In October 1822, Isaac McCoy, a Baptist missionary to the natives, entered the wild, wild west of what is now Michigan, preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. On this day in 1824 he baptized a number of Indian converts in the St. Joseph River. Soon, more and more whites were emigrating into the region and the Baptists of both races were flourishing. Churches were established in Pontiac (1822), Stoney Creek (1824), Troy (1825), Farmington (1826) and Detroit (1827). In order to help and strengthen these and other new assemblies, the Michigan Baptists formed an association. Sadly, as has taken place so many times and in so many places, this was the first step towards disaster.
In 1885, Brother Z. Grenell of Detroit made a proposal to the convention – that a Bureau of Ministerial Supply, which should consist of five brethren, elected at stated periods by the Convention to serve as a medium of communication between churches seeking pastors and pastors seeking churches; only so far, however, as churches and minister make direct application. Six year later the accusation was made that some churches were ordaining men without discrimination, and thus a new proposition was offered – that “a standing committee be formed to examine all candidates for ordination privately, and that no council of ordination should be called except upon the recommendation of this committee. This of course, removed the authority for ordination from local church control. Then two years later it was suggested that churches might do well to deed their property over the convention.” Eventually, as a part of the Northen Baptist Convention, the Michigan Baptist Convention slipped into complete compromise and modernistic heresy.
Participation in fellowships, associations and eventually in conventions inevitably robs churches of their authority and submission to Christ. True independency is the Biblical method, and while it is no guarantee of doctrinal purity, it certainly helps to preserve that church’s position as a “pillar and ground of the truth.”