Association – Origins of the Clay-Platte Baptist Association
The roots of Clay Platte Baptist Association go back to 1823, (196 years ago), when the Fishing River Association began. It was one of three associations that was formed when the former Mt. Pleasant Association, headquartered in Montgomery County, was divided into three areas. As so much a part of our history, Baptist began to be divided over matters of faith and practice. A couple of decades after Fishing River was formed the issues of missions became the point of dissension. Some Baptist churches were anti-missionary, and some were missionary. Most of the churches that made up the Fishing River Association were anti-missionary (and many of those were anti-education regarding training of clergy). However, 5 churches believed that churches should be involved and active in the sending out of missionaries. These five pulled out of the Fishing River Association and in 1844 started the North Liberty Association. For the next 78 years, the association grew and added more like-minded churches and the area of churches extended to include a great part of northwest Missouri.
In 1922, the idea grew that associations would be better served by a county associational model. This notion led to the dissolution of the North Liberty Association in August of 1922 and the formation of Clay Baptist Association on Sept 5, and the Platte County Baptist Association on Sept 17, 1922. Both associations functioned well for the next 16 years until leaders from both associations came together on September 20-21, 1938 and merged 24 churches of the two associations into one. And now for 83 years we have sought to be a network of churches who partner together for the gospel to reach the northland and the nations. – Dr. Gary Mathes