Past Master Brooklin pastor collecting artifacts to archive history of Maine churches

From brittle ledgers to tinted postcards, old videos to frayed bulletins, congregations and spiritual people all around Maine possess pieces of the past that help explain their present.

The Rev. James L. Lufkin wants those spiritual people to go on a treasure hunt to find more.

He is a pastor, ministering at the First Baptist Church of Brooklin, a small congregation on the Blue Hill Peninsula. He is also an archivist, having served as a Methodist minister and been trained in archival work for the United Methodist Church.

Long interested in Maine people and their churches, Lufkin, in his 60s, is the official historian and archivist of American Baptist Churches of Maine, which will celebrate its 200th anniversary next month.

He has been working closely with the Rev. Foster Williams, a Baptist minister and chairman of the state organization’s historical committee, to bring a sense of history to the September events.

Baptists were active in New England in the 18th century, but the meeting that serves as an organizational milestone for American Baptists in Maine didn’t occur until 1804. This Sept. 24-26, a series of events is planned to mark the occasion at Penney Memorial United Baptist Church in Augusta.

Lufkin is working diligently, archiving historical pictures and artifacts, so that he can present the history of the churches to the convention.

Baptist churches can affiliate with any organization they choose. Some Maine Baptist churches, for example, are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Others are fiercely independent.

But the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. and its Maine organization remain closely affiliated with many Maine Baptist churches.

One of the more delicate elements of his research, Lufkin said, is his inclusion of churches that have left the American Baptist fold. “I’m interested in why a church may have left. Some have even come back. This is an important part of the story of who we are,” Lufkin said.

As Lufkin began his work, he came to find that no current definitive history of American Baptists in Maine exists.

“I began by sending a letter to all known, existing American Baptist churches in the state of Maine, requesting old and new photographs of the exterior of each church, an interior photo, the history of the church and a picture of some important event in the church’s life,” Lufkin said.

“I had a pretty good response with the histories,” Lufkin said. “But I didn’t receive as many photographs.”

Eventually, he began to focus his collection on old postcards of American Baptist Churches in Maine. He has acquired more than 100, which will eventually be included in a coffee table book. “It will be more of a compilation than a history,” Lufkin said.

One of the more fruitful resources for finding church postcards is eBay on the Web. Lufkin’s goal is to collect 300 postcards. He visits antiques stores whenever he gets a chance, and he collects commemorative china.

He has had some surprises, like how frequently churches in earlier eras used discipline. If a member missed a service or was heard swearing, it was not uncommon for a deacon or a pastor “to go to that member’s home and actually expel him from the church. He would only be allowed back in the church if he made confession before the congregation,” Lufkin said.

Clearly, for Lufkin, this archival work is a labor of love and a mission of sorts. He has developed a computer program and an instructional archiving guide. He also travels around the state teaching a class to any congregation – not just Baptist – interested in history writing and the archival process.

He’s working on a slide presentation of the postcards he’s collected for the convention and is trying to find a permanent home for the archives of the American Baptist Church of Maine.

For a look at some historical postcards showing Baptist churches around Maine, visit www.brooklinbaptist.org. Contact Lufkin at bappast@hypernet.com or 359-4698.