An open letter to Joe Edge, publisher of the Augusta Press
Joe, I’m disappointed in you. Your recent opinion article “Liberalism kills churches like First Baptist of Evans” had nothing to do with what was actually taught and practiced at the First Baptist Church of Evans, or with how its ending came to be. Instead, you reached far down an irrelevant and ill-informed path to make FBC Evans an example in your argument against liberalism. By doing that, you dishonored the work of Christ that was done through your brothers and sisters at FBC Evans. Be careful in judging and publishing that which you do not know.
Please allow me to straighten out some information.
You claimed that FBC Evans left the Southern Baptist Convention in 1991. That isn’t true; we never left. FBCE, an SBC church from its beginning, contributed to the SBC’s Cooperative Program and missions funding until the end, and the SBC continued to affirm our credentials to vote in annual meetings. Our website said that. Until the end we were also affiliated with and supported the Georgia Baptist Mission Board and the Augusta Association of Baptist Churches, affiliates of the SBC.
You were correct that we partnered with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Our website said that, too.
You painted us guilty by association with the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists because of their June 2024 merger (almost a year after FBCE closed) with The Affirming Network of the CBF. Joe, as a Baptist yourself, you know that Baptist churches are autonomous and are not obligated to support every decision of their denominational partners. Those entities’ particular views were not part of the taught theology or practice of FBC Evans, other than the belief that all people are created in the image of God and are therefore worthy of dignity, respect, and the church’s support and guidance as they follow in the way of Jesus. Personally, I did not follow the work of those groups and I suspect that few, if any, of FBCE’s members were aware of their existence. We were busy discerning and pursuing the call God had for us.
Joe, I offer this information only to correct the errors around which you built your case, not because I think it says much that is meaningful about who FBCE was. The church’s story is much bigger than any of that.
First Baptist Church of Evans was a historic spiritual and cultural anchor in the Evans and Columbia County community. It had over 3,000 members throughout its life in what was, until fairly recently, a small community. I think your readers would have appreciated knowing some of the actual story I and others could tell about it, and especially about its last few years and the new structure for investing in Christian ministry in the Evans community and elsewhere far into the future. I’d love the opportunity to share that story.
Joe, I see that you want to use your platform to be a defender of the faith. Be sure to seek and tell what is true. Infuse it with the grace and love of God. That’s where our saving faith comes from, and it’s the fruit of faith in our lives.
I’m praying for you what I often pray for myself and others, that in everything we will do the essentials that God requires of us: That we will do justice, and love kindness, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). And I also pray that we will speak the truth in love, growing up in every way into Christ, so that the whole body grows and builds itself up in love (Ephesians 4:15-16).
Philip Hedgecoth
The last pastor of the First Baptist Church of Evans
