Once Upon a Time the East Texas Baptist Convention Became the BMAT

By EMILY SIMPSON
Baptist Progress Editor

Minute book from the second and last East Texas Baptist Convention annual meeting.

Minute book from the first ever BMA of Texas annual session

​If you’ve spent any time getting invested in a story, series or even sports, at some point you’ve most likely run across an origin story. It’s hard to become familiar in a subject and not wonder where it all began. For the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas, its origins reveal simple, humbling and fascinating truths about the foundation of our association.
 
In December of 1900, the East Texas Baptist Convention held its second annual meeting. The convention, as it was, might have continued; however, a unique proposition changed the direction into the BMAT we know today. Forty-five churches were represented (some of which are still functioning to this day), yet it was five visiting churches from outside east Texas that prompted a significant shift.
 
Dr. W.H. Parks of Morgan, Texas alongside four other north Texas companions, S.J. Anderson (Garland), H.B. Pender (Campbell), S.H. Slaughter (Ennis) and W.I. McClung (Ferris) made the trip to Lindale where the ETBC meeting was being held. These five pastors were members of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and had become discouraged by the BGCT’s principles and priorities. After discovering the small east Texas convention, they became convinced of the beliefs and actions modeled by the ETBC, and they desired to join. To do so, they gave a proposition. W.H. Parks beseeched the members of the ETBC at the 1900 annual meeting by asking:
 
“…as petitioners earnestly asking you if you can consistently, without sacrificing any of your principles, to so change the name of your body as to admit all churches in the state holding the same doctrines.”
A simple name change would come with a momentous impact on the future of the ETBC. This request by outsiders might have been unforeseen; however, the subject matter was already on the minds of ETBC leaders. A special committee was formed to discuss the proposition at hand. When the committee returned, they pondered one key question: 
 
“Will the cause of Christ be best served by one general body, or a number of smaller bodies, among our Baptist people?,” reported A.P. Scofield, chairman.
 
This question is admirable. Clearly members of the ETBC were most concerned for “the cause of Christ” than any other issue. God’s will and aim took priority. Today, we cannot help but notice how the special committee’s initial question resembles early church debates, also concerned for the cause of Christ. The apostles and disciples worked together to solve various theological matters that laid the groundwork for future believers. A benefit to us today. The church’s origins and the BMAT origins showcase what happens when Christians take seriously God’s plan and work through the local church, instead of their own interests.
 
So, to answer the special committee’s main question they concluded: 

1.  “We believe the wisest decision under existing circumstances, will be to effect a state-wide organization, divided into district conventions. These district bodies to have annual meetings for the purpose of reaching the masses” (a task we still perform today).
2.  “We recommend that we say to these brethren that we receive them in Christian love. That we already in mind to make the changes in the constitution that they mention.”
3.  “That we are disposed to receive all brethren believing in our principles as set forth in our constitution.”

 
At the end of the 1900 annual meeting, the East Texas Baptist Convention decided to rename itself the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas. E.D. Blankenship preached the convention sermon from 3 John 8, a fitting text for the unique meeting.  This verse emphasizes treating other believers kindly and with hospitality “so that we may work together for the truth.” That is what the visiting churches of north Texas came to do, to gather with likeminded Baptist as a unified group so that the work of the association might be strengthened, based on the truth of God’s word.
 
Excitement of the newly formed BMAT is obvious in historical documents of the time. However, the five North Texas pastors’ decision to join the new group proved to be risky. In his memoir, W.H. Parks recounted the moments leading up to and after this historical event. On the five pastor’s return home, they decided to confess directly to a prominent BGCT leader of their decision.  Dr. Samuel Augustus Hayden (BGCT pastor and publisher) strongly opposed the group’s decision to leave the “old convention” (History of the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas, Parks). Hayden supposedly spread word to leading BGCT figure Dr. James B. Gambrell, who immediately became quite hostile in opposing BMA work. “He opened a relentless war upon the Missionary Association before it was a week old and upon every man anyway prominent in its work,” Parks recalled.
 
Despite such rebukes, the five north Texas pastors “and their churches knew that they would be criticized, but they were willing to bear it for the sake of the time-honored principles which they felt were being discarded by the Convention leaders,” R.C. Vance documents in his A History of the Baptist Missionary Association from 1900 to 1953.
 
The work of the ETBC, now BMAT, with its principles and values was clearly attractive to Baptists across the area. W.H. Parks memoir stated that the newly formed BMAT was special because “the association stands for revealed truth and the rights and purity of the churches” in supposed contrast to other Baptist groups at the time. Parks also admitted that until this new formation of the BMAT, the churches in east Texas “had been almost entirely ignored by the general convention, but immediately upon its organization at Lindale the board of the convention waked up to the fact of the existence of East Texas and missionaries.”
 
In 1901, the BMAT held its first annual meeting and each of those five north Texas ministers were involved. News of the newly formed BMAT had spread, and the enrollment jumped from 45 churches in 1900, to 244 churches in 1901. The meeting location had to change to accommodate the influx of new churches. The use of an old Confederate veteran’s camp in Mexia provided the perfect spot and offered boarding resources. Attendees of the meeting would have camped on the land using cots and tents.
 
W.H. Parks who delivered the proposition to merge with Baptists across the state now functioned as the association’s President.  S.J. Anderson is listed in the minutes as making motions to Constitution amendments. Each of the five north Texas Dallas area pastors now had their names listed as messengers of the BMAT.
 
With inspiration from this origin story, may the cause of Christ continue to be evident in our association today, as we work together in truth, Christian fellowship and love.

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