brown on green, A Regular column about finances

Let's Make History

Free Will Baptists have a glorious past, both in the Randall movement of the North and the Palmer movement in the South. The Randall line was more organized and established several colleges still functioning today. Bates College in Maine, Rio Grande in Ohio, and Hillsdale College in Michigan are survivors of those efforts. They established both international and North American mission agencies. They were one of the leading voices opposing slavery and established Storer College in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, to educate freed slaves.

The Palmer line sought to establish Free Will Baptist churches in North Carolina. They experienced severe opposition, even persecution, from Calvinist groups that tried to stop our doctrine from spreading. Around 1740, a group of Free Will Baptists sought to build a meetinghouse in New Bern, and the Calvinists—who controlled the city government—attempted to stop even the construction of a Free Will Baptist church. Free Will Baptists persevered and spread from North Carolina throughout the South.

What do I mean by “Let’s make history”? I want us to focus on our “future” history. Sometimes,
I think we look back at the way we expanded in the early years and think of those days as the “golden age” for the Free Will Baptist movement. It was a time when many new churches began, and many other churches grew rapidly. We may be tempted to say our best days are behind us. I don’t believe that has to be the case. We serve a living God whose hand is still on Free Will Baptists. To say our best days are behind us would be to say we serve a great God, but His best days are behind Him. I hope we would never say that.

It is true many Free Will Baptist churches have closed across the United States, but our total number of churches is going up, not down. We need to think globally. Twenty years ago, 13 churches scattered across Ivory Coast; today there are 129. Cuba had 25 churches in 1998, but today has 51. India had 35 churches, but today they have 312. International fields reported 102 organized churches in 1998 and 541 today. These numbers do not include mission works, which would take that number over 800.

The total number of Free Will Baptist churches has not gone down but up dramatically. Today, over 20% of our churches are outside of North America. Within our borders, North American Ministries is planting successful, fast-growing churches in difficult places. We have a good group of young church planters who are hitting it out of the park. Granted, changing demographics means many rural churches are closing, but I hope we can establish and plant new churches where people are moving.

While some churches shrink and close, others grow and thrive. We must learn to reach our communities as they exist today—multi-cultural and multi-racial. We must minister in a country that has turned its back on the godly principals on which it was established. As God’s Word is rejected, we see more people without hope than ever before. We offer the Hope people need. In light of that hope, couldn’t this be a period when the church will thrive?

In the third installment of the film series Back to the Future, the characters go both forward and backward in history. At the end of the film, the “future wife” of Marty McFly has a conversation with Doctor Brown. She brought a document back from the future only to find it blank. Dr. Brown tells her, “Of course it is blank; your future hasn’t been written yet.”

I say to Free Will Baptists: our future hasn’t been written yet.

I am reminded of that great song of Arminian doctrine written by Kevin Hester a few years ago (and perhaps inspired by Willie Nelson). The title says it all: “Mommas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Calvinists.” Fortunately for us, we are Free Will Baptists, and as Free Will Baptists we believe within the sovereignty of God we get to help decide what our future will look like. Nobody but God truly knows the future of Free Will Baptists.

Sometimes, we like to project the future based on the present. In his 1968 book The Population Bomb, Paul Ehrlich predicted mass starvation in the United States and around the world in the ‘70s and ‘80s due to overpopulation. But the author did not take into account advances in technology and new farming techniques.

When we read the Bible, many times the future looked bleak, but God stepped in and changed the outcome. Perhaps the best example is found in 2 Chronicles 32, when Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem when Hezekiah was king. The officer who spoke to the Israelites on the wall truthfully told them about the other kingdoms that had fallen to Sennacherib. I’m sure many of those who heard this pronouncement thought they had no hope, but God stepped in and changed the outcome.

God honors faithfulness. Our future can be a great one. As the ministry of FWB Foundation continues into the future, many of today’s planned gifts will materialize to contribute income to the work of the future denomination. Our endowments, and hopefully the growing grant program, will continue contributing to the financial future of Free Will Baptists.

Our history hasn’t been written yet. Let’s make it a good one. Let’s Make History!

About the Columnist: David Brown, CPA, is director of Free Will Baptist Foundation. To learn more about the grants program, visit www.fwbgifts.org.