Five early churches form first association

While the concept of and name for associations began in England in the 1600s, it was 1707 that marked the beginning of associations in America.

Philadelphia Baptist Association, organized that year, was the first Baptist association in the New World. Made up of five churches — one from Pennsylvania, one from what would become Delaware and three from New Jersey — it is the original source for all major cooperative Baptist bodies in America.

Less than 50 years later in 1751, Charleston Baptist Association was organized in South Carolina, where there were four Baptist churches. Next came associations in North Carolina and Virginia — all modeled after Philadelphia Association.

These early churches and associations began dreaming of a national body in the late 1700s and founded the first in 1814. (TAB)