Paper for Missouri Baptist Historical Society

Providence Baptist Church in Relation to the First Meeting of the Missouri Baptist General Association

The Men, Their Message and Their Methods

The history of Providence Baptist Church when connected to the formation of the Missouri Baptist General Association is a story about men, their message and their methods. The men, all Missourians by choice were of a quality perhaps this state has not seen since.

Back home in Kentucky and other places they were friends of future presidents, vice presidents, senators and governors. These sons of Revolutionary War soldiers and veterans themselves of Indian Wars, were pioneers who were in the habit of pushing west to plough and preach.

James Suggett, Theodore Boulware and Jeremiah Vardeman who were all present at that first organizational meeting of the Missouri Baptist Association were three prime examples. Suggett before migrating to Missouri pastored a huge church by frontier standards in the Elkhorn Association of Kentucky, the Great Crossings Church which in 1811, had a membership of 295 souls.[1] James Suggett was gifted as a revivalist and baptized approximately 3000 people during his ministry. Hon. J.L. Stephens of Columbia, Mo. said of him, “Suggett’s ability as a minister was in exhortation, in which but few early day preachers excelled him.”[2]

Before moving to Missouri in 1827, Theodore Boulware was one of the most sought after Baptist preachers in Kentucky. In 1811, James Suggett had assisted in his ordination. He quickly became one of the most popular preachers in Kentucky. Churches in Henderson, Georgetown, and Cincinnati offered him unheard of salaries from $500 to $900 per year to stay and preach. He told them he didn’t want to raise his children in the city and following his plans, moved to Missouri and settled north of Fulton.[3]

Jeremiah Vardeman had the reputation of being the greatest Baptist Evangelist of his time. John Mason Peck declared that Vardeman had baptized more individuals than any other man in the United States and put his estimate at 8000 converts.[4] One easterner who came west to Missouri thinking that all Baptist Preachers would be backward and uneducated said, “I am surprised and I confess it. I have never seen in New York or in New England a more magnificent body of men, nor such manly dignity and genuine courtesy in the members of any deliberative assembly.”[5]

These three men and others like them across the young state of Missouri preached a message that was amazingly the same. Baptist to the core, the vast majority were Regular Baptists in theology as evidenced by the similarity of their Associational and Church Articles of Faith. They simply believed in Providence, God’s rule over everything.[6] They preached Christ and him crucified as the only provision for man’s sin.

Less provincial than most Baptists today they viewed their ministry as a shared ministry with each other. Seldom was there a preaching day designated without several different pastors taking their turn. If you were a Baptist you were one of them. Providence Baptist Church invited members of sister churches in good standing to sit in on its business meetings and act in council with the members of Providence.[7]

Missions became their Achilles heel. And the irony of the whole anti-missions controversy in Missouri and elsewhere was the fact that all these early Baptist preachers who would later disagree to the point of division were missionaries down to their very bones. They had proven that fact by their lives. Preaching wherever they could gather a crowd; in a cabin, on a riverbank, to the Indians, at the forts, they had planted churches, baptized converts in cold streams, and all knew firsthand of the sacrificial deaths of some of their Baptist brothers for the cause of Christ and His Gospel on the wild frontier.

John Taylor of the Elkhorn Association of Kentucky, recognized as the premier anti-missions leader in Kentucky, was an old friend of James Suggett, the Pastor of Providence Baptist Church at the time of the first meeting of the Missouri Baptist General Association. It was John Taylor who said of James Suggett before Suggett migrated to Missouri, “When I see him in the pulpit, I think he ought never to come out of it, and when I see him out of it, I think he ought never go into it.”[8] As early as 1801, from the region where Taylor was most active, a appointment of a missionary to the Indians of the Great Lakes region had taken place. The request for the mission had been raised by the South Elkhorn Church. It had subsequently been authorized by the association. It was financed under a plan originating with the local association.[9] Regular Baptists apparently had no problem with homespun missions.

The anti-missions controversy that grew to divisive proportions in the early 1800’s was in its early stages more about methods, control, pride and jealously than it ever was about doing or not doing missions. The early objections to mission societies and paid missionaries at least to John Taylor and others like him were so clear that Taylor recorded what many frontier Baptists felt.

First he thought that the agents and missionaries of the societies and convention put too much emphasis on gathering funds. He predicted that no amount would ever satisfy their demands. Secondly he saw the missions movement as the beginning of a Baptist aristocracy which would undermine the foundation of Baptist republican government. Thirdly, he did not approve of seminary trained ministers because they would of a necessity demand paid salaries from the churches they pastored. Based on his own experience with two missionaries who had stayed overnight in his home he had concluded, however wrongly, that the young crop of educated ministers were more interested in salaries than they were in preaching. And finally he was personally offended by missionary stories of privation and suffering because he himself had seen first hand privation and suffering among his Baptist brethren on the Virginia and Kentucky frontiers.[10]

Taylor’s connection to Missouri Baptists is noted in his pamphlet Thoughts on Missions in 1819, when he wrote, “Perhaps I might not use the freedom I do, but for two tours I have taken in the Missouri country within a year past. The marvelous tales, coming from that country, about the mission there, were some inducement to my enterprise. To read, or hear the Reports of Peck and Welch, it would seem as if the whole country was almost a blank as to religion. But the fact of the case contradicts their Reports. From their statements, one would think, there was not surely a preacher in the country that deserved the name, and hardly a church there that was in good order, whereas the fact is, there are three Baptist associations in the territory, and as many preachers, perhaps, as there are in Kentucky according to the number of the people, and many of them respectable…”[11]

Many Baptists today wrongly assume that all anti-missionary proponents were uneducated and illiterate and totally opposed to trying to evangelize or convert the lost because of their Calvinism or hyper-Calvinism.[12] Those assumptions might have been true of isolated individuals but would not have characterized most Missouri Baptist pastors of the 1820’s and early 30’s. The reality was that most anti-missionary proponents believed that mission societies were unscriptural and that man-made establishments such as Sunday schools and theological seminaries were dangerous departures from Baptist norms. They also feared that an embracing of eastern mission societies and theological seminaries would lead to a loss of local and regional autonomy.

The men, their message and their particular slant on missions had already reached critical mass by August, 29^th, 1834, when the buggies, wagons and horses began arriving at the Providence Church of Callaway County carrying the founders of today’s Missouri Baptist Convention. Both sides were represented but the anti-missions detractors were mere observers as the men of the hour forged ahead to implement the vision of a united Baptist effort to reach the thirteen year old state of Missouri for Jesus Christ.

Providence Baptist Church

The meeting place, Providence Baptist Church, Salem Baptist Association, was a central location as most of the early Baptist population of the state was centered between or near the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The choice of Providence in 1834, and Little Bonn Femme Baptist Churches in 1835, speaks highly of the reputation of the Baptists of the area. Those calling the meeting were pioneer Baptist leaders in Missouri and they simply chose to meet on their home ground.

The Providence Baptist Church at the time of the meeting was eight years old having existed in Callaway County since August 5, 1826. As with many Baptist Churches founded during the frontier days of the early 1800’s the original records of the church are today non-existent. The earliest known official church documents are dated from 1887 and are found in a leather bound ledger book which is kept in a safe at the present church location. The first pages of the book contain handwritten copies of the original Covenant complete with a list of the charter members of the church, The Articles of Faith, and the Rules for Decorum. Copies of these three documents are found at the end of this paper. (NOTE: After this paper was written the original records of the church were found in a vault at a local printing company in Callaway County. Read about it at the following link. http://www.providencehill.org/The%20Church/important_news.htm )

The Providence Baptist Church was in the beginning at least on paper, a Regular Baptist Church. Its original Articles of Faith were identical to the Abstract of Principles of the Mount Pleasant Association which was the mother association to all churches in Central Missouri. Founded by rough and hardy pioneer Baptist stock this church was not distinguishably different from the dozen or so others like it in the region.

Its members were for the most part farmers who were in the early stages of the hard work of building their lives in this new Missouri land. They were simply too busy surviving to have time to write about their lives or their churches. Therefore little is known of the original charter members of the Providence Baptist Church outside of the briefest of family records and the occasional mention of one or more of the members being in attendance at an early associational meeting.

The first church building was a log structure about eighteen feet square, heated by a fireplace. The second building where the organizational meeting of the Missouri Baptist General Association took place was constructed out of handmade bricks and had been built out of necessity as the congregation quickly outgrew its rapidly deteriorating first building.[13] The original church site is located northeast of New Bloomfield on the grounds of the Callaway Baptist Associational Camp. Old Providence Cemetery lies to the west of the site adjacent to the camp. James Suggett’s grave is located in this cemetery. (Note: Since this paper was written, Providence Baptist Church has regained possession of the original church site due to the graciousness of the Callaway Baptist Association)

Providence Baptist Church’s early history is with rare exception a collage of fading glimpses into the past. Glimpses made visible only by overlaying family records with church minutes and associational minutes and then by adding verbal snapshots from the biographies and the sparce writings of some of the leading pastors of the period.

In that last respect Providence stands out from many of the other churches in that James Suggett, one of the main characters in the formation of the Missouri Baptist General Association, was a long time Pastor of the church. In mining the past for church history, the historian follows the producing vein. James Suggett without question is the richest vein in Providence’s history. The early history of Providence Baptist Church and its connection to the formation of the Missouri Baptist Association is the story of James Suggett.

James Suggett

Imagine you’re four years old. The house you were born in, first crawled in, learned to walk in, is being emptied. The wagons are being packed. You world is being disrupted. Your father and Mother didn’t ask you. Your father just announced it. Your family is moving to a far off place called Kentucky.

In the fall of 1779, the James Suggett family led by Parson James Suggett, grandfather to the four year old James Suggett who would later become pastor of Providence Baptist Church, Callaway County, Missouri, uprooted itself from Orange County, Virginia, and embarked on a westward journey.[14] This hardy Welsh family who had migrated from Wales in 1650, and settled in Virginia thought it not foolhardy to pack up everything they owned and move on to greener pastures. It would be a lesson young James would learn and follow himself.

The Suggetts got as far as Wheeling that fall before freezing weather closed the Ohio River. Stranded until the spring thaw they did not even reach Kentucky until March 29, 1780.[15] Cities like Louisville and Lexington did not exist. Places with names like Floyd’s Fort on the Falls of the Ohio River near the present Louisville and Bryan’s Station further inland near the present Lexington were the destinations of pioneer travelers. The Suggetts spent the summer near Floyd’s Fort no doubt camping under the stars and the wagons and moved to Bryan’s Station later in the fall.

Bryan’s Station had been built by four Bryan Brothers in 1779. The station itself was a fort built in the shape of a parallelogram, six hundred feet long and one hundred and fifty feet wide. It protected about forty cabins placed at irregular intervals along both of the exterior long sides. The cabins were built of logs and measured sixteen feet square with inward sloping roofs of boards and wooden chimneys.[16] This was young James Suggett’s home for the next three years.

The Suggetts had arrived in Kentucky at the tail end of the American Revolution in the west. Indian tribes incited by the British were still on the warpath. Bryan’s Station on August 15, 1782, was besieged by a large band of three to five hundred Indians and Canadians led by Captain William Caldwell and Simon Girty.[17] Legend has it that old “Parson” Suggett dreamed about the Indian’s presence and the alarm was given. Skeptics believe that all of the settlers in the area had already been warned by their scouts and were safely inside the fort.

The entire population of Bryan’s Station on the beginning day of the siege was one hundred forty four. The breakdown was forty three able bodied fighting men, five old men among them Parson James Suggett who already past sixty years of age was too feeble to fight, thirty-two women and sixty four children.[18]

The attack when it came was vicious. Assault with frontal attacks and flaming arrows. The forty three marksmen drove the attackers back. The flaming arrows set fires that threatened to engulf the whole fort but Parson James Suggett prayed and shortly a friendly wind sprang up and blew the flames away from the interior.[19]

When one considers the odds; three hundred to five hundred hostile Indians led by military trained white men against forty three fighting men and a large group of old men, women and children, one cannot help but see the hand of God in the deliverance of the settlers. In fact one writer commented, “who knows but this Godly old man (Parson Suggett) might have been as effective in saving the fort as were the bullets of the riflemen.[20] Providence surely would have been acknowledged as the cause of their deliverance.

The larger threat from Indians in the region subsided somewhat and with the exception of an infrequent raid, the settlers felt free to move outward from Bryan’s Station. In 1783, Robert Johnson aided by John Suggett built a small fort called Johnson’s Fort in the midst of their land holdings at Great Crossing, Kentucky, which at the time was still officially a part of Fincastle County, Virginia. It was here that young James Suggett got his first personal taste of battle during an Indian raid.[21]

With the ending of the Revolutionary War the settlement of Kentucky boomed. Growth and development was fast and furious. Land was king and records show that between John Suggett and his father, Parson Suggett, they held deed to over 4000 acres of land. Later, John and his sons would own even more land in the area.[22]

On May 28 and 29, 1785, the Suggetts along with other Baptists in the area organized the Great Crossings Baptist Church, the first church ever organized in what is now known as Scott County, Kentucky. Parson Suggett was elected moderator and signed the minutes making the church official. There is no record indicating that Parson Suggett ever preached there or anywhere in Kentucky but John remained a leader in that church and served as a deacon from 1801 to 1810.[23] Young James Suggett was not yet a believer.

Parson Suggett died during the summer of 1786. John Suggett and Mildred his wife continued to live in Scott County and raised a family of nine children, James being the oldest.

James is described in family records as being rather wild and reckless as a youth. In 1793, he married Sally A. Redding. She was the daughter of Joseph Redding the pastor of Great Crossings Baptist Church. Records indicate that James was baptized at age twenty-five and taken into the membership of the Great Crossings Baptist Church on May 2, 1800.[24]

J.H. Spencer described Suggett’s conversion and subsequent call to preach this way:

" He professed conversion, and was baptized into the fellowship of Great Crossing Church, probably by Joseph Redding, May, 1800. On the first of October of the same year, the church encouraged him to exercise his gift. On the first Saturday in July of the following year, he was licensed to preach the gospel. His ordination was called for at North Fork Church, in 1802, but for some cause, he was not ordained till eight years afterwards. He may have objected to being ordained, or his brethren may have objected, on account of his levity in conversation."[25]

James Suggett began to preach the same year he was converted, serving Clear Creek, Dry Run, and McConnell’s Run Churches in Scott County as well as other Northern Kentucky Churches.[26] (Author’s Note: In the early 1800s, to pastor a church meant that a preacher had been approved by a particular church to preach at that church. He might not and most likely was not the only preacher to enjoy that privilege and call. In fact, two or more preachers might preach on the same meeting day. Considering that most early Baptist Churches of the era met not usually more than once or twice a month, and that when the preachers were in the area, the early Baptist preachers of the frontier are more correctly categorized as circuit riding preachers than pastors of the churches they served. Almost all early pastors on the frontier were bi-vocational pastors and nearly all of them in the early years of Baptist History in Missouri served more than one church at the same time)

James Suggett was so successful in his early ministry that by 1810 when Joseph Redding retired from the Great Crossings Church, James was chosen to succeed him. Ordained on October 1, 1810, he became pastor of the Great Crossings Church. Successful from the start, by the end of the year fifteen had been baptized. Twenty-five were added the following year.[27] He was to serve the church continuously until he left for Missouri in 1822.[28]

Even though the Great Crossings Church was a large church by frontier standards, 295 members in 1811,[29] the frontier spirit still dominated the state. Before the War of 1812, James Suggett picked up rifle and knife and joined the Kentucky militia to fight the Indians stirred up once again by the British. As a captain he won special commendation from General William Henry Harrison by leading a spirited defense and timely counterattacks in the Battle of Tippecanoe on November 7, 1811. During the War of 1812, James and others in the area of Scott and Mason Counties recruited their quota of 500 Kentuckians. During the next months, James served as a lieutenant in the position of adjutant to Major Johnson, Chaplain and Chief of Spies or Scouts and saw considerable action. Before the war was over in 1814, James Suggett had been promoted to Major with the triple responsibility of Adjutant to Colonel Johnson, Regimental Chaplain and Chief of Spies or Scouts.[30] His military exploits and travels carried him as far as Detroit and Canada and earned him the nickname of “The Fighting Parson.”[31] Providence again had prevailed.

Returning to his home in the fall of 1814, James Suggett found himself to be better known and more respected than before he left for the war. Because of his prominence he was welcome in many pulpits across the state. In addition to his preaching and pastoring responsibilities he farmed and dealt in real estate. By 1822, James Suggett personally owned 3520 acres in Scott and Mason Counties.[32] No one man or one family in that era could possibly utilize that much land effectively as a farm enterprise unless slave labor was used. Though not much is said about the subject in family records, the Suggetts were slave owners in Kentucky and in Missouri as well.[33]

In the years prior to 1822, James Suggett became very interested in Missouri.[34] Many other Kentuckians had already migrated westward to that new and promising land. In 1822, the James Suggett family moved overland by wagon to the new state of Missouri. They settled in Cedar Township of South Boone County on farmlands he had traded for most of his Kentucky holdings.[35] Continuing where he had left off in Kentucky, James Suggett became one of the pastors of the Little Bonne Femme Baptist Church which was close to his home and also preached in the Columbia, Rocky Fort, and Clayville Baptist Churches in Boone County and Providence Baptist Church in Callaway County. Southern Boone County would be their home until the Suggetts would move for the final time to their last home just across Hillers’ Creek from Providence Baptist Church in Callaway County.

Providence Baptist Church members have maintained down through the years that James Suggett was their first pastor. Interestingly enough neither he nor any of his children are listed as being present at the organizational meeting of the church. It is suspected by this author that he indeed was one of the first men who preached on a regular basis at Providence having been already established in the area by the time of the organization of the church.

The First Meeting of the Missouri Baptist General Association

The stage was set for the historical first meeting of the Missouri Baptist General Association at Providence Baptist Church. On August 29, 1834, they came from south of the river and from the north, from the east and from the west. One woman who attended the fiftieth anniversary in 1884, had attended that first meeting with her family. She wrote of crossing, “the almost trackless prairies. We saw herds of deer and elk, but the trails were all that remained of the vast herds of buffalo that had roamed over Missouri.”[36]

They came to Providence the last week of August, 1834, to carry the dream and vision of three fellow Missouri ministers one step further. In the fall of 1833, Thomas Fristoe, Ebenezer Rogers and Fielding Whilhoite met at the home of John Jackson in Howard County to pray about and discuss their great burden for the “religious destitution” of the state. They resolved to go upon an extended preaching excursion at their own expense and so Fristoe and Rogers journeyed as far as Paris in Monroe County. Wilhoite, took A.J. Bartee and went in the other direction. When they returned and met to share their impressions they were more than ever convinced that their original estimation of the state of religion in Missouri was true. It was decided to send letters to leading Baptists in the state calling for a meeting for the purpose to form a general society for missionary work in Missouri.[37] Their personal sentiment was “We are insufficient for these things!”[38]

As a result of those three Missouri Baptist ministers’ burden for the state, eighteen ministers, twelve laymen, a good number of opponents, some family members of those attending, church members of Providence and certainly even some slaves who had been brought along to tend the animals and help prepare meals were all in attendance during the four days of meetings beginning on August 29, 1834. It is reported that in addition to the discussion at hand much preaching was heard that weekend with many of the visiting preachers given a chance to preach at Providence Baptist Church. It was even reported that several converts were baptized.[39] It is not known whether these were locals or visitors to the meeting.

Undoubtedly the most interesting conversations were probably carried on not during the meetings but during spontaneous conversation around the campfires at night or at breaks during the day.

The list of ministers known as subscribers to the notion of holding the meeting reads like a roll call of who was who in Central Missouri Baptist history. Jeremiah Vardeman, William Hurley, Ebenezer Rogers, James Suggett, (pastor of Providence Baptist Church) Jabez Ham, J.C. McCutchen (a charter member of Providence Baptist Church) J.B. Longan, Walter McQuie, Noah Flood, Kemp Scott, J.W. Maxey, Fielding Wilhoite, William H. Duval, Thomas Fristoe, Robert S. Thomas, G.M. Bower and Anderson Woods; and J. M. Peck, missionary from Illinois who had been especially invited.[40]

The Friday meeting began. “Agreeably to general notice, the subscribers, members of Baptist churches in Missouri, associate themselves together at Providence meeting-house in Callaway County, to deliberate upon the state of religion in the bounds of the churches to which they belong, and to consult if any special measures are necessary and practicable to promote the preaching of the gospel within the bounds of the state.” [41]

After laying out the general purpose of the meeting and organizing themselves they continued on Saturday. “Assembled and Called to Order. Rules of decorum reported and adopted. The committee then offered for consideration the following resolutions, upon which some of the brethren addressed the meeting, and each resolution was adopted unanimously. Resolved, That we consider the preaching of the gospel the great and prominent means which God has appointed for the conversion of sinners and the upbuilding of his church on earth. Resolved, That in accordance with the sentiments of our denomination, all preachers of the gospel whom God approves must give evidence that they are born again by the Spirit, called of God to the work, and be set apart by ordination by the authority of the church. Resolved, That it is the duty of all Christians to promote, as the Lord has prospered them, the preaching of the gospel to the destitute.”[42]

The day was spent as the “Brethren from each part of the state were invited to give information on the following subjects:

1. On the state of religion generally, revivals, and success in preaching the gospel.

2. On the destitute churches, and fields of labor.

3. What special measures have the Baptists pursued to promote the cause, and supply destitute churches and settlements, and what have been the fruits of those measures?

After some progress on the above topics, the meeting adjourned till Monday.”[43]

In the opposition group, Theodore Boulware, T.P. Stephens and others were in attendance but would not allow their names to be enrolled. Boulware and Stephens, the leaders of the Anti-Missions sentiment in Salem Association were connected to the Providence Baptist Church. Boulware preached there on more than one occasion and T. P. Stephens, pastor of Cedar Creek Baptist Church had been one of the elders who had helped constitute the church in 1826. Boulware and Suggett had been neighboring pastors in Kentucky and had worked together to establish at least one new congregation in that state before they had both migrated to Missouri. T.P. Stephens was an outspoken and popular preacher who always drew a crowd anywhere he happened to be. All these men were brothers in Christ, co-laborers in missions and church planting on the frontier but they disagreed passionately about the proper way to do missions.

To charge the anti-missions group with hyper-Calvinism misses the core of their disagreement. William Hurley, a staunch Calvinist, obviously supported the idea of a general society since he was a registered subscriber and preached during this meeting at Providence! Vardeman, a more moderate Calvinist and Hurley had debated their respective theology before[44] but all these men had been united for years on matters of basic doctrine. The argument was not about theology but about who had Biblical authority to do missions; the local church or some man-made mission society. Boulware made a comment at that 1834 meeting that has outlived all the other comments that surely were made on both sides of the issue. He says, “We advised and entreated these brethren to disperse and not establish this cockatrice’s den among us, from which will emanate a serpentine brood, marring the peace of God’s children and bringing scandal on the cause of Christ, for we feel assured you have much more in view than the happiness of the church and the salvation of men. We fear you are deceptive.”[45]

In spite of the opposition the pro-missionary forces prevailed and pressed on. On Monday, September 1^st, Jeremiah Vardeman, the moderator [46] led in prayer and the business of Saturday was resumed. At the close of the day the assembly had adopted two more resolutions which would eventually launch what they called “the Baptist Central Convention of Missouri.” The first resolution that day called for the urgent necessity of preaching the gospel both on the frontiers and within the bounds of four existing Missouri Associations, the Salt River, Salem, Mount Pleasant and Concord Associations. It also set the date for the next meeting, “the first Friday before the first Lord’s day in June, 1835, when with leave of Divine Providence we will assemble at Bonne Femme meeting-house…to adopt a constitution and enter upon such measures as may be deemed expedient.”[47] This was a Central Missouri group with a sharp focus on central, west and north Missouri. These were pioneer preachers who were in the habit of looking forward to places they had not conquered.

The second resolution on that Monday was that an invitation in the form of the proposed constitution of the new organization be sent to all Baptist parties in the state. It was noted that the constitution had not been adopted nor the body yet organized. That was clearly left for the next meeting, to be held at Little Bonne Femme in 1835.[48]

The meeting adjourned and the group left Providence in 1834, not knowing what the future held for each if them individually or collectively but confident that they had accomplished what they had set out to do. They left Providence with their trust in Providence intact.

In Conclusion

That there was a sharp division among Missouri Baptists over missions is not debatable. That it permanently destroyed many friendships and relationships is also true. That it may have hindered the progress of Missouri Baptists is debatable for it is always in times of greatest friction and stress that sparks are generated that ignite greater fires. The sparks kindled a fire that weekend in 1834, that has never burned out. We call it the Missouri Baptist Convention today.

Perhaps the more lamentable facts surrounding the entire anti-missions controversy is that we modern Missouri Baptists have eternally dismissed the anti-missions group as being hopelessly wrong and totally out of touch with God’s Will. In essence we have been guilty of forgetting the essential contributions they made to the first stages of Baptist life in Missouri. And perhaps even some of the setbacks we have suffered during our convention’s long history could have been avoided had we heeded some of their warnings about institutionalism. Finally, one cannot help but wonder how many of their converts later became mission minded Southern Baptists. Did all of this have to happen? Of course it did. It was Providence.

As current pastor of Providence Baptist Church and a true believer in the cause of missions, I conclude that Providence Baptist Church was the right place at the right time for the first meeting of the assembly that would later become the Missouri Baptist Convention. After all it was Providence.

Providence Baptist Church Covenant

We whose names are under written being desirous to be constituted a Church of Jesus Christ at this place, and having all due knowledge of one another in point of a work of Grace on our hearts, Religious principles and moral character, and being desirous of enjoying the privileges that appertain to the people of God in a Church relation, Do in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily and freely give ourselves up to the Lord and to one another according to his word, to be one body under one head, jointly to exist and act by the bands and rules of the Gospel, and do promise and engage to do all things by Divine assistance in our different capacity and relations that the Lord has commanded us particularly to deny our selves - take up our cross - follow Christ - Keep the faith - assemble our selves together - love the brethren - submit one to another in the Lord - care for one another - bear one another’s burdens - endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. And now upon the above articles and covenant the undersigned was constituted and pronounced a Gospel Church of Christ by elders Nineon Ridgeway, Thomas Stephens and Toliver Craig at our meeting at brother Lewis Turners on Middle River Auxvasse in the county of Callaway, Mo the 5th day of August 1826.

James C. McCutchen

William Martin

Winifred Martin

Nathan Duly

Bazzle Rose

Elizabeth Rose

Martin Langley

Asa Williams

Elizabeth Williams

Isaac Stites

Mary Mc Cutchen

Lewis Turner

Sarah Turner

Malinda Thompson

Mary Williams

Susanna Stites Sr.

Susanna Stites Jr.

Samuel

Jane Stites

Nancy Heart

The Church now being constituted in gospel order proceeded to the order of business in a church capacity. Transcribed from the Old Book by order of the Church at her regular meeting in December, 1887.

J.T. Kemper - Church Clerk

Articles of Faith of the Baptist Church Called Providence

Article 1st - We believe one only true and Living God, the Father, the Word and Holy Ghost.

Article 2nd - We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the Word of God and the only rule of Faith and Practice.

Article 3rd - We believe in the doctrine of original Sin.

Article 4th - We believe in the doctrine of Election and that God chose his people in Christ before the Foundation of the world.

Article 5th - We believe in man’s impotency to recover himself from the State he is in by nature of his own free will and ability.

Article 6th - We believe that Sinners are Justified in the Sight of God only by the imputed Righteousness of Christ.

Article 7th - We believe that God’s Elect Shall be Called, Converted, Regenerated, and Sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Article 8th - We believe the Saints Shall persevere in Grace and never fall finally away.

Article 9th - We believe that Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordinances of Jesus Christ and that true believers are the Subjects and that the true mode of Baptism is by going down into the water and being buried with Christ in Baptism.

Article 10 - We believe in the Resurrection of the Dead and a general Judgment.

Article 11 - We believe that the punishment of the wicked and the Joys of the Righteous will be Eternal.

Article 12 - We believe that no Minister has a right to the administration of the ordinances only such as are Regularly Baptized, Called and authorized by the presbyter.

Rules of Decorum of Providence Baptist Church

Article 1st - The Church Shall hold a meeting for business once in each month which shall be opened and closed by public worship and the members present shall form a quorum to transact any business that shall come before them.

Article 2nd - The Pastor or Elder of the Church shall act as Moderator until the Church shall direct otherwise. It shall be his duty to keep good order.

Article 3rd - The Moderator shall invite all Baptists of Sister Churches which are in good standing to seat with us and act in council with us.

Article 4th - The Church shall then open a door for the reception of members.

Article 5th - All difficulties between brother or sister Shall be settled according to the 18th Chapter of Matthew.

Article 6th - After the church be thus organized the references from any former meeting shall be taken up and acted upon.

Article 7th - In the transaction of Business each motion meeting with second shall be acted upon unless withdrawn by the mover.

Article 8th - when a question of debate be before the Church only one member shall speak at a time whose duty it shall be to first to arise and address the moderator.

Article 9th - the member speaking shall not be interrupted provided he attends strictly to the subject before the Church.

Article 10 - any member may have a right to call to order and where that point is disputed the moderator shall decide. Yet if the member should not consider himself out of order he may appeal to the Church.

Article 11 - No member has the right to speak more than three times to the same subject without leave of the Church and if the debate be protracted and the church or individual wish the main question may be introduced in these words shall the main question be taken.

Article 12 - When a question is before the Church for discussion it shall be the duty of each member to give their vote.

Article 13 - In choosing a pastor or other officers of the church, 2/3rds of the votes cast shall Elect. Receiving and dismissing members a unanimous vote shall be had. In other business of the Church a majority shall rule.

Article 14 - No member shall withdraw from the business unnecessary until regularly dismissed.

Article 15 - No member shall address another with any other title but Brother or Sister.

Article 16 - We think it the duty for all the members of the Church to take seats at the Communion Table.

Article 17 - We think it a breach of fellowship for any member of the Church to take the Lord’s Supper with any religious sect which is not of our faith and order.

Article 18 - It shall be the duty of the members of the church to meet as near as they can at 11 O’clock AM at regular meetings and Rules of decorum shall be read if called for.

Article 19 - Those members who may violate any of the above rules may be dealt with as the church may think proper.

[1] Barrow, E. Cave, The History of the Suggetts in Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, Manuscript in Scott County Public Library, Kentucky, p. 11

[2] Duncan, R.S., A History of the Baptists in Missouri, Scammel and Company, Publishers, St. Louis, 1882, p. 407

[4] Lamkin, Adrian Jr., The Pamphlet Jeremiah Vardeman, Missouri Baptist Heritage Series, - primary source, an article by John Mason Peck in the August 1854 issue of “The Christian Repository.”

[5] Yeaman, W. Pope, History of the Missouri Baptist General Association, Press of E. W. Stephens, Columbia, Mo., 1899, p. 31

[6] Berkouwer, G.C., The Providence of God, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1983, p. 9.

[7] Rules of Decorum, Article 3, Providence Baptist Church, 1826

[8] Spencer, J.H. , A History of Kentucky Baptists, 1886, republished by Church History Research and Archives, LayFayette, Tn. p. 312

[10] Masters, Frank M. , A History of Baptists in Kentucky, Kentucky Baptist Historical Society, 1953, pp. 192-194

[11] McBeth, H. Leon, A Sourcebook for Baptist Heritage, Broadman Press, 1990, p. 233-234

[12] Jones-Greene, Jennifer, Rationale for the Formation of the Southern Baptist Convention, Published by Southern History, www.southernhistory.net, p. 1

[13] A History of Callaway County, Published by The Kingdom of Callaway Historical Society, Fulton, MO. 1984, p. 112

[27] Bradley, J.N. History of the Great Crossings Baptist Church, Part I, Published 1945 by Great Crossings Baptist Church, Georgetown, Kentucky.

[36] From an Article “Providence Baptist Church Site of Anniversary Fete by Barbara H. Burlison, Kingdom Daily Sun-Gazette, Vol. 108, No. 71, August 30, 1984.

[46] Kingsley, J. Gordon, Frontiers, The Story of Missouri Baptists, Published by the Missouri Baptist Convention, 1983, p. 34