September 20, 2024
ZEBULON, Ga. — On Sunday evening, Sept. 15, the Flint River Baptist Association met at First Baptist Church in Zebulon for its annual associational meeting and bicentennial anniversary celebration. Associational Mission Strategist Frank Nuckolls announced that “What He’s Done!” would be the theme for the meeting.
At the bicentennial celebration and 201st annual meeting of the Flint River Baptist Association at First Baptist Church of Zebulon the gathered assembly had much to commemorate and celebrate.
Nuckolls addressed those in attendance, saying, “I am grateful for God’s calling to serve this great network. Serving you has been one of the highlights of my 47 years of ministry. God is at work in our association. Let’s follow His leadership and never look back.”
Encouraging reports were given highlighting the expansive work being accomplished by the associational staff and its network of churches.
Ricky Thrasher, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board Associational Missions and Convention Planning/Chaplaincy representative, read a letter from W. Thomas Hammond, Jr., executive director of the GBMB, acknowledging the association’s historic meeting and Nuckolls's effective leadership.
Steve Foster, an evangelism consultant with the GBMB, preached an inspirational sermon in which he gave the biblical basis for associations. He declared, “Churches are autonomous, but they are not independent, they are interdependent.”
He then used the first twelve verses of Acts 12 to illustrate that the book is the God-given manual for evangelism, and he concluded his message by stressing the importance and urgency of sharing the gospel now.
The Flint River Baptist Association, the tenth association to be constituted in Georgia, was organized at the Rocky Creek Baptist Church in Monroe County near Forsyth in the fall of 1824. The Flint River Association was formed by the Ocmulgee Baptist Association transferring 14 of their churches to the Flint River Association and six newly constituted churches. Those 20 churches were the original charter churches for the new association.
A history of the Flint River Baptist Association written and compiled by Nuckolls reveals that the association came into full cooperation with missionary associations in 1842. It was at this point in its history that the association became fully engaged in the total world missions program. Shortly therafter, the Flint River Baptist Association began cooperation with the Georgia Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention.
Early in the history of the association in 1836, the mission and the doctrine of the FRBA was challenged. William Mosley from Ephesus Baptist Church in Morgan County, made a divisive recommendation, namely that "all Bible Societies, Temperance, Missions, Tracts, and Sunday School Societies are unscriptural and therefore irreligious.”
The recommendation was tabled until the annual meeting in 1837 held at the Holly Grove Church in Monroe County. After a heated debate, the recommendation was voted on and defeated by a majority of the messengers, but Moseley influenced 15 churches to withdraw from the Flint River Baptist Association and started the Towaliga Anti-Missionary Baptist Association.
Undeterred, the leaders of the FRBA embraced God’s call to missions more fervently, affirmed their allegiance to the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures and renewed their determination to go forth in the advance of the gospel.
Through the years the Flint River Baptist Association supported struggling churches, started new churches, and supported mission endeavors around the world. The association established the Flint River Baptist Camp and ministered to countless girls and boys, many of whom came to faith in Christ while others were called into full time Christian service.
Four colleges and one institute were formed by the churches of the FRBA. The colleges were in Spalding County, including Griffin Collegiate Seminary/Griffin Female College, Griffin Synodical Female College, Griffin Medical College and Marshall College were all established in Griffin and in Henry County the Locust Grove Institute was founded as a preparatory school. These educational institutions made a significant impact upon the lives of their students in the latter half of the 19th century.
Other associations were birthed out of the Flint River Baptist Association including the Clayton County Baptist Association (now the Southside Baptist Network), the Centennial Baptist Association, the Fairburn Baptist Association, the Kimball Baptist Association and the Macon or Mid-State Baptist Association.
Currently, under Nuckolls's leadership, the FRBA has established the McIntosh Replanting Team to reestablish and continue the legacy of McIntosh Baptist Church on the McIntosh campus. Thomas Hill, lead pastor of Crestview Baptist Church is the chairman of the Replant Team and has stated, “Our goal is to make His glory known and advance His Word in our region through the replanting of McIntosh and the faithfulness of all our churches.”
However, Nuckolls is not only interested in fulfilling a mission in his “Jerusalem” but has extended the ministry of the association to his “Judea” by sending a team to Augusta, Ga., to assist the Lighthouse Community Fellowship Baptist Church by providing team members to minister to the nearby schools by demonstrating the love of Christ by sharing the gospel and providing backpacks and school supplies for needy students.
Nuckolls’ “Samaria” this year has been South Central Pennsylvania where they seek to plant a church in the Hershey/Harrisburg area. The association is praying for God to supply a church planter and a church planting team to serve in that area.
The Dominican Republic has become the “uttermost” for Nuckolls and the Flint River Baptist Association. In this Caribbean nation the teams from the FRBA have provided medical care, taught children in Vacation Bible School, shared the gospel with a large group of athletes, encouraged pastors and churches, equipped leaders, and have seen 165 people make commitments for Christ.
The partnership with the Dominican Republic’s Baptist Convention has also been instrumental in the formation of three Baptist Associations in that Caribbean nation.
The Flint River Baptist Association continues to be a leader in encouraging churches, providing training, stressing evangelism and assisting the churches in missions engagement.
