Original Free Will Baptist Convention
The North Carolina convention had developed along lines with slightly different polity from the midwestern and northern Free Will Baptists.They held to a more connectional form of government, and believed the annual conference could settle disputes in and discipline a local church.This view, different educational philosophies, and the desire of the North Carolina convention to operate its own press and Sunday School publishing created tensions that ended in division.The Convention sponsors the Free Will Baptist Children's Home, Inc. in Middlesex, North Carolina (established 1920), the University of Mount Olive in Mount Olive, North Carolina (chartered 1951), and operates the Free Will Baptist Press in Ayden.It supports foreign missionaries in Bulgaria, India, Mexico, Nepal, Liberia, and the Philippines.