Purpose

So you can gain an appreciation for Baptist history and heritage and share your ideas with others.

Each year the contest is for high school students and carries cash awards and the publication of the winning essays.  It is a special opportunity for individuals or for an entire Sunday school class or Youth Group to encourage its members to enter. 

The theme changes each year.  Last year, 2011, the theme was "Compassionate Churches."  Four award winners were selected and their essays were published in a booklet.  The booklet is available free of charge if you would like to read the essays that were judged best in the last competition.  Telephone the Heritage Center at (804)289-8434 and request that copy of "Compassionate Churches" be mailed to you.  Tell the person who answers that you are a student who is considering entering the contest for this year.

The topic for the 2012 Essay Contest is as follows:  "Let Me Tell You About the Person Who Has Most Influenced My Thought as a Baptist and Let Me Tell You Why..."  The topic compliments a major book which will be published this year by the Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies.  The book will be on "modern shapers of Baptist thought" and will consist of essays of two dozen persons - pastors, professors, missions leaders, lay leaders - who have through their writings and lives influenced the thoughts of several generations of Baptists.  For the high school students entering the contest, the theme affords an opportunity to consider the person - living or dead - historical or contemporary - whose life and work or whose writings or messages has influenced them in their own thoughts and beliefs.  Again, it could be an historical personage from Baptist history or a person with whom the student personally interacts or who they know through their writings or public presentations.

Look to the list of rules for further information on the length of the essay and the deadlines.  Think about that person who has influenced your thinking as a Baptist... and write!