Innkeepers see Luther Rice homesite as regional center for hospitality and networking |
If somehow a science-fiction time machine deposited Luther Rice on his boyhood farm in Northborough, the famed Baptist missions pioneer would be surprised by its astounding development as a center for missions and ministry throughout the six-state New England region, but not by the hospitality with which Donna and Roy Carlin, the latest in a line of Rice Lodge innkeepers, welcomed him back home.
The early-American promoter of international outreach by Baptists would be amazed to find that the family farm had been transformed as the home of the Baptist Convention of New England’s three-story ministry center and the Rice Memorial Baptist Church, both of which he could view from his restored colonial home on Lincoln Street, one of three buildings that comprise the retreat center named in his honor.
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Luther Rice (left). Donna and Roy Carlin. |
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For Donna and Roy Carlin, who, as she says, “took a leap of faith” in February 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown when they moved from Milford, MA, to the Rice Lodge, their work is “a service to God (and) an opportunity to give back to others what we have been given.” A former Roman Catholic, Donna was born in Hartford, CT, and raised in the “potato land” farming community of Frenchville, ME, on the Canadian border. She found faith in Jesus Christ while on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic.
A Concord, NH, native, Roy grew up in Sanford, ME. Before moving to Massachusetts to study electronics and computer networking, Roy was a deputy sheriff at a county jail. He coordinates computer networking and repair for the BCNE and others. Despite a severe allergy to bee stings, Roy is also an avid beekeeper; he plans to bring a hive to the lodge property. As a young adult, Roy heard the Word of God preached at a church in Ashland, MA, and decided to follow Christ.
They met at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, married in 1986, and are parents of two adult children and grandparents of a one-year-old boy.
Donna spelled out their vision for the Rice Lodge in a recent interview. She and Roy want to strengthen the property’s outreach as a regional center for “hospitality and networking,” a place for church and family retreats, a quiet spot dedicated to discipleship and ministry training of all sorts, a temporary home for missions teams from elsewhere, and a destination for church groups to meet for fellowship and strategic planning. They also foresee a day when the homestead will serve community groups in Northborough, a bedroom community between the cultural hubs of Boston and Worcester.
When pandemic restrictions are lifted and they can welcome more than eleven people at a time, the lodge will once again sleep twenty-two people, in four bunkbed rooms, each with private bathrooms. A large multipurpose living room that once doubled as a classroom for the Northeastern Baptist School of Ministry seminary courses before these were moved online a few years ago, a kitchen, and the adjacent Rice family home that includes a private three room suite are available for guests. Click here to schedule a retreat or other function.
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The Luther Rice home (left). The Rice Lodge.
Significant repairs including the replacement of doors, windows, and shingles are needed to meet those hospitality goals. Other projects may include carpentry, painting, electrical, floor covering, and landscaping. That’s why the Baptist Foundation of New England, the fund-raising arm of the BCNE, announced a $50,000 goal to preserve the historic Rice Lodge.
To give, go online to
The Carlins have no plans to slow down as they age. “We never plan to retire. We’re in it for the long haul. You never know what’s around the corner,” says Donna. She concludes, “I’m up for what God wants!”
Who was Luther Rice, anyway?
While sailing from Salem, MA, to Calcutta, India, in 1812, to join British missionary William Carey, and after prayer and Bible study, Adoniram and Ann Judson, Congregationalists sent out by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission, came to an understanding of believer’s baptism by immersion as opposed to infant baptism. They were baptized by Carey. Luther Rice (1783–1836) had a similar experience a few weeks later and was baptized by William Ward, a Judson associate. There was no Baptist mission-sending agency in the United States and no financial support for their work when they resigned from the Congregationalist body with faith that God would provide for their needs.
Rice returned home to New England to preach and teach about the Great Commission and to form mission support societies in Baptist churches. He traveled from town to village on horseback and formed dozens of groups, which became a network of mission support, according to a published report by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. In 1814 Rice was instrumental in forming The General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions, also called the Triennial Convention.
If somehow Luther Rice suddenly returned to his family farm, it is likely that he would be raising funds for Christian ministry and missions. That’s what he did for Baptist missions in his day. Will we do the same today? Please consider a generous gift to the Foundation to help preserve this important ministry site.
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A Word from the
Executive Director
Dr. Terry W. Dorsett
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The key to a lifetime serving the Lord
When I was a teenager, my youth pastor started taking me to training sessions. I learned how to lead someone to Christ using “the Roman’s Road,” a way of explaining the good news of salvation using verses from the Book of Romans. I learned how to teach children Bible stories and how to help groups memorize Scriptures using a variety of techniques.
He made sure I received this training and gave me ample opportunities to use it in my church, in my neighborhood, and in other public venues. That training obviously changed my life and set the stage for my eventual calling to vocational ministry. That is why I am committed to providing training to others. I remember how much it helped me and I’m convinced that the more we train people in the church to do practical ministry, the stronger their faith will be.
Even if they do not sense a call to ministry as a career, trained followers of Jesus can spend a lifetime serving the Lord in meaningful ways that will change lives for eternity.
My commitment to training others compels me to preserve the Luther Rice birthplace as a training center and place of Christian hospitality. Having a historic place that is dedicated to helping church groups engage in Bible study, training, mission experiences, and spiritual retreat is vital to the spiritual life of generations of New Englanders.
Come visit the Rice Center, pray for innkeepers Donna and Roy Carlin, and make a generous donation to help preserve this special place for years to come.
Dr. Terry W. Dorsett
Executive Director
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For a gift of $100, BCNE will send you a paperback copy of The Dreamer Cometh: The Luther Rice Story and a packet of Rice Memorial note cards.
“Yet in any area of life, someone first must dare to dream. If that dream is born in the purpose of God, it will surely come to pass even though the dreamer dies and the vision seems to fade. History reflects these fulfillments.”—from William A. Carleton, The Dreamer Cometh: The Luther Rice Story, Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, (2020, © BCNE.) The first ed. was published in 1961 by the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board.
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