{"id":14572,"date":"2026-07-19T08:22:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T13:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/?p=14572"},"modified":"2026-07-19T14:12:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T19:12:34","slug":"missing-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/missing-convention\/","title":{"rendered":"The Case of the Missing Convention"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhy are Free Will Baptists missing a convention?\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The question comes up regularly, especially when the denomination celebrates a milestone. Last year, we marked ninety years together, but, as usual, the number of conventions is trailing a year behind.<\/p>\n

Why? Where did we lose a convention?<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the organizational meeting \u2014 you might say the first \u201cNational Convention\u201d \u2014 in 1935, delegates met at Cofer\u2019s Chapel in Nashville, Tennessee. Although they met only three days, they conducted an amazing amount of business, setting aside previous differences to lay a sound denominational foundation.<\/p>\n

Delegates represented several existing Free Will Baptists organizations: Eastern General Conference, Cooperative General Association of the West, six state conventions, and 14 local associations. Officers were carefully chosen from both East and West, including Moderator J.L. Welch (General Conference), Assistant Moderator Winford Davis (Cooperative Association), Secretary-Treasurer I.J. Blackwelder (General Conference), and Assistant Secretary-Treasurer B.P.F. Rogers (Cooperative Association).<\/p>\n

The body quickly approved a constitution and by-laws and named the new organization the National Association of Free Will Baptists. They established eight five-member boards, most of which remain in existence: the Executive Board, Foreign Missions, Home Missions, Sunday School, Free Will Baptist League, Education, Superannuation, and Women\u2019s Auxiliary.<\/p>\n

In addition, delegates adopted a Treatise of Faith and Practices,<\/em> approving the document by unanimous vote without hearing it read aloud, following a motion to that affect by Lizzie McAdams. Damon Dodd captured this pivotal moment in his book, The Free Will Baptist Story<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n

The motion was met with an immediate second, and the vote was overwhelmingly unanimous. This meant that the National Association of Free Will Baptists was now an official reality, that, at last, Free Will Baptists were united in a common cause. The entire congregation was caught up in the spirit of the momentous occasion. Strong men embraced each other and wept tears of joy and victory. The shouts of rejoicing Christians were lifted in praise to God.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It was an exciting moment, and we still feel the impact of that convention today. But that brings us back to the original question:<\/p>\n

What happened to the missing convention?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

While the participating conferences and associations expressed excitement about working together as a national body, they had no plans of abandoning their own fellowships. So, they divided the National Association into three segments: East, West, and National. They further determined the National Association would only meet every three years to hear reports on board activities.<\/p>\n

However, the young denomination and the excitement surrounding it grew so rapidly that when the convention rolled around again, East and West dissolved into the National Association. From that moment forward, the Convention has met annually despite wars, depressions, and even a global pandemic!<\/p>\n

Happy 90th<\/sup> to the Convention!\u00a0<\/strong>Lord willing, the denomination will never miss another.<\/h4>\n

Want more Free Will Baptist history? Visit fwbhistory.com<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Get a fresh, new perspective on the fascinating history of Free Will Baptists! President Matt Pinson will sign his new book The Free Will Baptists: A New History<\/em><\/a><\/strong> in the Welch College exhibit following the Monday evening service.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhy are Free Will Baptists missing a convention?\u201d The question comes up regularly, especially when the denomination celebrates a milestone. Last year, we marked ninety years together, but, as usual, the number of conventions is trailing a year behind. Why? Where did we lose a convention? During the organizational meeting \u2014 you might say the first \u201cNational Convention\u201d \u2014 in 1935, delegates met at Cofer\u2019s Chapel in Nashville, Tennessee. Although they met only three days, they conducted an amazing amount of business, setting aside previous differences to lay a sound denominational foundation. Delegates represented several existing Free Will Baptists organizations: Eastern General Conference, Cooperative General Association of the West, six state conventions, and 14 local associations. Officers were carefully chosen from both East and West, including Moderator J.L. Welch (General Conference), Assistant Moderator Winford Davis (Cooperative Association), Secretary-Treasurer I.J. Blackwelder (General Conference), and Assistant Secretary-Treasurer B.P.F. Rogers (Cooperative Association). The body quickly approved a constitution and by-laws and named the new organization the National Association of Free Will Baptists. They established eight five-member boards, most of which remain in existence: the Executive Board, Foreign Missions, Home Missions, Sunday School, Free Will Baptist League, Education, Superannuation, and Women\u2019s Auxiliary. In addition, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-convention"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14572"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14581,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14572\/revisions\/14581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}