The annual meeting of this group is denominated
the General Association of Baptists. However, they are most widely
known as the Duck River and Kindred Associations of Baptists.[ii] Other names associated with these
churches are the Baptist Church of Christ, The Baptists, and
Separate Baptists.[iii] The primary location of
the churches is middle Tennessee and northern Alabama.[iv] In
the 1800s, the Duck River Association corresponded with the Mt. Moriah
Association in western Tennessee.
The history of the General Association of Baptists
begins with the formation of the Duck River Association in 1826, led by William
Keele, William Martin, Hezekiah Lasater, Isaac Reed, and others.[v] Kentucky
ministers Ambrose
Dudley and John Taylor constituted
the earliest church in the region circa 1790.[vi] The
Elk River Association was formed in south-central Tennessee in 1808. As most of
the Baptists of middle Tennessee, the churches of the Elk River Association
were strongly Calvinistic in theology. Early in the 19th century, Alexander
Campbell connected himself to the Baptists for a time, and began to preach
Arminian doctrine among them. Some Baptists of the region found this
modification of theology appealing, and began to preach that Christ died for
all mankind, in distinction from limited atonement and unconditional election.
It should be remembered, however, that earlier Separate and Regular Baptists
had agreed to unite including an agreement that preaching “Christ tasted death
for every man, shall be no bar to communion.”[vii] Whatever
the sources, the new sentiment became so strong in the Elk River Association
that it led to division, and the Duck River Association of Separate Baptists
was formed. The original name appears to have been “Duck River Baptist
Association of Christ.”
The story of the division of the Elk River
Association has emphasized the theology of the atonement – probably right so –
there were other issues as well. An overemphasis on associational authority
particularly chaffed the independent spirit of Baptists. John Rushing, a
preacher in the Elk River Association at the time of the split, wrote to
Matthew Lyon and The Baptist,
The reason why we call ourselves Separates is, we separated from doctrines set forth in a circular letter and published in the minutes of the Elk River Association in 1821 or 2, wherein the ministers were represented as holding the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and also charging all those that did not believe the doctrine of eternal, unconditional and personal election, with wretched infidelity: which was alarming to us, who believe the first to be popery and the whole unscriptural.
The predestinarians in the Elk River Association
probably wished to salvage soteriological doctrinal purity. Their attempt to do
so, however, violated church sovereignty and autonomy on the other end. Rushing
continued,
In this time of distress the Association met at Sugar Creek meeting house in Bedford county, Ten.; and there a motion was made that no church should be at liberty to license their young ministers without the aid of a presbytery, which (presbytery) was to be appointed by the Association, and they were to officiate in the above business, and constitute churches, and to ordain bishops and deacons in all the churches in our Association.[viii]
Others were soon embroiled in dispute over the new
ideas, and other associations divided or had members withdraw from them. Some
ministers and churches moved on into the Stone-Campbell restoration movement.
The Duck River Association maintained a Baptist course. Some of the Duck River
Baptists eventually found their way into the Tennessee Baptist Convention and
the Southern Baptist Convention.[ix]
However, a mind of independence, coupled with opposition to the Calvinistic
stance (at least in 1843) of the State Convention and other organizations,
caused the Duck River Association and other Separate Baptists to continue as
separate bodies. The “Separate” side of the 1843 Duck River division maintained,
“we cannot quit our position, we cannot unite with you while you retain your
Calvinistic doctrine, your resolves and pledges to do everything in your power
to sustain the Baptist Publishing and Sunday School Society, and pledges to
support the Seminary of learning…”[x]
The Duck River Baptists stayed their course and
sought fellowship with like-minded Baptists. Through the years, they developed correspondence
with other Baptist associations – Mount Zion Association, Indian Creek, Union,
Mount Moriah, Mount Pleasant, East Union, Ebenezer, Mount Olive, Liberty, New
Liberty, and Mount Pleasant No. 2. Many of these fellowships are still
maintained. In October of 1939, delegates from Duck River, Mount Zion, Union,
Mount Pleasant, Liberty, New Liberty, and Ebenezer Associations, and the
Pleasant Hill church of Kentucky, met at Garrison Fork Church, Bedford County,
Tennessee, and organized the General Association of Baptists. The stated
purpose of this association is to “perpetuate a closer union and communion
among us and to preserve and maintain a correspondence with each other.”[xi]
This “Duck River and Kindred” association is one
of the “primitivistic” sects among Baptists, though they do not share the
strong Calvinism of some of those bodies.[xii]
They are moderately Calvinistic, retaining the teachings of total depravity and
eternal security, while asserting that Jesus Christ tasted death for every man.
Most of the churches have Sunday Schools, but no organized support of
missionary or benevolent institutions. Most of the churches use musical
instruments, though some do not. In addition to baptism and the Lord’s supper,
they observe the rite of feet washing as an ordinance. “Pastors are
bivocational and are often addressed as ‘elder’.”[xiii]
The General Association is currently made up of
seven associations - Duck River Association of Baptists (TN); Mt. Zion
Association of Baptist (TN), org. 1834; Mt. Pleasant Association of Baptists
[“No. 1”] (AL); Mt. Pleasant Association [“No. 2”] of the Baptists (AL), org.
1910; New Liberty Association of United Baptists of the Primitive Order (TN);
East Union Association of The Baptist (TN); Union Association of The Baptist
(TN) – and one independent church – Pleasant Hill Church of Marion, Kentucky.
In 1999, the Duck River and Kindred Associations
of Baptists reflected a total membership of 10,212 in 99 churches. In his 2007
book, The
Twelve Baptist Tribes in the United States: a Historical and Statistical Analysis,
Albert W. Wardin recorded 10,188 members in 99 churches.[xiv]
In addition to participation in the General
Association, the local associations maintain correspondence with one another at
their own annual meetings. Each association is free to correspond with other
like-minded associations that are not participating in the General Association,
though there in no such correspondence at this time.
[i] I’m sure the Wikipedia
article itself has been edited many times since what I wrote.
[ii] This
name seems to derive from the “Religious Bodies” studies conducted by the U. S.
Department of Commerce. See, for example, Religious
Bodies, 1906 and Religious
Bodies, 1936. I have not yet found as earlier use.
[iii] “...the
1828 Minutes listed letters from 13 churches and stated that, during the annual
session, held at Boiling Fork, Franklin County, 10 more churches were received
into the membership. The 23 churches were located in Bedford, Cannon, Coffee,
Franklin, Rutherford and Warren Counties.
The combined membership was 880...” History: Duck
River Association of Missionary Baptists.
[iv] There
is one church in Kentucky. In 1884, the Elm Grove Baptist Church of Valley Creek,
Fannin County, Texas, united with the Mt. Zion Association of Baptists in
Tennessee. This was probably due to westward migration of Separate Baptists
from this Association. The current status of this Texas church is unknown,
other than it is not connected to the Mt. Zion Association.
[v] The
Baptist (Nashville, Tennessee), Saturday, July 01, 1837, page 4/100.
[vi] This
Tennessee church met near the mouth of the Sulphur Fork River, and united with
the Elkhorn Association.
[vii] In
Kentucky, Ambrose Dudley served on the committee from the Elkhorn Baptist
Association that agreed to this union. A Primitive Baptist writer suggests the
Campbell influence (or at least separation) post-dated the departure of the
Separate Baptists from the Elk River Association. “We will now leave the
Separates — what next? On comes the Campbell system. We yet had some graceless
preachers amongst us, they took up with Campbell, made some confusion in some
of the churches, and carried off some more that we had no use for.” Joshua
Yeats to the editors of The
Primitive Baptist, Vol. 8, No. 2, Saturday, January 28, 1843, pp.
24-25. On the other hand, Barton W. Stone indicates direct influence on the
split in 1826. See The
Christian Messenger, Volume 1, Number 1 (November 25, 1826).
[viii]
“For the Baptist, Letter III,” John Rushing, The Baptist, Saturday, July 1, 1837, p. 4/100.
[ix]
Today there are two Duck River Associations. In 1953, the Convention group
officially changed their name to “Duck River Association of Missionary Baptists.”
[xi] “A
History of the Duck River Baptists,” Forrest Shelton Clark, The Quarterly Review, January-March
1973, pp. 42-52.
[xii]
Primitive Baptists are a specific sub-group of Baptists. “Primitivistic
Baptists” are those churches and associations that continually attempt to preserve,
practice, and propagate primitive Christianity – exhibiting their desire to
follow the pattern of New Testament order, faith, and practice. In The Twelve Baptist Tribes, Wardin moved
the Duck River and Kindred Associations into a category termed “Old Time
Baptists.”
[xiii]
“Duck River and Kindred Associations (General Association of Baptists),” Albert
W. Wardin, Jr., Tennessee Baptist History,
Vol. IV, No. 1, James Taulman, editor, Brentwood, TN: Tennessee Baptist
Historical Society, pp. 23-25.
[xiv]
Seven associations with 98 churches, and one independent church not in a local association,
based on statistics gathered in the 2000 Religious Congregations and Membership
study and/or association minutes. The
Twelve Baptist Tribes in the United States, Albert W. Wardin, Jr., Atlanta,
GA: Baptist History and Heritage Society/ Nashville, TN: Fields Publishing,
Inc. 2007, p. 87.
[xv]
This is the Duck River local association, rather than the General Association.
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