Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives – Henry Holcombe, DD – 1762-1824 – Savannah, Georgia Baptist Church was Constituted – PART FIVE

Thomas E Kresal November 7, 2019

Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives – Henry Holcombe, DD – 1762-1824 – Savannah, Georgia Baptist Church was Constituted – PART FIVE

In 1795, a house of worship was partially erected by a few Baptists in Savannah. The following year, as the house was merely inclosed, and as the Baptists had no minister to occupy it, they rented it to the Presbyterians, who had recently lost their house of worship by fire.

A few months before the expiration of this term, in 1799, Dr. Holcombe received and accepted a call from the pew-holders of this building, to impart to them the gospel. The reception he met with was highly respectful, and his annual salary fixed at $2,000. His congregation was large and respectable, and the interests of religion, among the various denominations, appeared to revive by the blessing of God on the Word of His grace. Here we would remark, it is pleasing to notice the mutual surrender of sectarian feelings, by this Christian Baptist pastor and this Christian Presbyterian people.

However, early in 1800 the Baptists conceived it their duty to form themselves into a church of their order. Accordingly Dr. Holcombe, with his wife and ten others, signed a pledge, in which they agreed to endeavor to keep house for the Lord, as soon as the necessary arrangements could be made.

On the 11th September following, he buried with Christ in baptism the first white person who had ever received that holy rite in Savannah, and on the 26th of November of the same year, they were regularly constituted into a church, of which Dr. Holcombe was chosen pastor. This “little one has become a thousand and this small people a great nation.”

Thomas E. Kresal from – J. H. Campbell, Georgia Baptists: Historical and Biographical, 1874, pp. 187-188

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