The late William H. Brackney launched the Baptists in Early North America (BENA) series to spotlight churches that played significant roles in shaping North American Baptist development. John D. Inscore Essick's Middletown Baptist Church, New Jersey, and J. Kristian Pratt's Abbott's Creek, North Carolina, Baptist Church are volumes eight and nine, respectively, in this projected twelve-volume series. Each volume in the BENA series features a careful transcription of the church's records along with other primary works where possible, a substantial historical introduction on the church and its significance in Baptist development, a bibliography, and an index. The books in this series are a welcome addition to the literature on the Baptist movement.

Those familiar with church Minute books know that congregational records can be difficult to navigate. Usually they record births, deaths, baptisms, and the like. Many record books detail church disciplinary procedures, which are helpful in gauging how the church staked moral and theological limits. On the other hand, church records are often frustrating for what they do not say. For Inscore Essick's Middletown Baptist Church, New Jersey, the church record book, also referred to as “The Great Book,” says little between 1736 and 1785, roughly the tenure of its most storied pastor, Abel Morgan. Fortunately, Inscore Essick's volume includes Elder James Mott's Disciplinary Journal supplement to the Great Book between 1748 and 1777. More detailed Minutes resume after 1785, and they suggest that it is not easy to succeed a popular minister.

In a similar fashion, J. Kristian Pratt's Abbott's Creek, North Carolina, Baptist Church offers insight on one of the state's early Baptist churches. Pratt's historical introduction includes an extensive discussion of revivalism, the rise of the Separate Baptists, and the early mission movement in North Carolina. Traditionally the rise of the Primitive Baptist movement has been explained as a theological controversy between high Calvinists and more moderate Calvinists who supported organized mission work, but the story is much more nuanced than that. Pratt's analysis details how complicated church life could be, especially when powerful personalities like Ashley Swaim attracted followers. As both Inscore Essick and Pratt demonstrate, church schisms tended to be as much about personality conflict and personal acrimony as they were about theological differences.

Taken together, these volumes along with the other works in the BENA series are invaluable resources for historians, historical theologians, and genealogists. These books are as valuable for the historical introductions as their transcriptions of church records. Some may think the $60 per volume price tag is steep, but the high-grade cloth binding, the text quality, and the excellent materials they provide make them well worth the price. Future researchers will find much to treasure in these volumes.