Alabama Baptist history is filled with inspiring stories of people’s commitment to turn dreams into realities through sacrificial giving. Even the founding of the Alabama Baptist State Convention reflects that spirit.
According to A. Hamilton Reid’s history, “Baptists in Alabama,” the dream of those who founded our state convention was missions and education. The convention was formed in 1823 at Salem Baptist Church near Greensboro. A historical marker now designates the spot.
The 15 men present for the meeting did not represent churches. They were messengers from “missionary societies.” This represented the polity of the day when separate “societies” were formed for each Christian cause and membership was based on financial participation.
Interestingly four of the seven missionary societies were “ladies missionary societies” even though the women had to appoint men to represent them at the founding convention. But the dream of all was missions and education.
Through The General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination of the United States of America for Foreign Missions (often referred to as the Triennial Convention), Baptists supported the work of the Judsons and other Baptist foreign missionaries. But the focus of those gathered in Greensboro was missions and education in Alabama. Two of the four committees they formed related to organization. The other two were “domestic missions” and “finances.” The first constitution made clear that membership was based on financial contributions.
Reid shared part of a letter from the Ladies Missionary Society of Jonesboro to that first convention: “And as Phoebe was bearer of the epistle of Paul to the Romans, and Priscilla and Chloe were helpers, so would we reach forth a helping hand and assist in carrying into effect your laudable design.” Included in the offering that day was a gold watch and chain. The first convention received $427.42 in cash, and the result was the appointment of 15 missionaries spread across the state to plant new Baptist churches.
A humble beginning some would say, but look at the state convention’s impact today with its 3,200-plus churches and 1.1 million members. It would not have happened without sacrificial giving in support of a dream.
Every Alabama Baptist institution has a similar story. Judson College in Marion was Alabama Baptists’ first permanent institution. It became a reality largely through the work of Gen. E.D. King, of Marion; Basil Manly, president of the University of Alabama; and a wealthy planter and businesswoman, Julia Barron.
Their dream was a place in the South where their daughters could receive a classical education in a Christian environment rather than having to go to the established schools in the East. Earlier these and other Baptists cooperated with others to start a girls’ school in Marion. But when disagreement arose about the direction of the school and the nature of the education, the Baptists pulled out and founded Judson Female Institute, named after famous missionary Ann Hasseltine Judson, in 1838.
Marion is no longer referred to as the “Athens of the South” as it was in pre-Civil War days, but Judson continues to provide a classical education in a Christian environment. And that is possible only because of Alabama Baptists’ sacrificial giving.
Samford University’s history is filled with heart-warming stories. Imagine the scene of President Samuel Sherman pushing a wheelbarrow door to door in Marion collecting donated books to help establish the first library for what was called Howard College in 1842.
Interestingly Alabama Baptists started a prepaid tuition program in the 1850s that helped the school prosper. But after the Civil War, when students showed up expecting scholarships, the program doomed the school. After a series of court cases, the college’s property was sold on the courthouse steps by the Perry County sheriff April 5, 1884. The proceeds from the sale were used to help repay those who had participated in the prepaid tuition program.
Two businessmen — W.W. Wilkerson and J.B. Lovelace — bought the property and gave it back to Alabama Baptists. The two asked for nothing in return except the genuine thanks of their fellow Baptists. Their unselfish act kept the dream of a college alive, and today that dream is Samford University in Birmingham.
Not every gift is as large as that of Wilkerson and Lovelace. The Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries’ story includes Tennessee River Baptist Association, which donated a freight car load of corn every year. The corn was shipped to Evergreen to feed the cattle and hogs on the farm that supported what was then called the Orphans and Widows Home.
Even The Alabama Baptist relied on sacrificial giving to keep it afloat during the Great Depression. Editor L.L. Gwaltney traveled the state promoting the importance of a common source of trusted information to the cooperative work of Baptists in Alabama and across the South. But as the nation fell further and further into depression, subscriptions plummeted and advertising dried up.
Gwaltney wrote books and gave them away with subscriptions but even that failed. Eventually it was sacrificial gifts from Alabama Baptists that kept the newspaper alive. Today The Alabama Baptist is the largest circulated state Baptist paper in America and has been recognized as one of the best regional Christian newspapers in the nation for 14 consecutive years. The paper continues to be a trusted, reliable voice providing information, inspiration and interpretation about what God is doing through Baptists in the state and around the world.
There are other wonderful stories of dreams becoming realities because of Baptists’ sacrificial giving — stories like the $2 million raised to support the founding of Mobile College (now the University of Mobile) in 1961.
In every case, the gifts were made because of the dreams God planted in the hearts and minds of His people. People gave to support their faith, ideals and hopes. Without their sacrifices, Baptist life would be much different than we know it today and our denomination, communities and world would be the lesser.
Today times are hard again. Some people respond by cutting back their tithes. Some churches cut back their missions giving. Some cut out the state Baptist paper as they draw back into themselves. But God still holds out the dream of reaching the world with the gospel, of changing lives for service, of building up the body of Christ.
How God will do it no one knows but one thing is sure — it will include sacrificial giving on the part of His people individually and through the churches. It will include financial support of the Cooperative Program and special gifts to ministries that help transform our faith, ideals and hopes into reality.
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