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NGE >> Religion >> Faiths and Denominations >> Christianity >> Baptist >> Baptists: Overview |
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Baptists: Overview From
In
Major Baptist Bodies in Georgia After
The
The earliest all-black congregations in Georgia, all founded in the late eighteenth century, were First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Springfield Baptist Church in Augusta, and Beaverdams Baptist Church in Burke County. Early leaders in the state were David George, George Liele, Jesse Galphin, and Andrew Bryan. However, most African American Baptists in the state before the Civil War were slaves, forced to hold membership in white-dominated
A statewide convention was organized in 1870 and is perpetuated to some degree in two existing groups: the large General Missionary Baptist Convention and the smaller New Era Baptist Convention. Black Georgia Baptists were significantly involved in the 1895 formation of the National Baptist Convention of the United States of America, which was organized in Atlanta. There are now about 2,202 African American churches with about 526,318 members in Georgia. Many are identified with national and state conventions sponsoring missionary, educational, and benevolent ministries. Some
More recently, some independent churches and pastors have begun identifying themselves with one or more national or regional fellowships—chiefly the Baptist Bible Fellowship International and the Southwide Baptist Fellowship. Usually urban, these churches emphasize missions, evangelism, education, and publications. Since the 1990s an annual fellowship and preaching conference has been held that attempts to include all independent churches and pastors. The Georgia Baptist Bible Fellowship sponsors a monthly fellowship meeting, held at churches throughout the state, and maintains a Web site. An estimated 1,000 churches in Georgia, with 150,000 members, are in this category. A third group is composed of thoroughgoing independents who remain completely separate from other churches. Around 500 congregations with 50,000 members make up this category. The
During the twentieth century, progressive segments, allowing for such practices as extended revival services, regular ministerial support, the use of musical instruments in public worship, and Sunday schools, have surfaced among both white and African American Primitive congregations. Traditional, Old-Line Primitive Baptists continue to gather for worship, mutual encouragement, and the pursuit of limited, localized benevolent ministries, while white progressives sponsor various regional and statewide conferences, two retirement homes, a history archive, the monthly Banner-Herald, and mission work in the Ukraine and south Russia. African American progressives are affiliated with the National Primitive Baptist Convention. In 2005 Primitive Baptists in Georgia numbered about 417 churches with approximately 11,984 members. Arminian
Asserting the attainability of sinless perfection in this life, Holiness Baptists appeared in and near Wilcox County about 1894. Gradually three associations were formed in south Georgia and today contain about 50 churches and 1,582 members. Holiness Baptists strictly observe the Sabbath and abstain from tobacco, intoxicating liquors, tea, coffee, dancing, gambling, public ball games, swimming pools, circuses, television, short hair for women and long hair for men, immodest attire, and secret societies. Some Holiness Baptists are pacifist and reject capital punishment, some speak in tongues, and some recognize women as preachers and pastors. At one time two periodicals were issued, although both are now extinct, and two campgrounds continue to be maintained in Coffee County. After a brief presence in northwest Georgia before the Civil War, Landmark Baptists returned to the state about 1900. They have produced a unique combination of ideas and practices, some of which are common to other Baptists as well, including the priority of the local church in sponsoring missions, the succession of Baptist churches from the New Testament to the present, and baptism and the Lord's Supper as ordinances of the local church, as well as the refusal to accept open communion, immersion baptisms administered by other denominations, and pulpit affiliation. Since 1946 the majority of Landmark churches in the state have united in the Georgia State Association of Missionary Baptist Churches. Over the years at least 66 Georgia churches have been of this variety. In 2005 the number stood at about 39 churches and missions with an estimated 2,564 members. Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Disagreement within state and Southern Baptist conventions produced a national meeting of moderate Baptists in Atlanta in 1990 that resulted the following year in the organization of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. The state group, separate in structure but in close cooperation with the national group, holds fellowship and training meetings, cooperates in various social ministries, supports the formation of moderate churches, and publishes the newsletter Visions. Most of its approximately 158 member churches are dually aligned with the Georgia Baptist Convention in a sometimes uneasy relationship. Within the larger Baptist family, twelve other distinct bodies have existed in the past, and most continue to the present.
These groups have usually numbered fewer than 300 members at any one time. The twelve bodies are as follows: Suggested Reading Robert G. Gardner et al., A History of the Georgia Baptist Association, 1784-1984, 2d ed. (Atlanta: Georgia Baptist Historical Society, 1996). H. Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist Witness (Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman Press, 1987). Albert W. Wardin, ed., Baptists around the World: A Comprehensive Handbook (Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman and Holman, 1995). David S. Williams, From Mounds to Megachurches: Georgia's Religious Heritage (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2008). Robert G. Gardner, Mercer University Updated 6/6/2006 |
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