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Native Americans built Baptist association's strength

I'm reblogging this bit of Christian His-Story in honor of the Somers family heritage which began with Capt. John Somers of Caswell County, NC in the 1700's, and continued with his son in Tennessee and eventually my Great Grandfather settling in Butler County, Missouri... and to my Native American Cherokee ancestry which was hidden for many years to avoid racial persecution. - AW



The original Burnt Swamp Baptist Church hosted meetings that led to the formation of the Burnt Swamp Baptist Association in 1881. The association moved the structure, which has its original floor joists, to the current association office property in Pembroke, N.C. (Photo by Alan Oxendine)

By Jim Burton - Posted at Baptist Press:

PEMBROKE, N.C. (BP) -- In 1881, Burnt Swamp Baptist Association, an association of Native American Baptist churches, was established. From its humble beginnings of three churches in Robeson County, N.C. -- two of which still exist -- the association now includes 70 churches in 10 North Carolina counties and two neighboring states.

Coharie, Haliwa-Saponi, Lumbee, Pee Dee, Tuscarora and Waccamaw Siouan make up the multi-tribal association's membership, which was distinctively Baptist from its beginning.

"As far as we can tell, it's the first organization of an association set up by Indians for Indians," said Mike Cummings, a Lumbee who, since 1988, has led what may be Southern Baptists' first affinity-based association.

Associational strength and community gave the southeastern North Carolina tribes perseverance to battle harsh realities in a segregated South.

At its first meeting, the association appointed a Domestic Board to evangelize Native Americans and established Indian education as a core concern of its churches. The association aggressively raised money to develop elementary schools, often planting churches in the same communities where schools were built. The association also engaged in a larger effort to raise funds for a high school for Indians.

"This was the only place we could come; [we] couldn't go to black or white meetings," Cummings said. "We were on the fringe of North Carolina Baptist life.

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