Columbus journalist completes ‘story’ of First Baptist Church

First Baptist Church in downtown Columbus prides itself on teaching the Word of God “by the Book.”

This month there is another book associated with the church that dates back to the settling of Columbus in the late 1820s. Columbus journalist and author Richard Hyatt has written a history of the church, “Return to the Water: The story of First Baptist Church, Columbus, Georgia.”

“This is more than a church history,” said Pastor Jimmy Elder, who worked with Hyatt to tell the story of one of the city’s earliest congregations. “This is the history of the city of Columbus through the eyes of the members of First Baptist Church.”

Hyatt has been working on the project for more than two years. In doing his research, Hyatt began to see a storyline developing that is different from traditional church history works.

“If you look at the subtitle on the cover, it doesn’t say, ‘The history of ...’ it says, ‘The story of ...,’ Hyatt said. “So, it is more the story of the church and the city and how they intersect and it’s not the traditional church history book.”

The book sells for $30 and can be purchased at the church office off Third Avenue and at Dinglewood Pharmacy on Wynnton Road. It was published by Nurturing Faith Inc., a Macon, Ga., publishing house.

What is known today as First Baptist Church was founded on Feb. 14, 1829, as Ephesus Baptist Church. It was one of four denominations — Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics and Baptists — that were deeded property in the original city to start churches.

Hyatt is a member of First Baptist Church and was asked several years ago by another member, Randy Robertson, who is on the church’s history committee, if he had ever considered writing about its history. Hyatt had collaborated on the history of Fort Benning and written histories of the Country Club of Columbus and Green Island Country Club.

“He asked, ‘Why haven’t you ever done a history of First Baptist,’ and my answer was kind of a flippant answer, ‘Because they haven’t asked,’” Hyatt said.

Robertson, a book collector who has a number of works about the history of Columbus and the region, approached Elder, who thought it was a good idea.

“When we commissioned Richard, we said, ‘We don’t want a chronicled history,’” Elder said. “What we wanted was a narrative story that gets into the spirit of what the church is about, gets into the spirit of the mission and how it has consistently been taken from generation to generation.”

But don’t expect this story to move from beginning to end in a traditional manner, Hyatt said.

“This book doesn’t go in a straight line,” Hyatt said. “It hits on the special moments of the church and weaves them together through a timeline.”

Hyatt had access the extensive archives of the church, the Columbus newspapers and archives at Samford University and Mercer University to draw from in his research.

The beginnings and history of the church can be traced to the two private faith-based institutions in Birmingham, Ala., and Macon, Ga.

“The church in the beginning years, if you look at the list of pastors, they were here a year or two and it wasn’t because they were failing,” Hyatt said. “Most of them were professors from Mercer. They were coming here on a short-term assignment. It was hard for me from the beginning to understand how dramatic that connection between Mercer and First Baptist was.”

There is also a strong connection to Samford, a Birmingham, Ala., university that was founded as Howard College. The institution was founded by the Rev. James H. DeVotie, who later served as pastor of First Baptist for 14 years, including during the Civil War.

“DeVotie is a huge part of this story,” Hyatt said. “Today, if someone wanted to write something about the church down the road, they will have the television archives. They can hear Jimmy’s sermons. DeVotie was a prolific writer; he wrote down everything.”

The availability to DeVotie’s sermons and writings helped expand the story, Hyatt said.

“DeVotie was a great negotiator and he was negotiating what it would take for him to leave the churches in Alabama to come here,” Hyatt said. “Those letters were vivid. Then here, in the pastor’s study were sermons he hand-wrote.”

The book does not shy away from the painful chapters in the church’s past. One of those was the decision by former pastor Ron Grizzle and the church to part ways in 2002.

“I realized there were only three living ministers of First Baptist Church — Othel Hand, Bob Potts and Ron Grizzle,” Hyatt said. “Dr. Hand, when he was living, he was not available. I went to San Antonio to see Dr. Potts and he was in an early stage of dementia at time I went out there. So, it was a limited experience with him.”

That left Grizzle, an at times controversial preacher who served the church from 1997-2002.

“If I ignored the voice of Ron Grizzle, I felt that I would be ignoring a chapter of this story,” Hyatt said. “I went to Atlanta. ... It was a very emotional conversation. It was a very tumultuous time for the church and him. In my conversation with Ron, he handled it beautifully. I don’t think there is any indictment of Ron Grizzle, just a factual account.”

Elder said he and the church did not put any areas off limits to Hyatt and his research.

“We did not give Richard any restrictions,” Elder said. “We did not say, ‘Stay out of this; stay out of that; don’t mention this; don’t mention that.’ Anything he found, he had the right to put in. But part of this was making sure the story remained true as opposed to grinding an ax.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2017 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Columbus journalist completes ‘story’ of First Baptist Church."