MCBA HISTORY

To the Glory of God and His Christ

A Short History of the Middlesex Central Baptist Association

While Baptists affirm their belief in the autonomy of the local church, they also stress the importance of associational life to the growth and health of the church.  The association is, in essence, a voluntary society formed and maintained by churches for mutual help and support, having neither judicial nor episcopal authority.  Strictly speaking, churches are not members of the association.  Rather, they are received into fellowship and cooperation.  Only pastors, official delegates, and persons paying annual or life dues can claim the rights of membership.  With no control over churches, the association can neither legislate for them nor bind them in any way by its own actions.  At best, the association can make suggestions, present appeals, and make requests.  At any time and for any reason, a church may withdraw its affiliation without prejudice and remain a duly constituted Baptist church.  However, while associated, the church is obligated to abide by the mutually agreed upon rules and regulations of the association.  The independence of the local church has both aided and hindered the work of the association.

            Over the years, the highlight of associational life has been the Annual Session.  The coming of the association was usually announced in newspapers weeks in advance and a summary of session proceedings were reported in local press.  In the early years, the Annual Session provided denominational continuity and the standardization of Baptist polity in a period of enormous social and political change.  Year after year, members could count on the predictability of the annual meeting.  The meeting was called to order by the moderator who presided until the election of officers.  Officers were elected for successive one-year terms with the possibility of reelection until the tenure or terminal year, as specified by the constitution.  Once the officers were installed, the association was considered fully organized and open for business.

            Clerical and lay officers and members worked diligently to ensure that each session was a success.  The program was planned and the preachers and alternates for the many sermons were selected a year in advance by the Committee on Place and Time.  Not surprisingly, preachers considered it a great honor to deliver one of the associational sermons Annual, Doctrinal, Educational, or one of the evening sermons.  When the annual session began on Thursday and lasted five full days, extending over a Sunday, ministers were assigned to preach in the surrounding churches, Baptist and Methodist, whether the church was an MCBA member or not.  These Sunday appointments were part revival and part missionary outreach.  The highlight of each session was the President's Annual Message, a combination sermon business update with recommendations.

            In addition to being a time for great preaching, the Annual Session was also a time to take care of the business of the association and the churches.  The Standing Committees, on which both men and women served, were Education, Board of Managers, Temperance, State of the Country, and Committee on Important Subjects.  The Committee on the State of the Country provided an assessment of the political and social conditions of African Americans in New Jersey and the United States.  The Committee on Important Subjects read and determined the disposition of the annual church �letters� presented by the delegates.  Each church sent its financial assessment along with a statistical report of the number of conversions, baptisms, deaths, dismissals, and restorations since the last session.  The church letter also contained a report on the spiritual health of the church, including queries on doctrinal matters, ecclesial disagreements, potential church splits, or pastor and pew disputes.  The Association responded cautiously to these matters, ever mindful that it was not an episcopacy, yet earnest in its desire to stabilize and grow the fledgling churches within its territory.

            On some occasions delegates at an annual session had the opportunity to participate in the ordination of a minister.  While the association could not ordain candidates, a church could request the convening of an ordination council during the associational session.  The examination and reporting of results were witnessed by the public and success was not always guaranteed!  The annual session ended with the selection of the host church for the next annual meeting and flourishing resolution thanking the entertaining church, the noble-hearted committee of faithful sisters who nobly cared for the delegates by feeding them three meals for five or six days, and those who opened their homes to the delegates.

            The Annual Session has always been an opportunity to hear the best in black Baptist preaching, to catch up on the latest in great singing, and to foster and nourish lasting friendships.  Despite the technical definition of an association, anyone who has attended an annual session, or had the honor of representing the local church as a delegate, knows that the true members of the association are the people in attendance and the churches within the associational territory.

            Currently, thirty churches constitute the association's membership.  The organizational structure is comprised of the Parent Body which includes men and women as delegates and members of committees, the Women's Auxiliary, the Congress of Christian Education, the Laymen's Movement, and the Nurses and Ushers Department.