The Association of Baptist Churches of Chad is an organization serving the Baptist churches in the state of Chad in Equatorial Africa.
The General Council of Cooperating Baptists of North America, Inc. (org. October 15, 1920 in Elyria, Ohio) sent six missionaries to French Equatorial Africa in the fall of 1920, and they reached Africa in January 1921. Baptist work in Chad (then still a part of French Equatorial Africa) began in 1925. Paul Metzler entered this area from the work already begun further south in what is now the Central African Republic. In 1960, both Chad and the Republic of Central Africa became independent states. In 1963 Baptist Mid-Missions (the name adopted by the General Council of Cooperating Baptists of North America in 1953) separated the two fields of labor, and the Association of Baptist Churches was formed.
By the early 1970s, Baptist churches in Chad numbered in the hundreds. But in 1973, these churches suffered a severe setback. The government attempted to enforce tribal initiation rites. The Baptists resisted. Churches were closed, believers were persecuted, 13 Chadian pastors were executed, and missionaries were expelled from the country. Medical personnel were allowed to stay. But when the government formed their Evangelical Church, the mission refused to cooperate and the government closed the mission's medical center. The remaining medical missionaries left the country at that time. In 1975 the ruling regime was overthrown and the churches reopened within a few weeks. In 1976 the medical center was opened again. In 1995 the Association of Baptist Churches had 150 churches with about 20,000 members. Baptist Mid-Missions still maintains a few missionaries in Chad. The Koumra Medical Center, started by Baptist Mid-Missions but now run by nationals, operates to train doctors, nurses, and medical workers.
Though unrelated to the Association of Baptist Churches, the Southern Baptist Convention added Chad as a mission field in 1993. The predominant religion of Chad is Islam (about 55%), which is strongest in the north, while animism dominates much of the tribal religion of the south.
Famous quotes containing the words association of, association, baptist and/or churches:
“With all their faults, trade-unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in man, than any other association of men.”
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938)
“A good marriage ... is a sweet association in life: full of constancy, trust, and an infinite number of useful and solid services and mutual obligations.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“You should approach Joyce’s Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“Here, the churches seemed to shrink away into eroding corners. They seem to have ceased to be essential parts of American life. They no longer give life. It is the huge buildings of commerce and trade which now align the people to attention. These in their massive manner of steel and stone say, Come unto me all ye who labour, and we will give you work.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)