Minnesota Baptist Association

Since we have posts on The Conservative Baptist Conflict and The Beginnings of the New Testament Association, I thought I'd start something on the Minnesota Baptist Association.

One thing I find interesting about the Minnesota Baptist Association is that it is an organization of the Northern Baptists in which the conservative/fundamental churches were in the majority over the liberal/moderate churches and kept the original state convention rather than having to withdraw. It is said that Richard V. Clearwaters observed that Minnesota fundamentalists kept “not only the faith, but the furniture.” (That is, being in the majority, they kept the state organizations, such as the Convention and Pillsbury Academy.)

The first meeting of the Minnesota Baptist Convention was held August 29, 1859 in Winona, Minnesota. There were already 4 local/regional associations. The Minnesota Baptist Convention existed before the organization of the Northern Baptist Convention in 1907, but after that time affiliated with that body. At some point after the separation (which date I do not have) the name of the state body was changed from “Convention” to “Association.”

One book that relates this history is A Light in the Darkness: a History of the Minnesota Baptist Association 1859-1982, by John Ballentine & Wellie Midgley (Minneapolis, MN: North Star Baptist Press, 1983).