In 1873 the General Conference of Original Free Will Baptists in North Carolina launched the publication of this church paper. Up to that time, they had functioned without the benefit of a news medium other than the printed minutes of the annual conferences. Following the distribution of a prospectus, Robert Ellis began to publish weekly issues of the Free Will Baptist Advocate at Fremont, NC. After one year, he began publishing the paper at Toisnot (now Elm City) and changed its name to Toisnot Transcript, a change which brought dissatisfaction to many with the result that the publication had to be suspended about 1877. The General Conference reactivated it with a new editor and manager who published it under its original name. Because of a lack of support, it was again suspended in 1879.
When the conference was convened in 1880, Elder Rufus K. Hearn was asked to submit a plan by which he could successfully publish a Free Will Baptist newspaper. He urged the conference to obtain full ownership of the printing press, hire an editor, and publish the paper at the expense of the conference with the support of individual subscriptions and contributions from the churches. The conference adopted Hearn’s plan, hired him as editor, and he began publishing the paper at Fremont. Hearn dropped the word “Advocate" from the publication's name. The next year he moved to New Bern and published it there. Each year he reported the amount of receipts and expenses to the conference, and each year there was a deficit. Although the conference was asked to contribute toward expenses, there was never enough to balance the account. In 1886, a committee recommended that the printing press be loaned to Elder Hearn with the provision that he publish the paper “as a Free Will Baptist organ at his own expense.” Hearn continued to publish it on these terms until February 1889. In that year, a stock company was formed and the conference conveyed its interest in the printing press to the Free Will Baptist Publishing Company.
Rufus K. Hearn
The Company assumed the responsibility of publishing the paper, moving its base to the town of Ayden in 1894. From that date until now, The Free Will Baptist has been published in Ayden. It has served not only the Free Will Baptists of North Carolina, but was also the church paper for this denomination throughout much of the South as early as the beginning of this century. It was instrumental in the formation of the General Conference of Free Will Baptists in the United States in 1921 and later in the merger of this organization with another group to form the National Association of Free Will Baptists in 1935. When the North Carolina Convention withdrew from that organization in 1962, its subscription base was reduced. Because of increased printing costs, The Free Will Baptist became a monthly magazine in January 1982, focusing primarily on the programs and interests of North Carolina Free Will Baptists. In 2017, The Free Will Baptist publication name was changed Community Magazine.
Sources
Pelt, Michael R. A History of Original Free Will Baptists. Mount Olive, NC: University of Mount Olive Press, 1996.