Staff

Rev. Margaret Lewis, (likes to be called Maggie), is an ordained American Baptist minister. She worked for over 10 years for The Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board of The American Baptist  Churches (MMBB) in New York City. Pastor Maggie was education director and served as an officer of MMBB in the role of corporate secretary. She also directed fundraising efforts.

She has extensive pastoral experience in both American Baptist and UCC churches in Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire. She has maintained a strong commitment to ecumenism during her ministry and has a passion for stewardship development, leading worship, and encouraging the gifts of God's children -- of all ages!

Pastor Maggie earned a master of business administration degree from Cornell University in 2005. Her other degrees include a master of divinity from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, a bachelor of arts in religion and French from Eastern University and teaching certification from Keene State College.

In addition to her pastoral role at First Baptist, Pastor Maggie serves as Executive Director of The Center for Career Development and Ministry in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Erin Henke is a fourth-generation Montanan who has a great love for organization and office administration, as well as providing and participating in music. A collaborative pianist by trade, Erin has over 15 years of experience in collaborative music in both piano and voice and 3 years of experience in office administration. She strives to equally integrate both interests into her profession.

As an administrator, Erin currently works remotely for First Baptist as well as for The Conference of Baptist Ministers in Massachusetts and The Center for Career Development and Ministry in Nashua, NH. Her full time position is as the parish coordinator for Park Ridge Community Church in Park Ridge, IL. Erin has previously worked for the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center in Big Sky, MT as the Artist Residency Coordinator for their summer programs. Erin thoroughly enjoys organization and office work as her correlating career to her work as a musician.

Erin holds a Master of Music in Collaborative Piano from Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA. Erin received a Bachelor of Arts in Music, a minor in German, and an Honors Baccalaureate from Montana State University in Bozeman, where she studied both piano and voice.

In her free time, Erin enjoys hiking in the mountains, doing puzzles with a cup of hot tea, watching true crime documentaries with her husband, Logan, and hanging out with her cat, Barbara. 

Bahar Soyoz is an experienced pianist who enjoys playing both solo and chamber repertoire. She specializes in collaborative piano with voice, but has performed with string, brass and percussion instruments. She received her bachelor’s degree at Hacettepe University in Turkey as a soloist, where she performed many recitals and concerts. During her senior year, Soyoz studied in Leipzig HMT as an Erasmus student under Prof. Markus Tomas. Working as a coach at Hacettepe University, she developed her deep passion for collaboration. 

Sharing music on stage was an experience of which she wanted more in her life; she chose to pursue a Master’s degree in Collaborative Piano at Longy School of Music in the U.S. as a Fulbrighter, under Prof. Renana Gutman. Performing often with voice at different venues, Soyoz wants to expand the idea of collaboration with multi-disciplined art events together with her ensemble partner Baritone David Mather (ensemble ‘A Priori’). She believes collaboration is an influence on all, and it brings out more creativity in everyone. 

Besides performance and teaching, Soyoz is also actively part of church music and has played for church services in the greater Boston area. After teaching in institutions such as Hacettepe University and Bilkent University in Turkey, Bahar joined the South Shore Conservatory as piano faculty in 2021.

Michael Harvey is the Executive Director Emeritus of the Conference of Baptist Ministers in Massachusetts.

Michael has a BA degree in English from Berea College in Kentucky, and an MDiv degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He has been a pastor in Kentucky and Chicago. He has led workshops on Dialogue, Church Transformation, Biblical Study and Interpretation, Prayer, and Marriage. 

He is married to Paula, and they have three adult children and two grandchildren. He and Paula live in Worcester, Massachusetts. 

George Cernuda, a longtime member of First Baptist Church, emigrated from Cuba to Miami as a boy, along with his younger brother, in 1962. His family eventually settled in Nashua the following year.

George recently retired from the Nashua School System after 16 years. He lives in Nashua with his wife, Betty. George is the proud father of three daughters and devoted grandfather to five boys and one girl. While we can't say for sure he's never missed a game that one of his grand-kids has played in, we know he has been to most of them!

In his spare time, George loves to do woodworking and tackling landscaping projects.