“If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you are.” —James Burke, founder, Knowledge Web The development of the Free Will Baptist Historical Commission was initiated in July 1960 at the 24th National Association of Free Will Baptists in Fresno, California. Delegates approved a resolution to take the necessary steps to establish a historical organization to preserve and promote Free Will Baptist History. The resulting commission was founded three years later, in 1963, when the association met in Detroit, Michigan. Original members included Damon Dodd, Bill Hill, and George C. Lee, Jr. Since its inception, the Historical Commission has been instrumental in: Developing an Archival Collection. One of the most important tasks of the commission has been to collect and catalogue historical materials (many available on this website for review). From books and magazines to minutes of business meetings, pamphlets, letters, sermons, and more, the commission has amassed a large repository of historical documents located at the Welch College Library Historical Collection in Nashville, Tennessee. Publications and Research. The commission produced History of Free Will Baptist State Associations (1976), and The Fifty-Year History of the National Association of Free Will Baptists (1988), both published by Randall … Continue reading Historical Commission