The Alabama Baptist Association (ABA) was an association of Baptist churches founded on 15 December 1819 by four churches: the Antioch Baptist Church (of Montgomery County, Alabama) and the Baptist churches of Old Elam (also named Elim), Bethel, and Rehoboth.[1][2]
Of these four churches, three were founded by James McLemore, a preacher who had come to Alabama by way of Georgia; only the Rehoboth church was founded by another man, Lee Compere, who later founded the First Baptist Church in downtown Montgomery, but Compere may have been recruited by McLemore. The latter's family continues to be a prominent family in Montgomery:[2] the campus of Auburn University at Montgomery is built on 500 acres of the former McLemore plantation.[3]
From the beginning the ABA was focused on missionary activity, founding churches in different counties, and had a strong representation at the 1823 foundation of the Southern Baptist Convention, supplying six of the fourteen delegates from the state of Alabama.[2] According to historian Wayne Flynt the ABA "dominated state Baptist life".[4] By 1832 the association had 28 churches in six counties.[2] But not every Baptist church in the state was pro-mission, and in the late 1820s anti-missionary influences were found in almost every church in the association. A vote in 1838 on missionary societies failed to carry the majority, but as a result seventeen churches left to form the Ebenezer Association, leaving the association with twenty-three missionary churches.[5]
In 1825 the association procured the enslaved Caesar Blackwell, "who was commissioned to preach and baptize converts in the slave community"[6] and preached to both black and white people.[1] Blackwell cost $625,[7] and lived with James McLemore, founder of the Elim, Bethel, and Antioch churches; McLemore already owned Caesar's wife and child.[8] The ABA's missionary efforts among the state's African-American population was an important factor in the doubling of the congregation reported between 1845 and 1860; in 1847, the congregation numbered 3,537 people, including 1,790 black members.[9]
In 1850, it issued a directive imploring the instruction of enslaved people—as a means of control as well as out of Christian compassion.[10] After 1860, however, more and more Baptist associations across the state were having separate services for black congregations, and so did the ABA, which in 1867 advised its member churches to "encourage blacks to form their congregations 'under the direction and supervision of their white brethren'".[11]
^ abWilson 56.
^ abcdBurton, Gary P. (2012). "The founding four churches: an overview of Baptist beginnings in Montgomery County, Alabama: the year was 1923, and Baptists of Alabama were in a celebratory mood". Alabama Baptist Historian.
^Faculty Handbook. Auburn University at Montgomery. p. 1.
^Flynt 11.
^Flynt 34.
^Kachmar, Kala (29 June 2014). "Cemetery site of first Montgomery Church". Montgomery Advertiser. p. 13A.
^Boothe 27.
^Flynt 45-47.
^Flynt 100.
^Genovese 297.
^Flynt 138.
and 26 Related for: Alabama Baptist Association information
The AlabamaBaptistAssociation (ABA) was an association of Baptist churches founded on 15 December 1819 by four churches: the Antioch Baptist Church (of...
The AlabamaBaptist Convention (ABC or ABSC) is an autonomous association of Baptist churches in the U.S. state of Alabama formed in 1823. It is one of...
Missionary BaptistAssociational Assembly of America, this group is now known as the Interstate and Foreign Landmark Missionary BaptistAssociation of America...
northern Alabama. Members from this association form the largest body of Baptists in Moore County, Tennessee. The history of The General Association of The...
of the Baptist movement in the state of Alabama predates Alabama statehood. The first Baptist church in what was then the territory of Alabama was the...
of Alabama, were also planters who owned slaves. As early as the late 18th century, Black Baptists began to organize separate churches, associations and...
Japanese creator of freeware games AlabamaBaptistAssociation, United States American BaptistAssociation, a Baptist denomination predominant in the American...
The 16th Street Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. In 1963, the church was bombed by Ku Klux Klan members. The...
The AlabamaBaptist is a weekly newspaper. It is the largest state Baptist paper in circulation. It is an entity of the AlabamaBaptist State Convention...
The National Association of Free Will Baptists (NAFWB) is a national body of Free Will Baptist churches in the United States and Canada, organized on...
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is...
Hearst Newspapers organization James McLemore, Alabama preacher and co-founder of the AlabamaBaptistAssociation John B. McLemore (died 2015), American antiquary...
Dexter Avenue Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama, United States, affiliated with the Progressive National Baptist Convention. The...
a private Baptist university in Prichard, Alabama, in Mobile County. It is affiliated with the AlabamaBaptist Convention (Southern Baptist Convention)...
Americans identify as Baptist, making Baptists the second-largest religious group in the United States, after Roman Catholics. Baptists adhere to a congregationalist...
Samford University is a private Baptist university in Homewood, Alabama. It was founded in 1841 as Howard College by Baptists. In the fall of 2023, the university...
of Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, Kentucky & Grand Bahama, and is a developing region outside of the geographical center of Conservative Baptists. The...
private historically black Baptist Bible college in Selma, Alabama, U.S.. It is affiliated with the Alabama State Missionary Baptist Convention. The institution...
the AlabamaBaptistAssociation, and preached in the Antioch Baptist Church in Montgomery County, Alabama. Received, Montgomery county, Alabama, of Francis...
This is a list of Baptist churches in the U.S. state of Alabama that are notable because they are National Historic Landmarks (NHL), listed on the National...
Brookwood Baptist Health is a network of hospitals, outpatient centers and clinics headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. It is owned by Dallas-based Tenet...
James McLemore (1782–1834) was a Baptist minister in Montgomery, Alabama. He was a leader of the AlabamaBaptistAssociation and founder of a number of churches...
professional baseball player who years later became a Baptist minister in Birmingham, Alabama. Greason played for the Birmingham Black Barons in the...
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963. The bombing...
Interstate & Foreign Landmark Missionary BaptistAssociation of America, based largely in the southern parts of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. In addition...
The Holt Street Baptist Church is a historic Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama, United States. The church served as a meeting place for Montgomery's...
Global Information