Queries came from the 1st Baptist Church in Lexington, as to the validity of baptism administered by an unordained preacher, and as to the propriety of ordaining men of color to the gospel ministry. Jeremiah Vardeman, James Fishback, John Edwards, Edmund Waller and Jacob Creath were appointed a committee to consider these questions and report their conclusions to the next Association. In accordance with their report, the Association, in 1822, reaffirmed its definition of valid baptism, given in 1802, and, in answer to the second inquiry, "they knew of no reason why free men of color may not be ordained ministers of the gospel, the gospel qualifications being possessed by them."
Editor's note: The above query seems to be related to the fact that a Black church had been started in the Lexington area. J. H. Spencer in his History of Kentucky Baptists, give the following:In 1812, a colored church, which had been gathered, at Lexington, by a colored man known as "Old Captain," made application for membership in the Association. The application was rejected, on the ground that the constitution of the church was irregular.
It appears that the pious old slave, under whose earnest and diligent labors this church had been gathered, had been member of a small Separate Baptist Church, located in the eastern part of Fayette county, or the western part of Clark, called the head of Boones Creek. After that church dissolved, about 1797, he hired the time of himself and his wife, procured a cabin to live in, near Lexington, and devoted himself to exhorting his fellow-servants, in and about the village, to repent and turn to the Saviour. When about fifty had professed conversion and demanded baptism. he applied to the white brethren for ordination. But he being a slave and wholly illiterate, the "fathers and brethren" deemed it improper to lay hands on him. However, they gave him the right hand of fellowship, and bade him go on in the good work. Thus encouraged, he baptized the converts that were approved, and constituted them into a church, under the style of the African Baptist Church in Lexington. This church prospered greatly, until it numbered about 300 members, when it applied for admission to Elkhorn Association, as stated above. The irregularity of its constitution consisted in the want of the formal ordination of the preacher who baptized its members and embodied them in a church. Such was the strictness of order, adhered to by the fathers of Elkhorn Association.
The relation between the First Baptist Church (Black), Lexington and the First Baptist Church (White) Lexington is further explained here.
[Much of this information is from J. H. Spencer, History of Kentucky Baptists, Volume I.]
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