CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A 220-year-old Baptist district association in Virginia, whose churches nurtured some of Baptists’ most revered early leaders, will disband this fall, if a proposal from its 12-member steering committee is adopted.
At its May 15 annual spring meeting, the Central Virginia Baptist Association — a fellowship of 42 congregations in Charlottesville and surrounding Albemarle, Fluvanna and Greene counties — tabled a motion that “the association be dissolved, effective at the close of its fall 2011 meeting.”
Associational leaders said several years of waning church participation and reduced financial contributions prompted the proposal, unanimously adopted by the steering committee, which guides the CBVA’s activities.
The proposal sparked “lengthy discussion,” said moderator Sam Kellum in an e-mail. But in the end, it was unanimously tabled until the Oct. 16 annual fall meeting “in order to give CVBA members time to consider more fully this major decision, and possible alternatives.”
The CVBA was organized in 1791 as the Albemarle Baptist Association, a name it retained until 2003. The nine original churches scattered about the feet of the Blue Ridge Mountains expanded rapidly and were avid supporters of mission and education societies, said Fred Anderson, executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society.
The political views of Thomas Jefferson, whose mountaintop estate, Monticello, overlooked Charlottesville, may have been influenced by Albemarle Baptists’ lively democratic practices and fierce commitment to religious liberty, added Anderson.
In the 19th century, the iconic Baptist missionary Lottie Moon, who spent much of her life in China, was born in Albemarle County, raised at Scottsville (Va.) Baptist Church and Hardware Baptist Church in Charlottesville, and baptized at Charlottesville’s First Baptist Church.
In 1859, John A. Broadus reluctantly left the pastorate of First Baptist, Charlottesville, and a professor’s position at the University of Virginia to join the faculty of the new Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which he eventually served as president.
But in recent years, church involvement in the association has declined, with the inevitable reduction in financial support. In the early 2000’s, attempts to address financial challenges included sale of the association’s office building and, in 2004, the elimination of the director of missions position. Of the association’s 42 churches, 22 contributed in 2010, said moderator Kellum, and 19 so far in 2011. At the May 15 meeting, only 11 churches were represented.
“The CVBA steering committee has been grappling for some time with the difficult situation the association is in,” said Kellum, pastor of Mountain Plain Baptist Church in Charlottesville. “Participation and interest in the organization has been in steady decline for a number of years. The steering committee believes that in the current ministry environment our association model is an inefficient channel for missions efforts, and so stewardship principles require a reevaluation of our Kingdom purpose.
“Great efforts were made to find a new vision for the association that might make it a viable, effective resource for the churches in our area,” he added, “but ultimately the steering committee concluded unanimously that the best course of action was to liquidate the association’s assets in order to meet our current commitments and obligations, and then dissolve the CVBA in an orderly manner while celebrating its history and accomplishments.”
The Oct. 16 meeting will be held at Belmont Baptist Church in Charlottesville.
Robert Dilday is managing editor of the Religious Herald.