“There was only one society organized as being of denomination-wide scope in the first half-century of the American overseas mission. This was the enterprise of the Freewill Baptist women.” With these statements R. Pierce Beaver in All Loves Excelling recognized the work of Freewill Baptist women in the Northeast.
The Freewill Baptist Woman’s Missionary Society, organized in 1873, maintained an independent organization with its own board sending missionaries to India until 1906. Then the women joined the General Conference Board of the General Conference of Free Will Baptists.
When that board voted to unite with the American Baptists, the women were at a loss. In 1916, they turned the work in India over to the Women’s American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society. By 1921 both foreign and home missions funds of the Freewill Baptist Society were given to the American Baptist Societies.
With that union, the oldest missionary society of denomination-wide scope seemed doomed to oblivion.
Free Will Baptist women in the Southeast, Southwest and Midwest, however, knew and participated somewhat with their sisters in the Northeast. They were not a part of the union with the American Baptists. They were without a national organization. These women longed to join and encourage Free Will Baptists to take the gospel to the world.
At the Eastern General Conference Meeting June 13, 1935, women from Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas formed a national organization: The Woman’s National Auxiliary Convention of Free Will Baptists. The organization, now named Women Nationally Active for Christ, celebrated their 75th anniversary in 2010.
In 2014, during the annual Free Will Baptist convention in Ft. Worth, Texas, leaders of the organization petitioned delegates to accept WNAC as an official department of the denomination. The vote passed with an overwhelming majority, and WNAC joined the National Association of Free Will Baptists, where they continue to fill a vital role.
About the Writer: Mary Wisehart is the retired Executive Director of Women Nationally Active for Christ and a former member of the Free Will Baptist Historical Commission.
