1
2006/7 Activities of The Center for Baptist Studies (CBS)
MercerUniversity
Walter B. Shurden, Executive Director
Bruce T. Gourley, Associate Director
Wil Platt, Associate Editor, The Baptist Studies Bulletin
I. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF CBS 06/07
1. SPONSORED SIX HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL EDUCATIONAL VENTURES:
(1). “BAPTIST CLASSICS IN AMERICA, 1850-1900 SEMINAR.@September 7-9, 2006. Seventeen Baptist historians from the southeast and southwest, including three members from CBS, spent three days on the Macon campus discussing some of the classical Baptist documents of the period in American Baptist history from 1850-1900. Led by Wayne Flynt, Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at AuburnUniversity and Walter B. Shurden of Mercer, the seminar, like the five before it, received effusive comments from the participants.In fact, the response was so enthusiastic that all of the participants signed up for the sixth Mercer Baptist Classics Seminar scheduled for September 2007.
(2). “Church and State in the 2006 Elections,” a morning conferencewith Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty in Washington, DC on 7 September2006. A total attendance of 30, including area ministers, faculty, students, and staff.
(3). THE 2006 MERCER PREACHING CONSULTATION. September 24-26. Cosponsored for the third year by The Center for Baptist Studies and the McAfee School of Theology, this year’s consultation drew the largest attendance in the history of the MPC.
(4). NEGOTIATING CONFLICT IN THE LOCALCHURCH. October 26. Co-sponsored with McAfee Institute for Healthy Congregations and CBF of GA, this conference indicates another partnership between the Center and other Baptist organizations. Dr. Dennis Burton of North Carolina led the conference that drew 25 participants with good evaluations.
(5). “Growing Generous Churches, Growing Generous Christians. 16 April 2007. This one day conference with Mennonite Stewardship Theologian, Lynn A. Miller was designed by the Center. Cosponsoring the conference were CBF of GA, national CBF Foundation, and Congregational Life of national CBF. An excellent conference on a subject to which Baptists must give renewed attention.
1
1
(6) THE BAPTIST PULPIT AND BAPTIST STUDIES DISCUSSION GROUPS. The Center, in an effort to help educate local Baptist ministers in the Baptist heritage, sponsored two discussion groups around the subject of “The Baptist Pulpit and Baptist Studies.” One group of ministers, whom we called “Jesse’s Friends,” consisted of senior pastors of Baptist churches in the middle Georgia area. Sixteen ministers enrolled in this group. The second group, dubbed “Adiel’s Friends, consisted of associate ministers in Baptist churches of middle Georgia. This group had an enrollment of six ministers. Meeting for six sessions over a period of nine months, these two groups read and discussed the following books:
Jon Meacham, American Gospel
Randall Balmer, Thy Kingdom Come: Lament For a Nation
Brian McLaren, Generous Orthodoxy 2 sessions
Peter Randolph, The Autobiography of Peter Randolph
William E. Hull, The Meaning of the Baptist Experience
2. EXPANDED AND ENLARGED THE LEADING BAPTIST STUDIES WEB SITE ON THE INTERNET:
The Center’s site is the portal to an explanation of the Center’s work. The site has been updated with a name change. The new name is and it is drawing an increasing number of readers.
3. CONTINUED TO PRODUCE A POPULAR ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE:
The Baptist Studies Bulletin continues to be the signature publication of The Center for Baptist Studies. Bruce Gourley made some significant improvements in the appearance of the BSB this past year. We find the BSB articles copied or referred to by other publications often. Writers and themes of articles are changed every six months. The BSBhas some of the leading scholars of the world Baptist community writing for this publication.
4. CONTINUED TO COOPERATE WITH MERCER UNIVERSITY PRESS IN PUBLISHING A SERIES OF BOOKS CALLED “BAPTISTS.”
Walter Shurden serves as General Editor of a scholarly series of volumes called “Baptists.” Volumes published this academic year were:
(1) Joann Ford Watson, ed., Selected Spiritual Writings of Anne Dutton: Volume
4, Theological Works
(2)Glenn Jonas, Jr., ed., The BaptistRiver: Essays on Many Tributaries of a Diverse Tradition
(3) Emmanuel McCall, When All God's Children Get Together: A Memoir of Race and Baptists
5. THE A. H. NEWMAN SCHOLARS OF MERCERUNIVERSITY:
This program has proven to be one of the Center’s most effective, productive, and exciting programs. Although it is restricted in its focus to a single Baptist minister for a week of supervised reading under the direction of Walter B. Shurden and Bruce T. Gourley, the program has spread the work of the Center and the name of Mercer more deeply into the states of Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. One of the scholars, John Boyd, pastor of FirstBaptistChurch in Halifax, came from Nova Scotia. For the present academic year the Center had fiveNewman Scholars from five different states. They were:
1.Tripp Martin, associate pastor, Northminster Baptist, Jackson, MS
2. Dr. Jim West, pastor, FirstBaptistChurch, Petros, TN
3. Dr. Jim Wooten, pastor, EarleStreetBaptistChurch, Greenville, SC
4. Dr. Les Hill, retired SBC missionary, Lexington, KY
5. Dr. Joe Kutter, pastor, FirstBaptistChurch, Topeka, KS.
For a description of the program and a complete list of the persons who have served as A. H. Newman Scholars go to and click “Ministerial Sabbaticals.”
6. CONTINUED TO CO-SPONSOR WITH THE BAPTIST HISTORY AND HERITAGE SOCIETY, Baptist History and Heritage, THE LEADING BAPTIST HISTORY JOUNAL IN THE WORLD: For its contribution of $3,000 per year, the Center receives the entire back cover of the journal on which to advertise the work of the Center. In addition, the executive director or the associate director writes a brief article for publication in each of the issues of the journal.
7. CONTINUED THE MERCER CERTIFICATE IN BAPTIST STUDIES: To see the Certificate Program go to and click “Certificate in Baptist Studies. All Newman scholars must complete this program. We have had students to complete this program who are residents of Africa!
II. WRITING AND SPEAKING ACTIVITIES OF STAFF
WALTER B. SHURDEN:
1). Manuscripts read and evaluated by WBS:
Evaluated The Search for A New Testament Church: A History of the Baptists by Douglas Weaver for MercerUniversity Press.
Evaluated manuscript for Baptist History and Heritage on J. R. Graves and the impact of successionism on interpretation of Baptist history.
2).Speaking engagements of WBS:
1. Preached at Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church, 6 August, 2006.
2. Preached at HighlandHillsBaptistChurch, Macon, GA, 10 September 2006.
3. Preached at TrinityBaptistChurch, San Antonio, TX, 17 September 2006.
4. Preached at CulowheeBaptistChurch, Culowhee, NC, 10 Oct 2006.
5. Preached at the 175th anniversary of the FirstBaptistChurch in Greenville, SC, 29 Oct 2006.
6. Preached in MercerUniversity Chapel, 8 Nov 2006.
7. Preached in a retreat for UniversityBaptistChurch, Hattiesburg, MS, 17-19 Nov 2006.
8. Preached at Founders’ Day, FirstBaptistChurch, Macon, GA : 21 January 2007
9. Preached and led conference on Baptist history at FBC, Aiken, SC: 18 March 2007.
10. Preached at FBC, Athens, GA: 25 March 2007.
11. Led Deacons’ retreat at HighlandHillsBaptistChurch, Macon, GA: 29 April 2007.
12. Led Workshop on May 24 for “Faith, Learning, and Vocation” with Dr. John Dunaway on the Macon campus.
13. Spoke at the annual meeting of “The Coalition of Baptist Principles” group at the annual meeting of the American Baptist Churches, USA, in Washington, DC.
3). Denominational Leadership Roles for WBS:
1. Worked on committees connected with the North American Baptist Covenant planning for “A Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant.”
2. Served on the Executive Committee of the William H. Whitsitt Baptist Heritage Society.
3. Served on the Planning Committee of the Baptist History and Heritage Society, planning for the 400th year celebration of Baptist beginnings in 2009.
4. Served on the Norman W. Cox Award Committee for the Baptist History and Heritage Society.
5. Participated in the Baptist Unity Talks at the CarterCenter in Atlanta on
24 July in Washington, DC, 1 August at The CarterCenter in Atlanta,
4). Writings and Publications:
1. “A Flaming Torch” published in Report form the Capital.
2. “What Judson and Rice Would Say to Moderate Baptists,” Baptist History and Heritage, Vol. XLI, Spring 2006, No. 2. pp 104-109.
3. “Famous Quotations from John Leland,” Baptist History and Heritage, Vol. XLI, Spring 2006, No. 2, p. 6.
4. “The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship,” a chapter in The Baptist River edited by Glenn Jonas and published by Mercer University Press (2006)
5. “What Has Happened to Baptists and the First Amendment?” in Bound on Earth: A Festscrift for Edmon Lewin Rowell, Jr. (MercerUniversity Press, 2006).
6. “I Believe” articles in The Baptist Studies Bulletin.
Three Books that Matter July, 2006
The Quivering of the Foundations”August, 2006
Leaving Church/Loving Church September, 2006
A Baptist Most of You Readers Have Never Heard of Oct 2006
Saying “Yes” and Saying “No” November 2006
Swearing in Congressman Ellison on the Quran December 2006
Green Trumps Red and Blue, January, 2007
Living History: The North American Baptist Covenant and Its Celebration, February 2007
Stendahl on the Bible and Hull on the Baptists, March 2007
What I Have Taped to My Personal Computer, April 2007
En Route With My Teachers, May 2007
The Coalition for Baptist Principles, June 2007
7. “Seven Things They Don’t Teach You in Seminary,” Baptist
History and Heritage, (Winter 2007)
BRUCE T. GOURLEY:
May 2005B June 2006
1).Speaking Engagements of Bruce T. Gourley
1.Spoke to the Cooperative Student Fellowship at Mercer (Twice)
(October 2006)
2.Led a Seminar on Christian Nationalism at the Spring Meeting of
the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia (March 2007)
2.)Writings and Publications of Bruce T. Gourley:
1.“In Response To …” Baptist Studies Bulletin articles
… Chuck Poole on Biblical Christianity (July 2006)
… Billy Graham on the Mystery of Salvation (August 2006)
… America’s Regional Gods (September 2006)
… The Current Affairs Bookshelf (October 2006)
… Richard Land in Your Bedroom (November 2006)
… Fear, War, Forgiving and Giving (December 2006)
… Baptists Who Can’t Forgive Jesus (January 2007)
… Turning Our Children Into God’s Warriors (February 2007)
… Tim LaHaye’s Rapture (March 2007)
… Political God-Talk (April 2007)
… The Death of Jerry Falwell (May 2007)
… June and January Baptists (June 2007)
2.Book Reviews
1.Two book reviews published in BaylorUniversity’s The
Journal of Church and State
3.Online Resources
1.Published a variety of articles online regarding Baptists,
Religious Liberty and Christian Nationalism, posted on
personal website at
4.Dissertation
1.Continued to work on Doctoral Dissertation, entitled
“Baptists in Middle Georgia During the Civil War Era”
5.History of FirstBaptistChurch, Huntsville, Alabama
1.Continued to work on the 200th anniversary history of First
BaptistChurch, Huntsville, Alabama. The volume will be
published in 2009.
3.)Denominational Leadership Roles for Bruce T. Gourley:
1.Served as Online Editor for the Baptists Today News
Journal.
2.Elected to Council of Advisors, Baptist History and
Heritage Society.
3.Served on Board of Directors, Whitsitt Baptist Heritage
Society.
4.Served on Executive Committee, Georgia Baptist Historical
Society.
5.Member, Fellowship of Baptist Historians.
III. PROPOSED ACTIVITIES FOR 2007-2008
Note: Bruce Gourley is now part-time with the Center. He will continue to manage the web site, edit the Bulletin, and supervise the Certificate Program from his new home in Montana.
The Center will sponsor the “Baptist Classics in America Seminar, 1900-1950” on September 6-8. We expect 15-20 Baptist historians to participate.
The Center will co-sponsor with McAfee School of Theology “Sex, Lies and Church-State Separation,” a morning conference at McAfee on September 6.
The Center will co-sponsor with McAfee School of Theology the “Mercer Preaching Consultation ‘07” at St.SimonsIsland, September 23-25.
The Center will host Dr. Rand Forder of Virginia as a Newman Scholar during the days of October 28-November 2.
The Center will host and sponsor the annual meeting of “The Baptist History and Heritage Society” in May, 2008.
The executive director retires on December 31, 2007.
1