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]
Posts by Wayne Flynt
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.…
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…
Tonight, I am going to begin the first of a number sessions where we’re going to talk about Auburn First Baptist Church. This is the last session where I’m going to embed that in a much larger—and I think more more important—story. And so, from here on out, I’m going to be talking more about…
The question of what “Baptist identity” means is bound-up in a whole series of issues that began right at the first of our history, and I want to go back to England and the fact that England had a state church. And, as a consequence of that, people who did not believe that religion should…
It is very important for you to understand historical context. So, if I start with Auburn First Baptist Church, you have missed the whole point. Because, Auburn First Baptist does not simply pop up. It is part of a very long tradition which defines it and which helps explain why First Baptist Church is the…
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…
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…
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…
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…