 | This article possibly contains original research .(January 2010) |
Wake Forest Baptist Church is two churches in North Carolina, United States. One church is in the town of Wake Forest, North Carolina. It has been operating for almost 200 years. [1] The other church was on the campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was active from 1956 to 2022, but has now closed. [2] [3]
Wake Forest Baptist Church began in 1835 on the Wake Forest Institute campus in Wake Forest, North Carolina. This institute mixed agriculture training with religious education. Samuel Wait, president of WFI, served as the first pastor of the church. That church continues in Wake Forest even after Wake Forest University has relocated. [4]
The church has a pavilion, athletic field, youth center and education building, which are used for community outreach.
In 2015, the church printed ‘Our Story of Faith’ to celebrate their 180th anniversary. [5]
In 2022, Senior Pastor Bill Slater retired. In 2023, the church is advertising for a new Pastor. [6]
The church was established in 1956, when Wake Forest College relocated from Wake Forest, North Carolina, to Winston-Salem. [7] [8]
The university set up a new church, with the old name. After 1956, there were two churches (100 miles apart) with the name ‘Wake Forest Baptist Church’; one at the original WFI site at Wake Forest town, [9] and one at the new Wake Forest College in Winston-Salem.
The university congregation held their services in auditorium, named Wait Chapel.
When the new church was founded, most of the student body, faculty and administration was Baptist. Over the years, the percentage of Baptists on campus decreased significantly.
Working with the North Carolina Baptist Hospital, the church founded the local Meals on Wheels ministry [10] and helped to establish the Association for the Betterment of Children. Its members were responsible for the establishment of the organization C.H.A.N.G.E., which includes 40 congregations and neighborhood associations. The church was a major supporter of Habitat for Humanity of Forsyth County and helped to build homes in the city. [11]
Although Wake Forest University ended ties with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina in 1986, the church continued its relationship with the university. [12]
In 1994, the church was presented the Whitney M. Young Award for "bridging the gaps in race relations" by the Winston-Salem Urban League. A year later, the United Way of Forsyth County, NC presented a special award to Wake Forest Baptist Church and its partner, First Baptist Church, Highland Avenue, for building "a better community through a variety of joint undertakings." [7]
In 2006, the church won the PFLAG of Winston-Salem Faith Community Kaleidoscope Award. In 2007, the Individual Kaleidoscope Award was presented to the pastor, Susan Parker. [13]
From 2011 to 2013, Parker and Angela Yarber, who are both lesbians, served as co-pastors. [12]
Lia Scholl, pastor from 2014 to 2021, participated in Poor People's Campaign protests in Raleigh, North Carolina and Washington, D.C. and was arrested. [12]
In 2019, the church ordained a transgender woman for ministry. [14]
In 2021, the university told the church that by 2023, it would have to pay $2,500 a month for use of Davis Chapel. On August 7, 2022, with average attendance down to about 30 people, members voted to dissolve the congregation. [12] On November 5, 2022, the church held a celebration of life service, following which it officially dissolved. During this service, the church announced legacy gifts to the Wake Forest University School of Divinity and the Winston-Salem Foundation. [15] [8] [16]
Due to its position on LGBTQIA equality in the church, [17] and the church's decision in 2000 to perform a union for a lesbian couple, [12] the church was removed from membership in the Pilot Mountain Baptist Association[ citation needed ] and the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. The church voluntarily left the Southern Baptist Convention. [12] The church belonged to the Alliance of Baptists, Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
Warren T. Carr, a former civil rights proponent, served as pastor of the church from 1964 to 1985. [18] Carr was frequently an adversary of Southern Baptist Convention officials. [19] [20]
Richard Groves became the church's pastor after serving as a pastor in Texas and Massachusetts. He retired October 31, 2008 after working at the church for 23 years.
In January 2011, Angela Yarber joined the pastoral ministry team at WFBC. Yarber also serves Wake Forest University as a campus minister. [21] [22]
Since 2004, Susan Parker has served as the pastor of the church's pastoral ministries. [21] In the late 1990s, it was her union ceremony that sparked controversy. The controversy served as the subject of the documentary A Union in Wait . Groves and Parker have both signed the petition of the North Carolina Coalition for Marriage Equality.
Winston-Salem is a city in and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the fifth-most populous city in North Carolina, and the 90th-most populous city in the United States. Winston-Salem is home to the tallest office building in the region, 100 North Main Street, formerly known as the Wachovia Building and now known locally as the Wells Fargo Center.
Wake Forest University (WFU) is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, has been located north of downtown Winston-Salem since the university moved there in 1956. The Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist medical campus has two locations, the older one located near the Ardmore neighborhood in central Winston-Salem, and the newer campus at Wake Forest Innovation Quarter downtown. The university also occupies laboratory space at Biotech Plaza at Innovation Quarter, and at the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials. The university's Graduate School of Management maintains a presence on the main campus in Winston-Salem and in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Association of Welcoming & Affirming Baptists (AWAB) is a Baptist Christian denomination. The headquarters is in Louisville, Kentucky, United States.
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) is a Baptist theological institute in Wake Forest, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. in Wake Forest, North Carolina. It was created in 1950 to meet a need in the SBC's East Coast region. It was voted into existence on May 19, 1950, at the SBC annual meeting and began offering classes in the fall of 1951 on the original campus of Wake Forest University in Wake Forest, North Carolina. The undergraduate program is called The College at Southeastern. The current president is Daniel L. Akin.
The Demon Deacon is the mascot of Wake Forest University, a school located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. Probably best known for its slightly unorthodox name and appearance, the Demon Deacon has become a mainstay in the world of U.S. college mascots.
A Union in Wait is a 2001 documentary film about same-sex marriage directed by Ryan Butler. It was the first documentary about same-sex marriage to air on national television in the United States.
Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist is an academic medical center and health system located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and part of Charlotte-based Atrium Health. It is the largest employer in Forsyth County, with more than 19,220 employees and a total of 198 buildings on 428 acres. In addition to the main, tertiary-care hospital in Winston-Salem known as Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Health system operates five community hospitals in the surrounding region. The entity includes:
Wake Forest University School of Medicine is the medical school of Wake Forest University, with two campuses located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It is affiliated with Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, the academic medical center whose clinical arm is Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. In 2021, U.S. News & World Report ranked Wake Forest School of Medicine 48th best for research in the nation and 80th best for primary care. The School of Medicine also ranks in the top third of U.S. medical schools in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Charles Hadley Stevens was a pastor and founder/President of Piedmont Bible College.
James David "J.D." Greear is an evangelical American religious leader who is the pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina. He served as the 62nd president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2018 to 2021.
Wake Forest University School of Divinity is an ecumenical divinity school located on the campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The School offers a Master of Divinity degree as well several joint degree programs in cooperation with other graduate programs at the university in bioethics, counseling, education, law, and sustainability. The school has 19 faculty.
The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSCNC) is an autonomous association of Baptist churches in the state of North Carolina. It is one of the state conventions associated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, the convention is made up of 77 Baptist associations and around 4,300 churches as of 2012. The convention is led by three officers, elected annually during the annual meeting of the convention. The three officers elected to serve the convention for 2022 are: President, Dr. Micheal Pardue, and First Vice-president, Rev. Quintell Hill and Rev. Jason Miller. The convention is also led by an Executive Director-Treasurer (EDT). The current EDT is Rev. Todd Unzicker, who was elected by the convention in May 2021.
The College at Southeastern is a Baptist Christian college located in Wake Forest, North Carolina, United States. It is affiliated with the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Len B. Preslar Jr. is an American business educator who has been a Distinguished Professor of Practice at Wake Forest University since 2009.
Washington Manly Wingate served as the fourth president of Wake Forest College, from 1853 to 1862, and then after the Civil War from 1866 until his death in 1879. He is also the namesake for Wingate University, located in Wingate, North Carolina.
Thomas K. Hearn Jr. was the twelfth president of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Hearn served as president from 1983 to 2005, which is the second-longest tenure in the university's history. During Hearn's time as president he oversaw the transformation of the school from a regional Southern Baptist college into one of the nation's premier independent universities.
Linda Sue Carter Brinson is an American writer, journalist, and editor. She was the first woman assistant national editor at The Baltimore Sun and the first woman editorial page editor at the Winston-Salem Journal.
W. Randall Lolley (1931-2022) was an American Christian clergyman of the Baptist tradition. His principal contribution to religious and academic life was a 14-year presidency (1974-1988) of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in the town of Wake Forest, North Carolina. Lolley's leadership of the seminary—one of six owned by the Southern Baptist Convention—ended as a result of theological and political strife within the denomination.
Samuel Wait was a Baptist minister and educator. He served as the first principal of Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He was also the Institute's first president, serving from 1834 to 1845. Wait Chapel, on today's college campus, in Winston-Salem, is named for him.
Reynolda Hall is the main building on the Reynolda Campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is located on the southeastern side of Hearn Plaza, opposite Wait Chapel, while the rear of the building overlooks Manchester Plaza.