Don Ng served as President of the American Baptist Churches, USA in 2014-15, the first Asian American in this elected position. For 17 years, he was the Senior Pastor of the historic First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco that was founded by the American Baptist Home Missionary Society in 1880. He retired from full-time ministry in June 2015.
Presently, he is a Board Member for the Friends of the Northeast Christian University, Nagaland, India; Co-coordinator of the MMBB Asian Colloquium; Member of the Advisory Council of Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School (New Haven, CT), Vice-Chair of the American Baptist Foundation (E. Norriton, PA), Board Member of the American Baptist Historical Society (Atlanta, GA); Member of the ABC Creation Justice Network, and Advisor to the ABC Young Adult Caucus.
Previous board service includes: Vice-President and Past President of ABCUSA; Board Member of the American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS); Trustee of the American Baptist Seminary of the West (Berkeley, CA), President of the Asian Alliance of ABCUSA, and other ecumenical and denominational groups.
Denominationally, he served as national staff in ABC Educational Ministries in Valley Forge from 1978-1998 in the areas of youth ministry, Christian education, leader development and administration.
Publications include: Asian Pacific American Youth Ministry (Judson, 1988) and numerous articles in Christian education, ministry and life, including being a contributing writer for The Christian Citizen.
Don is a graduate of Gordon College in psychology and the first in his family to receive a college diploma. He received his M.Div. from Andover Newton Theological School in 1975. He completed doctoral course work in education at Temple University. In May 2013, he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from American Baptist Seminary of the West, currently the Berkeley School of Theology. In May 2014, he received the “Spirit of the Hill” award from Andover Newton. At the 2019 ABC Biennial Mission Summit, he was awarded the Equipping Disciples Award granted by ABHMS. His home church, First Baptist Church of Boston founded in 1665, is one of the oldest Baptist churches in the U.S. is where he was ordained in 1975.
Other honors include the naming of the “Don Ng Road” at Harding College, Tura, India, a “Don Ng Room” in the Carroll Youth Center, Green Lake Conference Center, Green Lake, Wisconsin, and the Ng Brothers Scholarship to support seminarians at Andover Newton Seminary at YDS.
One of the foundational beliefs of Baptists is soul freedom, the belief that God created persons to have the capacity to read Scriptures for themselves in the context of an informed community of laity to discern the meaning of the Word of God and to know God’s calling.
“Why I Am An American Baptist”
After a sabbatical in Israel in 2005, Don has led tours to the Holy Land (including Egypt and Jordan), Greece, Turkey, Germany, Italy, England, Spain, Portugal, and Eastern Europe countries. He is a UNESCO Dual Pilgrim after completing both the Kumano Kodo in Japan and two Camino de Santiago in Spain.
Don is married to Joy Shih Ng for 52 years and lives in Sausalito, CA where he walks daily, gardens, and enjoys refinishing old furniture. They have two married children, Greg and Heather who live in North Carolina and Lauren and Daniel in California. He is blessed with six beautiful grandchildren who make him proud.