VALLEY FORGE, PA (2/26/19)—American Baptist Women’s Ministries announced on Tuesday, February 26, that the Rev. LaThelma A. Yenn-Batah will join the American Baptist Women’s Ministries Team as its new associate executive director on March 8, 2019.
“Rev. Yenn-Batah’s extensive cross-cultural work as well as her experience with young people in academic settings coupled with her warm and friendly personality will make her an asset to the ABWM team. We are looking forward to her contributions to the team and especially to the mission and programs of ABWM,” said Rev. Gina C. Jacobs-Strain, executive director of American Baptist Women’s Ministries.
Reverend LaThelma A. Yenn-Batah is a minister of the Gospel and a faithful disciple of Jesus the Christ. As a post-graduate Parish Pulpit Fellow through Princeton Theological Seminary, Yenn-Batah participated in extensive cross-cultural and urban ministry in Costa Rica. During her fellowship, she was deeply inspired by women who used their educational, biblical, and theological experiences to achieve the following goals: to understand and assume their personal and legal rights, to take leadership roles in their churches and communities, and to continue or begin their formal education.
She served as the Minister of Worship and Music at NextGen Church, a multi-cultural church in West Windsor, NJ, and as Assistant Director of Capital City Academy, an after-school outreach ministry in Trenton, NJ. Through hands-on experiential learning, leadership training, and mentorship, she worked to enhance the academic performance and promote the socio-emotional growth of students. She has also had the unique opportunity of leading ministry in churches in South Korea, Nicaragua, Philadelphia, PA, and Newark, NJ. These rich multi-cultural and ecumenical experiences have cemented her passion for building intergenerational and intercultural communities committed to social transformation.
Yenn-Batah graduated cum laude with a BA in Sociology and Africana studies from Scripps College in Claremont, CA, and earned her Master of Divinity and Master of Christian Education and Formation from Princeton Theological Seminary. In addition, she earned certificates in Theology, Women, and Gender and Black Church Studies. She was ordained in 2018 by an American Baptist Church, NextGen, in the American Baptist Churches of New Jersey.
American Baptist Churches is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with approximately 5,000 local congregations comprised of 1.3 million members, across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God’s mission around the world.