit of its members and their dependents.