Posts by Wayne Flynt

When Your Legs Won’t Reach the Floor

Theologically, our legs are like Anna’s: they’re often just a little bit too short. We sit in this place of worship—this sanctuary of God—and our feet, theologically, will just not quite reach the floor. We dangle in this space between belief and doubt, certainty and uncertainty. [button link=”http://bit.ly/JnzJI0″]Download MP3 Audio File[/button]

“Brother John,” Dearest Jeanette

Church histories often focus on measurements of success more appropriate for a corporation than a church: large building projects; budget increases; growth in church membership. But if current Auburn First Baptist members conducted a referendum, they probably would select the team of Jeffers and Jeffers the most successful co-pastors ever. That outcome defies conventional wisdom.…

Auburn First Baptist and the Alabama Frontier

Back in the early part of the nineteenth century, when Alabama was just an infant state, people poured in this place—part of the great stream of immigrants pouring into America from all over the world, and part of the stream of poor people just coming farther and farther south and west until finally they wound-up…

All in the Family: The Golden Age, 1945-1960

When asked to name Auburn First Baptist Church’s golden age, long time members often mention the years from the end of World War II to the 1960s. America’s most formidable global economic competitors lay in ruins. People discovered new and profound meaning in their families. They sought religious renewal. Baptist evangelist Billy Graham launched a…

The Making of Modern Auburn First Baptist Church

Nearly all churches have several beginnings, some many more. As decades come and go, realities change, and elements of tradition and modernity collide, dramatic alterations occur. For Auburn First Baptist, the decades between 1900 and 1940 produced most of those transitions. Organizationally, theologically, and culturally, the church after 72 years of life became more like…

Important Intersections at Auburn First Baptist

Intersections can be figurative or literal, destructive or constructive. Sometimes, they can be both. We are the church at the corners of Glenn, Gay, and College. But in 1900 we also occupied intersections of a new century, a failed pastorate, a phenomenally successful new pastorate, a period of growth unprecedented in church history, a strong…

Building the Body of Christ at Auburn First Baptist

If I. T. Tichenor was the flaming comet shooting across Auburn skies in the 1870s, leaving in its wake both solid ecclesiastical and educational institutions, Patrick Hues Mell, Jr., and C. E. Little were the smaller, more enduring, and perhaps in the long run more important meteors trailing behind. As impressive as Tichenor’s denominational influence…

Auburn First Baptist Church