| I was talking to a Baptist preacher who was into church planting movements. I ended up selling him a car. He was also into Baptist history. I didn't see the links that much between Baptist history and church planting movements. Loose similarities, but it was still interesting.Apparently, the Southern Baptist, Missionary Baptists, Primitive Baptists, independent and other groups grew out of this one congregation in Liberty, NC near Greensboro. Shubel Stearns was raised Congregational but converted under the preaching of George Whitfield. He joined the Separatist Baptists and moved to North Carolina. He, with his brother-in-law planted a church made up mostly of relatives, but in a few years it grew to 600 people. They respected the idea of a call to preach and encouraged preachers to go out and plant congregations. Shubal Stearns and the church there had Calvinist beliefs. They believed in the new birth and practiced baptism by immersion, the laying on of hands, anointing the sick with oil, and foot washing in addition to the Lord's Supper and communal meals which they called love feasts. I found the history interesting. It is encouraging that one church could encourage so much church planting activity. I have relatives and ancestors in the Baptist movement including two uncles who are pastors and a great-grandfather who was a Baptist preacher |