Information Sheet

 

 

R         Osage River Association of United Baptists (Mo.).

286                  Minutes of annual meeting, 1849.

                                    One folder.

 

 

 

These are minutes of the fifth annual meeting of the Osage River Association, which was composed of United Baptist churches in Camden, Maries, Miller, and Morgan counties in Mis­souri.  Included are membership statistics, a summary of the Association’s business, a re­port on evangelical work, and a circular letter urging adequate financial support of the minis­try.

 

The Osage River Association of United Baptists was organized in 1844 by churches from the parent Concord Association.  Its fifth annual meeting was held with Graves Hill Church in Cam­den County in 1849, at which time the Association represented 267 members in eleven churches, served by eight pastors.

 

As “United” Baptists, members of the Association differed with followers of “Regular” Bap­tist doctrine on the undertaking of missionary activity, known as “effort,” and on the estab­lish­ment of an educated, professional ministry.  The United Baptists supported such programs, while the Regulars adamantly rejected them, arguing that study of the Scriptures was the only path to sal­va­tion.  The Regulars often adopted “Old School” and “Predestinarian” in the titles of their con­gre­gations, but the United Baptists generally referred to them simply as “anti-ef­fort.”  The dif­fer­ences in theology led to many schisms among Baptists in Missouri during the height of the con­troversy in the 1840s.

 

The minutes for 1849 of the Osage River Association contain two items useful in un­der­stand­ing the distinctions between United and Regular Baptists.  The Rev. W. C. McCub­bin’s re­port on evangelical work noted 96 days of travel in which he preached 107 sermons.  He reported general acceptance, with the exception of a few “unruly and refractory” brethren who were pro­voked on the subject of “effort.”  McCubbin's report is followed by a circular letter produced by the Asso­ciation, stressing the responsibility of churches to provide financial sup­port of the clergy.

 

 

 

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