By Editor Bob Terry
Hattie Barnes is not a name known by many Baptists today. In 1909 she and her husband served Pratt City Baptist Church. Her efforts to reach the people living in Pratt City and nearby Ensley provide one of the clearest examples of how Baptists worked together to expand ministries in the name of Jesus Christ.
A century ago Italians and other Europeans flocked to Birmingham to work in the high-risk, low-paying jobs of Birmingham’s iron and steel industry. Most families were poor. They lived in crowded housing and lacked utilities. Hattie Barnes reached out to the young girls living around her by inviting them into her home where she taught them to sew and crochet and taught Bible stories.
From that beginning grew what came to be known as the Good Will Center of Birmingham, ultimately a ministry of the Home Mission Board (HMB, now North American Mission Board) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The journey from Mrs. Barnes’ living room to an institutional ministry demonstrates how Southern Baptists traditionally worked together to expand their ministries.
Community response
Italian immigrants to Birmingham settled primarily in Pratt City and Ensley and became the focus of the early ministry. So responsive was the community that almost immediately Mrs. Barnes contacted Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) leaders in nearby churches for help. Soon the work with the Italians was a project of women across the Birmingham area.
The ladies taught cooking, sewing, crocheting, basic health, American customs and English. They sponsored mothers’ clubs, girls’ clubs and boys’ clubs. They taught the Bible, held prayer meetings and visited in homes.
Women across the South were engaged in similar efforts at the encouragement of national WMU which urged members to combine social service ministries with “seeking souls and soul saving.” By 1914, Southern Baptists called these efforts Good Will Centers and by 1918 there were 32 of them across the South. Each was in a metropolitan area serving the poor and disadvantaged.
In 1911, Birmingham WMU groups cooperated to fund a full-time staff member, a graduate of the WMU Training School in Louisville, Kentucky, and the ministry grew even more. Financial needs soon outstripped what the ladies could provide and they turned to the Alabama Baptist State Convention for assistance. That meant the women had to exchange some control of the ministry for financial support.
Thanks to new resources, the 1917 report indicates the Good Will Center held Birmingham’s first daily Vacation Bible School. The center was regularly ministering to more than 300 children and about 200 families. Programs expanded to reach men as well.
The Birmingham Baptist Association became involved in 1922 and helped hire an Italian Baptist church planter to begin a congregation for the “thousands of Italians participating in the Good Will Center activities,” the records say.
Good Will Center guidelines were clear. In no sense were the centers a substitute for the Church. Nor were they rivals of the churches but rather feeders for them.
Denominational strategy
Later HMB began contributing to the Birmingham Good Will Center and the church planter was considered a home missionary. Eventually in Birmingham and across the South the Good Will Centers became part of the denominational strategy for inner-city ministries directed by HMB.
Although the Birmingham Good Will Center closed a long time ago, it remains a clear example of Baptists working together to expand ministries that help people and share the gospel. Barnes reached out to other women through WMU. Later the state convention became involved, then the local association. Finally an SBC missions agency took the leadership.
The ministry changed structures many times. It went from a pastor’s wife in charge to participants making decisions to a board composed of WMU leaders to associational involvement to becoming an HMB ministry.
Each time control took a back seat to cooperation. The goal was always expanding the ministry in the name of Jesus Christ.
Some might resist a ministry becoming institutionalized like Barnes’ efforts to reach Italians living around her. Some might argue that churches should do the ministries, not denominations. Again Southern Baptists of the last century were more concerned about results than methods. They would not violate Scriptural principles but found that cooperation with others was not only taught in Scripture but it was more effective than working alone.
Perhaps Baptists of the last century cited the example of the apostle Paul in collecting the offering for Jerusalem (1 Cor. 16:1–4). God gave Paul a vision for helping believers in need. Paul promoted the idea and enlisted help from all who would participate. He even became the agent for the ministry taking the offering personally to the “saints in Jerusalem.”
Starting with one
The story is like Barnes’ story. God gives one person the inspiration and that person reached out to cooperate with others to bring the ministry to fruition. Methodology and control took a back seat to serving others and sharing Christ in both cases.
Another important detail is that the needs of the community were entry points for ministry and witness. Whether it was cooking or carpentry, Baptists used Christian social ministries to open the door for “seeking souls and soul saving.” Critics who belittle helping ministries have a hard time explaining away this part of our history.
It also is important to recognize that a century ago Baptists were concerned for the cities. Practically every major metropolitan area where Southern Baptists lived had a Good Will Center. It was the denomination’s way of embracing ministering to the poor, the immigrant and the ethnic.
Today America is filled with people who need the Lord. Cities remain prime areas for ministry and evangelism. Starting by addressing felt needs is still an important way of establishing bridges for sharing the gospel.
Perhaps we can learn from Barnes and others involved with the Birmingham Good Will Center that when people and churches and associations and state conventions and national missions boards work together, we can make a difference.
Cooperation is still the best way for Baptists to expand their ministries.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Information was taken from an article by Melody Maxwell titled “‘We are Happy to Co-Operate’: The Institutionalization and Control of Birmingham’s Baptist Good Will Center, 1909–1928.”
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