April 23, 2024
The Baptist Young People’s Union was “the foundation of all other Baptist Programs of the 20th century with the exception of the Sunday School and the WMU.” This was the view of Waldo Woodcock, who was for many years the Church Training Director of the Georgia Baptist Convention. The work of the BYPU was a major factor driving the growth of missions and other SBC ministries in the 20th century.
With increasing urbanization in the late 19th century came the corresponding increase in teenagers and young adults living in urban areas. Unlike their rural counterparts, urban young people lived in close proximity to each other and didn’t have long hours of farm labor consuming their time. In fact, they actually had leisure time for socializing and other activities their rural counterparts lacked. The need for ministries focused on young people became apparent.
In 1881 the Congregationalist denomination introduced Christian Endeavor, followed by the Methodist in 1889 with the creation of the Epworth League. Both of these young people’s organizations had the purpose of discipleship, training, and fellowship. Each grew rapidly and many Baptist young people began to join these ministries. Seeing the need for a Baptist ministry, some Baptist churches began organizing their own ministries. Its development was rapid and the ministry was considered radical by many in the era.
In 1893, the Georgia Baptist Convention took the first steps to create a discipleship ministry for young people modeled after Christian Endeavor and the Epworth League. The following year, Lansing Burrows, pastor of First Baptist Augusta, Ga., brought a report adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention recommending the creation of a young people’s ministry. In September 1895 the first State Baptist Young People’s Union was organized in Macon, Georgia. They, in turn, invited other state conventions to do the same.
The stated purpose of the BYPU was to help young people grow by the study of: 1) the Bible, 2) denominational history, 3) denominational doctrine, 4) denominational work, and 5) the development of Christian character and activity (fellowship). In reality, fellowship often drew them in, but the instruction which was provided had a long-term impact on Baptist life. The BYPU fostered denominational loyalty, paving the way for increased stewardship and mission support that would drive Southern Baptists' missions growth and expansion through the 20th century.
The first BYPU in Georgia had been organized at the West End Baptist Church of Atlanta under the leadership of their pastor S.Y. Jameson in 1895. A few years later, Jameson was elected the third Corresponding Secretary/Treasurer (executive director) of the Georgia Baptist State Mission Board in 1899. In this position, he continued to support the work of the BYPU, which grew rapidly across Georgia and the South.
The literature used by the BYPU at the turn of the 20th century was primarily coming from northern publishers, including the Christian Endeavor literature. The Sunday School Board began publishing BYPU materials in 1905. Within a few years, the Sunday School Board went from publishing to actively promoting the work across the South.
Interestingly enough, the same year the SBC adopted the creation of the BYPU in 1895 was the same year the SBC adopted a “new” model, at least among Baptists, of Biblical stewardship. It was the Biblical model of “the tithe.” This generation which was eagerly embracing the concept of the BYPU was the first to be taught tithing as the Biblical model for stewardship through the BYPU.
In 1901, Corresponding Secretary/Treasurer Jameson stated 78 churches of the approximately 2,600 GBC-affiliated churches had given half of the mission funds received. The two leading associations in giving at this time were the Rehoboth which included Macon and the Stone Mountain which included most of the Atlanta area churches. The direct correlation between increased missions giving through urban and county-seat town churches, the ones most like to have a BYPU ministry, was significant.
There were other contributing factors. These churches were more likely to have had an organized WMU and better-educated ministers who tended to do a better job promoting missions in their churches. Yet even beyond this, statistically speaking the BYPU was already making an impact on the denomination. It would continue to do so in the following decade with the denominational loyalty the BYPU generated, and by providing trained lay speakers to promote “The 75 Million Campaign.” The campaign, which lasted from 1919 to 1924, trained Sunday School teachers and other church workers to more effectively do the work of the church.
Other ministries to which the BYPU gave birth included the Baptist Collegiate Ministries (formally Baptist Student Ministries), Stewardship Ministries, Baptist Camps and Assemblies, and ministries like the SPARK training opportunities offered later this year.
Possibly the biggest impact of this ministry was training and equipping leadership, especially lay leadership. Two cases in point were laymen. Columbus Roberts (1879-1959) from Columbus, Ga., became a “Five Minute Speaker” promoting the 75 Million Campaign (1919-1924) in Columbus area churches. In the process, he noted that better educated pastors did a better job of promoting missions. Therefore, he surmised, he could promote missions by specifically supporting Christian higher education. He would give more to support Georgia Baptist schools when adjusted for inflation than any other person in history. Furthermore, he personally helped bankroll the establishment of the Georgia Baptist Foundation for the same purpose of supporting education. He is one of the few laymen to be elected President of the Georgia Baptist Convention serving in 1946 and 1947. Today, his gifts through the Georgia Baptist Foundation continue to support Georgia Baptist colleges and universities.
The second layman was a young businessman from Gainesville, Ga., named James Merritt. Merritt (1886-1972). He became active in the BYPU, helping organize state and regional meetings. He served as state BYPU president from 1917-1919. In 1920, he began working for the Georgia Baptist State Mission Board in the area of Sunday School promotion. He later worked for The Christian Index before being elected the sixth executive director of the State Mission Board in 1930. His leadership was pivotal, as he led Georgia Baptist mission work through the depths of the Great Depression, the Second World War, and into the early years of the Baby Boom before retiring in 1954. He has been the only layman to serve in the role of executive director.
Over the decades the name would change to Baptist Training Union and later Discipleship Ministries. The age range was expanded to include all ages, but the goal was always the same: to train Baptists to become leaders in the local church and denomination. Churches have struggled in recent years to have effective discipleship ministries, as trends and expectations have changed. At the same time, support for missions and denominational loyalty have waned. It may be time to re-examine discipleship and how it is best done if Southern Baptists are to effectively support the work of cooperative missions in the 21st century.
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Charles Jones is a Southern Baptist historian, pastor, and newspaper columnist.
