First Baptist Church Convention

On this site on May 8, 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention was organized by 327 delegates from Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisana, Kentucky, and the District of Columbia. The officers elected were Rev. Wm. B. Johnson of Edgefield, S.C., president; Talson Lumpton of Georgia and J.B. Taylor of Virginia, vice presidents; and Jesse Hartwell of Alabama and James C. Crane of Virginia, secretaries. The Rev. W.T. Brantey, Sr. was pastor of the church. First Baptist Church began March 25, 1817, under the leadership of Jesse Green as the Baptist Preying Society of Augusta, and was constituted in May 1817 at Richmond County Courthouse. Wm. T. Brantly, Sr. was its first pastor and held the first services in the chapel of Richmond Academy, which he headed. A lot was purchased at the corner of Green and Jackson Streets, the first building was dedicated on May 6, 1821, remodeled in 1847, and razed in 1899 for a new building on the same site in 1902. The congregation later moved to Walton Way at Jackson Road, where a new building was dedicated in 1983. The Southern Baptist Convention was organized at this site from May 8 to 12, 1845. It began with 4,126 affiliated churches, and by 1963 those churches reported 351,951 members in a convention that had expanded into all 50 states as the largest non-Catholic denomination in the United States. In 1983, its 36,531 affiliated churches reported 14,185,451 members, 394,606 baptisms, 7,815,443 enrolled in Sunday School, and $3,165,237,965 in total gifts, including $529,283,289 to missions, which began with two mission boards, home and foreign. The convention now conducts its worldwide ministry of missions, education, evangelism, and service through 20 national agencies.

Augusta-Richmond County consolidated government (balance), Georgia · United States