Featured Orthodox Baptist Fellowship

In writing a post on another topic, my mind was reminded of a group of Baptists of which I have not thought in quite awhile -- the Orthodox Baptist Fellowship.

This is a group I long knew a little about, but never knew a lot about. Here is a little about its organization. I'm not sure, but don't think it still exists. Both of these references are from Barr-Smith Debate, Yazoo City, MS: The King's Press, 1982. Vernon L. Barr and J. Cullis Smith debated on the propriety of the Missionary Baptist Association (Barr) and the Orthodox Baptist Fellowship (Smith) circa 1952 in Henderson, Texas. Fortunately, this debate and book preserve some of the history of the Orthodox Baptist Fellowship.

From a Church Bulletin of R. Nelson Colyar, March 31, 1946:
“The Orthodox Baptist Fellowship had its first meeting in May of 1935, 11 years ago. It met in the Central Baptist Church of Little Rock, Arkansas, where Rev. M. L. Moser, my good friend and a mighty evangelist, was then, and is now pastor.” (Barr-Smith Debate. p. 108)

From “Facts, Nothing But Facts About the Orthodox Baptist Fellowship” by W. Lee Rector, tract, 1942:
The Orthodox Missionary Baptist Fellowship “is a voluntary assemblage of saints, and not an aggregation of church messengers. It is a gathering together of individual Christians, not an official representation of churches. It is a gathering together of brethren from local churches at the invitation of some local entertaining church.” (Barr-Smith Debate. p. 64)

W. Lee Rector was pastor of First Baptist, Ardmore, Oklahoma, and associated with the Oklahoma Baptist University. After the state convention ignored problems that he perceived of liberalism in the University and convention, Rector withdrew and formed the First Orthodox Baptist Church of Ardmore (probably circa 1932) and at some point the Orthodox Baptist Institute/Seminary (I've seen it called both; in Congregation and Campus: Baptists in Higher Education, William H. Brackney gives the date as 1944; p. 445).

Anyone know about the Orthodox Baptist Fellowship and/or have more information on it?

 

I found the Orthodox Baptist Confession of Faith online HERE. It is also included in M. L. Moser Jr.'s Baptist Handbook For Church Members. I have not compared them carefully throughout, but did notice some minor differences. At present I have know way of knowing which one, if either, is original.

Moser revised the Confession recently (in the 21st century, I suppose) as the Baptist Confession of Faith for the 21st Century. There he says The Orthodox Baptist Confession of Faith was drawn up circa 1935 by William Lee Rector (First Orthodox BC, Ardmore, Oklahoma), Richard Nelson Colyar (Mountain View BC, Denver, Colorado), and Louis Samuel Ballard (First BC, Ennis, Texas).*

* His gravestone gives the spelling "Louis".

 

Here are some other names (besides Rector, Ballard, & Colyar) that I have found connected to the Orthodox Baptist Fellowship (at least for a period of time):

A. Reilly Copeland (he also partnered with J. Frank Norris)
Chester E. Grounds, Jr. (went to Orthodox Baptist Institute in Ardmore; I think he eventually taught at Southwestern Seminary; his father-in-law, L. H. Brown, pastored First Orthodox BC in Ardmore)
Clymer C. Evans
Don N. Kitch (I think I've linked to the right person; he pastored Antioch BC in Pueblo, Colorado)
J. Cullis Smith
Joe Hocking
L. H. Brown
M. L. Moser, Sr.
Raleigh Campbell

Maybe someone on the BB will recognize some of these names.

 

W. Lee Rector proposes amendments to the OBU charter.

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The Perry Journal, Tuesday, November 4, 1930, p. 3

 

Miami News-Record , Friday, November 7, 1930, p. 6

 

Thanks!

I'm not sure this statement is right, according to what he means by "of its kind." If memory serves, there were two other breaks from the Oklahoma Convention in the early 1900s, and these two eventually united to become the Baptist General Assembly of Oklahoma, which is currently affiliated with the American Baptist Association.

 

Memory only served partially. One of the two -- the Oklahoma State Association (org. 1903) -- did not actually break from the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma because it was one of several bodies that pre-existed it. The BGCO was organized in 1906. The other, though -- the Baptist Convention of Oklahoma (org. 1920) was composed of churches dissatisfied with the BGCO. The State Association and Baptist Convention united circa 1925 to form the Baptist General Assembly of Oklahoma (History of the Baptist General Assembly of Oklahoma and Other Beginnings, from 1903 to 1982, T. L. Duren, editor, Baptist General Assembly Historical Committee, pp. 6-10). [On the other hand, Philip Ray Bryan's 1973 dissertation, An Ecclesiology of the Associational Baptists, 1900-1950, suggests the State Association of Oklahoma Baptist Churches might have been organized in 1911 rather than 1903. He references the 1912 minutes as the second session. Perhaps the associations referenced by Duren and Bryan are two different associations? He also references an unpublished Th.D. dissertation by Roger D. Hebard, "The A. Nunnery Movement in Oklahoma" (SWBTS, Fort Worth, 1944).]

I suspect there may have been a good bit of initial overlap in some of the movements. In ESB Stanfield speaks of the Stealey controversy as a separate controversy from the Orthodox movement. Nevertheless, at least after Stealey's death, his Hudson Avenue Baptist Church was considered part of the Orthodox movement (Barr-Smith Debate, pp. 91-92).

 

This meeting shows an interesting mix (as well as the next one you posted) from those days. I suppose some of these "dissenters" were trying to figure out who they were, and whether they could work together. As far as I ever knew, J. W. Kesner and I. K. Cross were clear American Baptist Association partisans. When I knew Vernon L. Barr (he was old and gray-headed and not like the 1947 picture), he was a solid supporter of the ABA and the MBA of Texas (in fact, that was what he was debating J. Cullis Smith about; I think J. Cullis followed R. J. Anderson at First Orthodox & OBI). But Barr was also ordained by W. Lee Rector at First Orthodox in Ardmore, and was close friends with Ernest Rippetoe (who also served as President of the Texas State Gospel Singing Convention about this time, I think).

In doing searching on this topic, I discovered a former pastor of my natal church (before my time) had gone to school at Orthodox Baptist Institute.

Really nice ad! Thanks.

 

This is the 1920 "Nunnery Convention"
Chickasha Daily Express, Monday, October 4, 1920, p. 1
View attachment 2186

 

Another interesting person to throw into this mix is L. R. Shelton. He may have never been part of the Orthodox Fellowship, but he was close friends with A. Reilly Copeland, who preached his funeral. HERE is an interesting comment he made, throwing several types of Baptists under the bus!

Links to burials of some other ministers:
Clymer C. Evans
Ernest Rippetoe
H. Frank Fort
L. H. Brown
O. E. Alsup (Alsup may have been primarily a BMA preacher, but he was pastor of the Orthodox Missionary Baptist Church on 1219 S Hampton Road in Dallas, according to the Dallas City Directory, 1941)

 

Jerome, from some things I've seen and especially the things you've posted, I get the impression that Rector's idea of the Orthodox Baptist Fellowship was for it to be inclusive for those who could meet on these terms of historic Baptist doctrine, fundamentalism and premillennialism -- probably without concern of whether or not they were in any other fellowship or association.

Vernon Barr references the 1947 Fellowship meeting at Stephenville in his debate with Cullis Smith. He said that he helped Ernest Rippetoe "make out the program the first night of the meeting" and "there was nothing wrong with the Fellowship at Stephenville. They didn't put any hobbles on anybody..." In this latter point he seems to be referring as to what body one might have been a member of (as in OBF, ABA). It seems, though, by the time of the debate, that Barr thought the loosely organized fellowship was gathering in some that he thought were loose Baptists (he gives some examples of pulpit affiliation, open communion, and alien immersion). He also said that L. S. Ballard (and Ballard was Smith's moderator at this debate) had told him that the Orthodox Baptist Fellowship had served its purpose and that it was time for it to be called off, since it no longer had an objective. (From Barr's standpoint that objective was to unite "orthodox Baptists" from different groups. He said, quoting Ballard "...Orthodox Baptists from all groups were invited to come and take part in the meetings...Free speech was accorded to all, and men of all groups who attended the meetings were placed on the programs with no strings whatsoever upon them." Barr's point was now (in 1952) they were excluding Orthodox Baptists who weren't absolutely unaffiliated.)

 

I found that I had a copy in my library of the 1958 (3rd edition) of the Orthodox Baptist Confession of Faith. It is substantially the same as what M. L. Moser Jr. printed in his Handbook, except for minor formatting/spelling/capitalization differences.



The booklet is stamped "Grace Bible Baptist Church, 201 S. Baxter, Tyler, Texas." I've never been to that church (and though a building is still there it no longer houses Grace BBC), so I must have gotten it from an individual or another church.