January 20, 2025
Baptists arriving in colonial Georgia came for many reasons. Most were looking for a fresh start to provide a better life for their families. Some were spurred because of religious persecution; others were compelled by economic circumstances, seeking virgin farmland, to escape poverty beyond their control; some had no choice, arriving in the bonds of slavery.
Universally, they brought with them their curiosities, hopes, and dreams, often leaving behind loved ones, churches, and sacred memories. One thing they did not leave behind was their faith and practice. Soon new Baptist churches were being planted, first in the colony and then in the new state that followed.
As the Georgia Baptist Mission Board and North American Mission Board commit to a renewed effort to plant new churches, a look at how it has been done in the past may provide insight and inspiration moving forward. From the first church constituted in 1772 to more than four thousand Baptist churches of various affiliations today, it has been a long journey of faith.
The earliest churches often organized around groups who migrated to Georgia from other colonies. Often, they were extended families, from the same communities and in many cases the same churches. The first church constituted, Kiokee in 1772, was a result of church planting efforts of the Separatist Baptist Marshall family from South Carolina who had moved to Georgia, and an influx of Baptists fleeing persecution in North Carolina following the Battle of Alamance.
After settling in Georgia, itinerant (wandering) preachers including the Marshalls, Silas Mercer (father of Jesse), and others went on preaching tours. They focused their attention on “destitute” places in their terminology, meaning places without churches. They would stop at farms, asking families if they “wanted a sermon.” Those families invited neighbors to come and hear the preaching. In locations with a favorable response, they developed preaching circuits, which in many cases led to new churches with worship scheduled once a month.
Georgia’s first Black Baptist churches, two of the oldest black congregations in America, were established in Augusta and Savannah in 1787, predating the white congregations in those cities. Slaves had been brought to those cities by their owners to work in factories and warehouses. Springfield in Augusta had its roots on a plantation in South Carolina which may have begun as a preaching point by an itinerant Baptist preacher from New England, Waite Palmer, as early as 1755. First African Baptist of Savannah began out of a preaching circuit established by one of the first ordained Blacks in America, George Liele, prior to his departure from Georgia following the Revolution.
Associations, and after 1822, the newly created Georgia Baptist Convention, sometimes paid itinerant preachers based on the number of days of service. Most of their work focused on rural communities, but that began to change with developments in the mid to late 19th century, specifically with newly created railroad towns and mill villages.
One of those Georgia Baptist state-appointed missionaries was a colporteur named David G. Daniel. A colporteur was an itinerant preacher who also either sold or distributed Bibles and other Christian literature. In 1846, Daniel was contacted by the GBC Executive Committee and asked to relocate and focus his work on the newly developing “destitute” railroad town of Marthasville. By the time a church was organized, the town was renamed Atlanta.
This was the first record of a location being specifically targeted for church planting, but it was far from the last. A focus on planting churches in railroad towns and mill villages had begun. It continued into the early 20th century as the railroads and mills expanded across the state.
In many mill villages, the mill owners not only provided housing, stores, recreation facilities, and schools, but they also provided church buildings to be used for worship. Typically, in Georgia it was a Baptist and Methodist church, sometimes sharing the same building. The mill would often supplement a minister’s salary. Consequently, if a mill closed, the mill church often closed as well.
One of the methods that began to be incorporated into church planting was to begin by organizing a Sunday School. At this time Sunday Schools were exclusively for children. Sunday Schools not only generated interest in a community but developed relationships often leading to the organization of a new church.
In a day when churches only met once a month for worship many people who had moved to a mill village were members of a church, often some distance away. New Holland Baptist Church organized in 1902 in Gainesville is a typical example of a mill church. The mill owners provided a building, shared with the Methodists until the 1950s. The church was organized out of a Sunday School begun for children of the village.
Church planting among the Black community began early in Georgia as noted above. In the antebellum South, Black members of a church sometimes requested permission to worship at a separate hour with either a white or in many cases a Black preacher. Two of the largest church memberships of churches affiliated with the GBC before the Civil War were Black churches, Springfield in Augusta and First African in Savannah.
Black churches, such as the oldest in Atlanta, Friendship Baptist, began as churches within churches. Prior to the Civil War, Black congregations were by state law required to be under the authority of a white minister, even though Black ministers had been ordained in Georgia since before the Revolution. Friendship began as basically, a church within a church, out of the Black membership of First Baptist Atlanta with Frank Quarles, a Black pastor.
Following the war, Black churches, like Friendship, were formally constituted out of the membership of the white churches where they had previously been members. The white churches often provided financial assistance and, in some instances, shared worship space and/or provided buildings for the new congregations. The minutes of white churches recorded granting letters of membership to the new Black churches being organized.
In the early 20th century, Georgia experienced a defining demographic shift. By the second decade of the century, for the first time in U.S. history, more people were living in urban areas than on farms. This urban growth accelerated during the build-up to World War II and exploded in the years following the war fueled by the automobile, the introduction of home air conditioning, and the post-war Baby Boom.
Church planting in the 20th century was typically the product of existing churches planting new churches, sometimes by encouraging some of their members who had moved into the growing suburbs to organize new churches. The “mother church” often provided financial support during the “mission phase” of the new plant. At other times, partnerships were formed between a sponsoring church, associations, the GBC and Home Mission Board to provide support for church planters or to help secure land and facilities.
As the population of the state grew, those who were “destitute” were not always defined by geographical boundaries. By the 1960s a new focus of targeting ethnic communities for church planting emerged as language and culture redefined the need. The first targeted group was the Hispanic population near military bases. Since that time, it has moved on to encompass other languages and ethnic groups.
Historically speaking, Georgia Baptists have always targeted “destitute” people and places, supporting the work of church planting and church planters. In the early days, that followed a similar model repeated today of “multiple campuses” as itinerant preachers developed circuits. In many cases, to deal with ethnic or language barriers, planters created “churches within churches” to reach different people groups. Many of these church planting models of the past are still viable models.
Today there are still many “destitute” places and people in Georgia. Those voids should be specifically targeted because the gospel desperately needs to be proclaimed, believers need to be discipled, and they need a place to serve and build up other builders in the faith through worship and fellowship. It’s time for Georgia Baptists to once again lean into discovering and planting churches in those destitute places across the state to fulfill the Great Commission.
