“You are acquainted with how its missionaries are suffering and its wants disregarded. [The General Association] must be more liberally supported than it has been for a year or two past. For it to go down would seriously injure our denomination in more ways than one.
“The General Association has not only been the means of extending and building up the Baptist cause in the state for many years past, but it has given rise to most of our other denominational enterprises and has been the great means of cherishing them. And though some of them may have attained to a stature above that of their mother and have risen to so elevated a position as to look down with contempt upon their parent (which in a whisper I will say I think has been the case to some extent) yet if this–their parent–is allowed to perish, I think they will all see and feel the consequences of it.”
By now, readers recognize that the language is dated but that the subject remains timely. The words are from Jesse Witt, a state missionary in Powhatan and Amelia, who in 1847 wrote a moving appeal to a prominent and well-heeled Baptist layman, John D. McGill, a lawyer in Middlesex. In essence, he was asking the Baptist layman to step up to the plate–the offering plate –and give generously to the General Association.
Witt pleaded: “I feel deeply the conviction that if the General Association is allowed to go down, as it is threatened, this neglect will be attended with disastrous consequences, that years may not be able to repair. Do my brother try to promote the interests of the General Association.”
In 1847 the General Association was only 24 years old and already it was struggling. The state association began in an age when many Virginia Baptists displayed more loyalty to their local district association than to some new-fangled statewide organization. It was a time when churches jealously guarded their autonomy even though the General Association's constitution clearly respected that principle. It was a time when many individual societies were formed to support specific work–Bible distribution, Sunday schools, missions– and some questioned an added layer of bureaucracy. It also was a time long before–75 years before–any concerted “cooperative program” to systematically and adequately fund denominational causes. The financial support of the General Association was left to interested individuals, to occasional freewill offerings and to the whims of ministers who might or might not make appeals in their churches.
From the tone of the letter, it also seems there were other “denominational enterprises” which had been created by the parent body, which were prospering while the “mother” was suffering, and which were assuming an attitude that they were “above their raising.”
Jesse Witt was concerned. He revealed in the same letter that he was leaving Virginia for Texas to serve as a missionary in that new state. Yet in these parting words he showed that his interests and concerns remained with the Virginia Baptists and the fate of the General Association.
The General Association survived the crisis of 1847. There have been many ups and downs in the intervening 160 years. But in each time period, at every time of great need, there have been clergy and laity – like Jesse Witt and John McGill – who cared and responded. The cause was worthy of every effort.
It needs to be said a thousand times that the Baptist General Association of Virginia is not “sinking to ruin” in 2006. It is strong financially but it could be even stronger.
Graduation speakers remind young scholars that American democracy, “our way of life,” always stands within one generation of being lost. The same concept applies to the far-flung ministry and services of the General Association and its various ministry partners. They stand within any one budget year of suffering financial reversals.
The General Association faces a crisis every time a church has a budget discussion, or has to decide between a church project or state missions, or calls a new pastor. Every time, the General Association and its Kingdom Advance ministries are placed on the line.
The times have changed in many ways since Jesse Witt wrote his appeal in 1847. But the situation is every bit as critical as it was so long ago. It still depends upon Virginia Baptists who see the needs and respond with support. Witt asked the layman to do his part in “stirring up the ministering brethren to make some little extra effort.” Extra efforts are always needed!
Fred Anderson may be contacted at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.