Our history dates back to 1887, when a group of six churches decided to form an alliance to reach the area immediately surrounding their congregations.  They began to look at areas that needed missionary church starters, and began to send those men out with support.  Within a decade twelve churches were included, only four of which were original.

We were linked with other Georgia Baptist Associations that had formed and were forming at the time.  The early meetings of the churches and the association had Primitive Baptist tendencies, and even though records do not confirm a doctrinal statement, most associations, especially Primitive Baptists were aligned for doctrinal purposes.  All of our churches have the Baptist Faith and Message as their statement of faith with one exception.  That exception is the Charleston Confession of Faith (which is patterned off the Second London Confession and led up to the Philadelphia Confession). The church that holds to this confession was started in those first five years of the existence of the association by its first two missionaries. So, it is probably safe to say that our churches were formed under this statement.

They also had eight foundation beliefs that anchored them as churches, and six characteristics of a gospel church which were outlined in a document called Mell Baptist Association Articles of Faith 1893. We now have 28 churches and two mission churches that all have The Baptist Faith & Message 2000 as their doctrinal statement.

Doctrine is important, and we believe it is important to say where we stand. Minor variations of secondary and tertiary doctrines may exist between churches because we have always held to the autonomy of the local church. We share many ethical concerns and causes, but our central common cause, and the reason for which we exist is the glory of God through the advancement of the gospel locally and throughout the world. We do this in various ways, but one of the things that makes us Southern Baptists is the Cooperative Program, which all our churches give through, and which funds our state convention (the Georgia Baptist Mission Board), the seminaries, the North American Mission Board, and the International Mission Board.