The
American Baptist Association
(
ABA), formed in 1924, is an association of nearly
2,000
theologically conservative churches that are
Landmark Baptist in their missions and
teachings.
The Association is based in the United States
and has churches primarily in Arkansas
, Louisiana
, Texas
, Mississippi
, Oklahoma
, Florida
and California
with smaller numbers of churches in almost all of
the states. There are also numerous churches in Mexico
, the
Philippines
and other foreign countries which affiliate with
the ABA.
History
Origins
The official organization of the American Baptist Association was
on Wednesday, December 10, 1924.
The Baptist movement in America began with
John Clarke in Rhode Island
in the early 17th century. Baptist churches
spread from New
England
through New
York
and Pennsylvania
, to the Midwest and the American South. The Landmark Baptist
view of their origins are that Baptist churches have
existed in perpetuity since the time
of the
New Testament.
Landmarkism
As Baptist churches were established in the Virginias and the
Carolinas, some churches decided to convene regularly for
missionary and governmental policy-making, but others did not
citing local church authority.
These boards or conventions gave rise first
to the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions and later to the Southern Baptist Convention
based in Nashville,
Tennessee
.
A series of controversies arose in the middle 1800s among the
Baptist churches, primarily in the South and to a smaller degree in
the North, concerning Baptist theological and governmental
principles. This movement to return to Baptist distinctives became
known as Landmarkism. Early Landmark leaders included James R.
Graves, James M. Pendleton, and Amos C. Dayton.
The Cotton
Grove Resolutions, adopted in 1851 at a meeting at Cotton Grove
Baptist Church near Jackson
, Tennessee
, were probably the first systematized expression of
Landmarkism though all the tenets existed among Baptists in some
form or another prior to them. Landmark emphases on "local
church only" and "the Great Commission given to the church" led to
dissatisfaction with SBC structure and programs, such as mission
boards. Conflicts between Landmarkers and non-Landmarkers were
behind at least four important Baptist controversies in the late
1800s – Gospel Missions, the Whitsitt Controversy, the Hayden
Controversy in Texas, and the Bogard Controversy in Arkansas.
The two state controversies led to the organization of two new
state associations - the Baptist Missionary Association (BMA) of
Texas in 1900 and the State Association of Missionary Baptist
Churches in Arkansas in 1902. Soon Oklahoma, Mississippi, and
Louisiana followed. The Texas association formed its own foreign
mission work, but others desired to see a national organization for
Landmark Baptists. Some of these organized the General Association
of Baptists in the United States of America in 1905. The General
Association never garnered full support of Landmark Baptists.
Southern Baptist churches eventually decided that the standing
boards or conventions were necessary to the efficient ministries of
its participants and made them permanent bodies. Some local
associations that withdrew from the Southern Baptist Convention
still remain aloof from any national organization.
Formation
A move for
unification of the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas and the
General Association came to fruition at Texarkana
, Texas, in 1924. The BMA of Texas continued
as a state organization. The General Association adjourned
"
sine die", and was replaced by the newly
formed American Baptist Association.
The ABA suffered a serious setback in 1950 with a
schism that led to the formation of two
new general bodies – the
North American Baptist
Association and the
Interstate & Foreign Missionary Baptist Associational Assembly
of America. Other churches withdrew and remain
independent.
Organization
The organization of the American Baptist Association is
congregationalist and oriented to
the local church. Most churches participate in local and state
associations in addition to the national body. Churches support
local, state, interstate, and foreign
missionaries, a publishing house, several
seminaries (each sponsored by a local
church), and youth camps. The ABA headquarters are in Texarkana,
Texas.
Among the ABA seminaries is Louisiana
Missionary Baptist Institute and Seminary in Minden
, founded by L.L. Clover (1902-1975).
According to the
Yearbook of American and Canadian
Churches, the American Baptist Association reported 1,760
congregations and 275,000 members in 2000.
The numerical strength
of the Association is in the Old Southwest – Arkansas, Louisiana,
Oklahoma, and Texas – but there are several churches in California and Florida.
There are
also several participating churches and missions in Illinois
, Indiana
, Missouri
, Michigan
and Ohio
.
Initially a Midwestern and Southern movement, now there are at
least a few ABA participating churches in most of the United
States, and mission work has expanded the association
worldwide.
Beliefs and practices
The American Baptist Association's participating churches are
evangelistic, and all churches hold
some shared principles of the Christian faith: Genesis account of
Creation, the Atonement, the Triune God (ABA churches prefer this
term as more specific than the
Trinity),
etc. They reject
Calvinism, specifically
the Calvinistic doctrine of
limited
atonement. The ABA participating churches also hold to the
inerrancy of the Bible, as the inspired word of God, through its
authors. The churches generally hold to the Authorized (King James)
Version of the Bible for English services and study, although some
others use the
New King James
Version, the
New
International Version, the
New American Standard Bible, the
English Standard Version,
or the
New Living Translation
Bibles.
For the most part, member churches are still partisans for the
Landmark view of
ecclesiology. The ABA
Doctrinal Statement denies the existence of a
universal church in any form, holding the
church to be an exclusively local, visible entity. They instead
classify all those who have repented of sin and put their faith and
trust in Jesus apart from works or ceremonies, regardless of
affiliation, as being in the "family of God".
ABA churches observe two ordinances:
Believer's baptism and the
Lord's Supper. For baptism, most churches will
not accept "alien" immersion, or immersion performed by
non-Baptists. Candidates participate in a remembrance ordinance
which "sets according to Scripture" one's baptism. Certain
candidates can be received by letter from other ABA or Baptist
churches. Each ABA participating church holds
closed communion, compared to the
open communion by some Baptists and other
Protestant denominations. In ABA
churches, participation in the Lord's Supper is usually limited to
the members of that congregation since each church is independent
and distinct. Some Missionary Baptists believe that Jesus practiced
closed communion with the
Apostles at the
Last Supper by removing themselves from
the other disciples. Therefore, the local church congregation may
participate, and respected guests may observe. The guests are
offered invitation to join the local church, after which time they
may participate in communion through the church covenant.
Premillennialism is the
eschatological view adopted in the ABA Doctrinal Statement.
Further reading
- Association minutes
- Baptist Around the World, by Albert W. Wardin,
Jr.
- The American Baptist Association: A Survey and Census of
Its Churches and Associations, by R. L. Vaughn
- Handbook of Denominations, by Frank S. Mead and Samuel
S. Hill
- Religious Congregations & Membership in the United
States, 2000, Glenmary Research Center
References
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