Southern Baptist Convention
Reaching the world for Christ.
Classification	Protestant
Theology	Evangelical Baptist
Governance	Congregational
Geographical areas	United States
Origin	May 8–12, 1845 Augusta, Georgia
Separated from	Triennial Convention
Separations	American Baptist Association, Alliance of Baptists, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
Congregations	43,669
Members	16.2 million
Official Website	www.sbc.net
Statistics for 2005[1]

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a United States-based, Christian denomination. It is the world’s largest Baptistdenomination and the largest Protestant body in the US with over 16 million members and more than 42,000 churches.^[2]

The word Southern in Southern Baptist Convention stems from its having been founded and rooted in the Southern United States. The SBC became a separate denomination in 1845 in Augusta, Georgia, following a regional split with northern Baptists over the issues of slavery. After the American Civil War, another split occurred: most black Baptists in the South separated from white churches and set up their own congregations. Since the 1940s, the SBC has moved away from some of its regional identification.^[3] While still heavily concentrated in the US South, the SBC has member churches across the United States and 41 affiliated state conventions.^[4][5]

Southern Baptists emphasize the significance of the individual conversion experience, affirmed by a total immersion in water for a believer’s baptism, and rejection of infant baptism.^[5] SBC churches are evangelical in doctrine and practice. Specific beliefs based on biblical interpretation can vary somewhat due to the congregational governance system that gives autonomy to individual local Baptist churches.

Contents [hide] 1 History 1.1 Origins 1.2 Triennial Convention and regional tensions 1.2.1 Slavery 1.2.2 Missions and organization 1.3 Formation and alienation of black Baptists 1.4 Historical controversies 1.5 Recent history 2 Theology and practice 2.1 Ordinances 2.1.1 Lord’s Supper 2.1.2 Baptism 2.2 Gender-based roles 2.3 Worship services 3 Statistics 3.1 Membership 3.2 Trends 4 Organization 4.1 Local congregation 4.1.1 Pastor and deacon 4.2 Local association 4.3 State conventions 4.4 Annual Meeting 5 Missions and affiliated organizations 5.1 Cooperative Program 5.2 Missions agencies 5.3 Seminaries and colleges 5.4 Other organizations 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

[edit]History

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[edit]Origins

Most early Baptists in the British colonies came from England in the 17th century, when the established Church of Englandpersecuted them for their dissenting religious views. Baptists such as Roger Williams and Dr. John Clarke immigrated to New Englandin the 1630s.

The oldest Baptist church in the South, First Baptist Church of Charleston, South Carolina, was organized in 1682 under the leadership of Rev. William Screven. A Baptist church was formed in Virginia in 1715 through the preaching of Robert Norden and another in North Carolina in 1727 through the ministry of Paul Palmer. They operated independently of the state-established Anglicanchurches at a time when non-Anglicans were prohibited from holding political office. By 1740, there were about eight Baptist churches in the colonies of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, with an estimated 300-400 members.^[6]

New members, both black and white, were converted chiefly by northern Baptist preachers who traveled throughout the South during the First Great Awakening. The early Baptist missionaries promoted equality of men and argued for manumission of slaves and abolition of the institution. Baptists welcomed African Americans, slave and free, to more active roles than did other denominations, allowing them as preachers and equal members in some congregations. As a result, black congregations and churches were founded in South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia before the American Revolution. Some managed to keep their independence even after whites tried to exercise more authority after the Nat Turner Rebellion of the early 19th century.^[7]

In Virginia and most southern colonies before the Revolution, the Church of England was the state-established church and was supported by general taxes, as it was in Britain. It opposed the rapid spread of Baptists in the South. Particularly in Virginia, many Baptist preachers were prosecuted for “disturbing the peace” by preaching without licenses from the Anglican Church. Both Patrick Henryand the young attorney James Madison defended Baptist preachers prior to the American Revolution in cases considered significant to the history of religious freedom.^[8] In 1779, Thomas Jeffersonwrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, enacted in 1786 by the Virginia General Assembly. Madison later took his own ideas and the ideas encompassed in this document regarding religious freedom to the Constitutional Convention where he ensured they were incorporated into the national constitution.

[edit]Triennial Convention and regional tensions

In 1814, Baptists unified nationally under what became known informally as the Triennial Convention (because it met every three years) based in Philadelphia. It allowed them to join their resources to support missions abroad. The Home Mission Society, affiliated with the Triennial Convention, was established in 1832 to support missions in frontier territories of the United States. By the mid-19th century, numerous social, cultural, economic, and political differences existed among business owners of the North, farmers of the West, and planters of the South. The most divisive conflict was primarily over the deep sectional issues of slavery and secondarily over missions.

[edit]Slavery

Slavery in the 19th century became the most critical moral issue dividing Baptists in the United States. Before the Revolution, Baptist and Methodist evangelicals in the South had promoted the view of the common man’s equality before God, which embraced African Americans. They challenged the hierarchies of class and race and urged planters to abolish slavery. They welcomed slaves as Baptists and accepted them as preachers.^[9]

As Baptists struggled to gain a foothold in the South, the next generation of Baptist preachers accommodated themselves to the society. Rather than challenging the gentry on slavery, they began to interpret the Bible as supporting its practice. In the two decades after the Revolution during the Second Great Awakening, preachers abandoned their pleas that slaves be manumitted. They first attracted common planters and yeomen farmers and later began to attract planters among the elite.^[10] Many Baptist preachers argued to preserve the rights of ministers to be slaveholders, a class which included prominent Baptist Southerners and planters.^[11]The Triennial Convention and the Home Mission Society reaffirmed their neutrality concerning slavery.

In 1844, Basil Manly, Sr., president of the University of Alabama, prominent preacher and a planter who owned 40 slaves, drafted the “Alabama Resolutions” and presented them to the Triennial Convention. These included the demand that slaveholders be eligible for denominational offices to which the Southern associations contributed financially. Georgia Baptists decided to test the claimed neutrality by recommending a slaveholder to the Home Mission Society as a missionary. The Home Mission Society’s board refused to appoint him, noting that missionaries were not allowed to take servants with them (so clearly could not take slaves) and that they would not make a decision that appeared to endorse slavery. Southern Baptists considered this an infringement of their rights to determine their own candidates.^[12]

In June 1995 at the 150th Anniversary of the Southern Baptist Convention, the SBC adopted a resolution officially denouncing racism and expressing remorse over the role that Southern Baptists have played in the acceptance of racisim in the past. This resolution clearly calls racism a “deplorable sin” and appologises to African Americans for “condoning and/or perpetuating individual and systematic racism.”^[13]

[edit]Missions and organization

A secondary issue that disturbed the Southerners was the perception that the American Baptist Home Mission Society did not appoint a proportionate number of missionaries to the southern region of the U.S. This was likely a result of the Society’s not appointing slave owners as missionaries.^[14]

Baptists in different regions also preferred different types of denominational organization. Baptists in the North preferred a loosely structured society composed of individuals who paid annual dues, with each society usually focused on a single ministry. Baptists in southern churches preferred a more centralized organization of congregations composed of churches patterned after their associations, with a variety of ministries brought under the direction of one denominational organization.^[15]:p.505

[edit]Formation and alienation of black Baptists

The increasing tensions and discontent of Baptists from the South regarding national criticism of slavery and issues over missions led to their withdrawal from the national Baptist organizations.^[16] They met at the First Baptist Church of Augusta in May 1845.^[17] At this meeting, they formed a new convention, naming it the Southern Baptist Convention. They elected William Bullein Johnson (1782–1862) as the new convention’s first president. He had served as president of the Triennial Convention in 1841.

African Americans gathered in their own churches early on. Some were established after 1800 on the frontier, such as the First African Baptist Church of Lexington, Kentucky, which by 1850 had 1,820 members, the largest of any Baptist church in the state. In 1824, it was accepted by the Elkhorn Association.^[18] In 1861 it had 2,223 members.^[19]

Blacks wanted to practice their form of American Christianity away from racial discrimination and attempts by whites at control. Free blacks in the North founded their own churches independent of white dominated organizations. In Reconstruction Eramissionaries both black-and-white from several northern denominations worked in the South and quickly attracted tens and hundreds of thousands of new members among the millions of freedmen. They attracted the most new members of any denomination.^[20] White Southern Baptist churches lost black members to the new denominations, as well as to independent congregations organized by freedmen. In 1866, black Baptists of the South and West combined to form the Consolidated American Baptist Convention.

[edit]Historical controversies

During its history, the Southern Baptist Convention has had several periods of major internal controversy. As the denomination does not have a hierarchical form of government, controversies may develop publicly over internal disagreements.

• Landmarkism (1850s-1860s), a group of young activists called for a return to certain early practices; other leaders disagreed with their assertions, and the Baptist congregations became split on the issues. Eventually the disagreements led to the formation of Gospel Missions and the American Baptist Association (1924), as well as many unaffiliated independent churches. One historian called the related Graves–Howell controversy (1858–1860) the greatest to affect the denomination before that of the late 20th century involving the “fundamentalist-moderate” break.^[21]
• The “Whitsitt controversy” (1896–1899),^{[15]:pp.446-458} in which Dr. William H. Whitsitt, professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, suggested that, contrary to earlier thought, English Baptists did not begin to baptize by immersion until 1641, when some Anabaptists, as they were then called, began to practice immersion. This overturned the idea of immersion as the practice of the earliest Baptists, as some of the Landmarkists contended.
• The Conservative Resurgence of 1979 was a major internal disagreement that captured national attention.^{[15]:pp.681ff} Russell H. Dilday, president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1978 to 1994, described the resurgence as having fragmented Southern Baptist fellowship and as being “far more serious than a controversy”.^[22] Dilday described it as being “a self-destructive, contentious, one-sided feud that at times took on combative characteristics”. Since 1979, Southern Baptists had become polarized into two major groups: moderates and conservatives. Reflecting the conservative majority votes of delegates at the 1979 annual meeting of the SBC, the new national organization officers replaced all leaders of Southern Baptist agencies with presumably more conservative people (often dubbed “fundamentalist” by dissenters).^[23]

[edit]Recent history

The SBC has grown from its regional, sectionalist roots into a major force in American and international Christianity. There are Southern Baptist congregations in every state and territory in the United States, though the greatest numbers remain in the Southern United States, its traditional stronghold.

The national scope of the Convention inspired some members to suggest a name change. In 2005, proposals were made at the SBC Annual Meeting to change the name from the regional-sounding Southern Baptist Convention to a more national-sounding “North American Baptist Convention” or “Scriptural Baptist Convention” (to retain the SBC initials). The proposals were defeated.^[24]

In 1995, the Convention voted to adopt a resolution renouncing its racist roots and apologizing for its past defense of slavery.^[25][26] This marked the denomination’s first formal acknowledgment that racism played a role in its early history. By the early 21st century, there were increasing numbers of ethnically diverse congregations within the convention. In 2008, almost 20 percent were estimated to be majority African American, Asian or Hispanic. The SBC then had an estimated one million African-American members.^[27]

[edit]Theology and practice

The general theological perspective of the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention is represented in the Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M).^[28] The BF&M was first drafted in 1925. It was revised significantly in 1963 and again in 2000, with the latter revision being the subject of much controversy. The BF&M is not considered to be a creed, such as the Nicene Creed. Members are not required to adhere to it. Churches belonging to the SBC are not required to use it as their statement of faith or doctrine, though many do in lieu of creating their own statement. Despite the fact that the BF&M is not a creed, faculty in SBC-owned seminaries and missionaries who apply to serve through the various SBC missionary agencies must affirm that their practices, doctrine, and preaching are consistent with the BF&M.

In addition to the BF&M, the SBC has also issued the following position statements:

• Autonomy of local church — Affirms the autonomy of the local church.^[29]
• Church and state — Supports a free church in a free state. Neither one should control the affairs of the other.^[30]
• Cooperation — Identifies the Cooperative Program of missions as integral to the Southern Baptist Convention.^[31]
• Creeds and confessions — Statements of belief are revisable in light of Scripture. The Bible is the final word.^[32]
• Missions — Honors the indigenous principle in missions. The SBC does not, however, compromise doctrine or its identity for missional opportunities.^[33]
• Priesthood of all believers — Laypersons have the same right as ordained ministers to communicate with God, interpret Scripture, and minister in Christ’s name.^[34]
• Sanctity of life — At the moment of conception, a new being enters the universe, a human being, a being created in God’s image.^[35]
• Sexuality — Affirms God’s plan for marriage and sexual intimacy—one man and one woman, for life. Homosexuality is not a valid alternative lifestyle.^[36]
• Soul competency — Affirms the accountability of each person before God.^[37]
• Women in ministry — Women participate equally with men in the priesthood of all believers. Their role is crucial, their wisdom, grace and commitment exemplary. Women are an integral part of Southern Baptist boards, faculties, mission teams, writer pools, and professional staffs. The role of pastor, however, is specifically reserved for men.^[38]

[edit]Ordinances

Southern Baptists observe two ordinances: the Lord’s Supper and Believer’s baptism.^[28] The denomination makes a theological distinction between their ordinances and the more familiar termsacraments. They view the latter as implying a connection to one’s salvation, and they do not believe these are necessary for salvation.

[edit]Lord’s Supper

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2010)

Southern Baptists observe the Lord’s Supper with no established frequency. Each local church decides whether it is to be observed monthly, quarterly, etc. Churches tend to use small individual glasses for participants rather than a common cup. Non-alcoholic grape juice is most often served instead of wine. Both leavened and unleavened bread may be served, but the unleavened variety is served most frequently.

[edit]Baptism

Southern Baptists practice Believer’s baptism, also known as credo-baptism (Latin for “I believe”). Southern Baptists maintain the historic Baptist practice of administering baptism only to persons who have reached the “age of accountability“, and candidates must profess belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Furthermore, they hold the historic Baptist belief that immersion is the only valid mode of baptism.

Candidates for membership in an SBC church must already be or become baptized believers. Some SBC congregations will accept previous baptisms by immersion from other denominations which they consider of “like faith and order” as being valid, provided that they were performed after the individual accepted Christ for salvation.

[edit]Gender-based roles

Beginning in the early 1970s, in response to their perceptions of various “women’s liberation movements”,^[39] the Southern Baptist Convention, along with several other historically conservative Baptist groups,^[40][41] began corporately asserting the propriety of what it deemed “traditional gender roles”. Specifically, the SBC passed a series of resolutions at its annual meetings affirming a complementarian view of marriage and a patriarchal view of ordained Christian ministry.^[42] In 1998, the SBC appended a complementarian understanding of marriage to the 1963 version of the Baptist Faith and Message, with an official amendment: Article XVIII, “The Family”. In 2000, it revised the document to reflect support for a male-only pastorate, the long-standing practice of the great majority of SBC churches.^[43] This view was integrated into Article VI on the nature of the church.^[44]

The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to his people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.

– Article XVIII. The Family.

While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

– Article VI. The Church.

The SBC contains no mechanism to trigger the automatic expulsion of congregations that adopt practices or theology contrary to the BF&M. As individual churches affiliated with the SBC are autonomous, local congregations cannot be compelled to adopt a male-only pastorate. But, some SBC churches that have installed women as their pastors have been excluded from membership in their local associations of Baptist churches; a smaller number have been expelled from their state conventions.^[45]

This movement towards an increasingly official ban on women in the pastorate is one of the issues that contributed to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship‘s (CBF) decision to break from the SBC in 1991.^[46] Their 1900 member churches represent what they believe is a moderate position.

[edit]Worship services

Most Southern Baptists observe a low church form of worship, which is less formal and uses no stated liturgy. Worship services usually include: hymns; prayer; choral music by a choir, soloist, or both; the reading of Scripture; the collection of offerings; a sermon; and an invitation to respond to the sermon. Recently, many churches have incorporated various instruments and styles of music into their worship services (see contemporary worship). People may respond during the “invitation” by receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and beginning Christian discipleship, entering into vocational ministry, joining the church, or making some other publicly stated decision.

[edit]Statistics

[edit]Membership

The SBC claims to have more than 16.6 million members in 44,000 churches throughout the US. One internal study by the SBC shows that on average 38 percent of the membership (6,138,776 members, guests and non-member children) attend their churches’ primary worship services.^[47] Southern Baptists do not track church attendance by numbers in the primary worship service; they track attendance through participation in Sunday School, which 4,154,270 Convention members (less than 26 percent of SBC total membership) attend.^[48] Sunday School enrollment in the United States decreased by 123,817 members between 2007 and 2008.^[49]

Year	Membership
1845	350,000
1860	650,000
1875	1,260,000
1890	1,240,000
1905	1,900,000
1920	3,150,000
1935	4,480,000
1950	7,080,000
1965	10,780,000
1980	13,700,000
1995	15,400,000
2000	15,900,000
2005	16,600,000
2006	16,306,246
2007	16,266,920
Sources[50][51]

The SBC has 1,200 local associations and 41 state conventions and fellowships covering all 50 states and territories of the United States. The five states with the highest rates of membership in the SBC are Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee.^[52]Texas has the largest number of members, with an estimated 3.5 million. Through their Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists support thousands of missionaries in the United States and worldwide. Although the SBC fielded over 10,000 missionaries in 2005, budget constraints are expected to reduce the number of missionaries by at least 600 in 2010.^[53]

[edit]Trends

Data from church sources and independent surveys indicate that since 1990 membership of SBC churches has declined as a proportion of the American population.^[54] Historically, the Convention grew throughout its history until 2007 when membership decreased by a net figure of nearly 40,000 members.^[55] Total membership of about 16.2 million was flat over the same period, falling by 38,482, or 0.2 percent. An important indicator for the health of the denomination is new baptisms which have decreased every year for seven of the last eight years, and as of 2008 have reached their lowest levels since 1987.^[56]

This decline in membership and baptisms has prompted some SBC researchers to describe the Convention as a “denomination in decline”.^[57] Former SBC president Frank Page declared that if current conditions continue half of all SBC churches will close their doors permanently by the year 2030.^[58] This assessment is supported by a recent survey of SBC churches which indicated that 70 percent of all SBC churches are declining or are plateaued with regards to their membership.^[59] The decline of the SBC became an issue leading up to the June 2008 Annual Convention.^[60] Former SBC researcher, Curt Watke noted four reasons for the decline of the Southern Baptist Convention based on his research: increase in immigration, decline in growth among predominantly Anglo (white) churches, the aging of the current membership, and a decrease in the percentage of younger generations participating in church life.^[58] A failure to aggressively attract minorities also has been seen as a factor hurting Southern Baptist recruitment numbers.^[61]

The actual decline in SBC membership may be more pronounced than these statistics indicate because Baptist churches, unlike United Methodist, Presbyterian and Evangelical Lutheran congregations, are not required to remove inactive members from their rolls. In addition, hundreds of large moderate congregations have shifted their primary allegiance to other Baptist groups such as the American Baptist Churches USA or the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship but have continued to remain nominally on the books of the Convention—and their members are thus counted in the SBC’s totals—although these churches no longer participate in the annual SBC meeting or make more than the minimum financial contributions.^[62]

[edit]Organization

Southern Baptists’ typical form of government is congregationalist: each local church is autonomous without formal lines of responsibility to organizational levels of higher authority.

A basic Baptist principle is the autonomy of the local church. The Convention is therefore conceived as a cooperative association by which churches can pool resources rather than as a body with any administrative or ecclesiastical control over local churches. It maintains a central administrative organization in Nashville, Tennessee. The SBC’s Executive Committee exercises authority and control over seminaries and other institutions owned by the Southern Baptist Convention. However, the Executive Committee has no authority over affiliated state conventions, local associations, individual churches or members.

Commitment to the autonomy of local congregations was the primary force behind the Executive Committee’s rejection of a proposal to create a convention-wide database of SBC clergy accused of sexual crimes against congregants or other minors^[63] in order to stop the “recurring tide” ^[64] of clergy sexual abuse within SBC congregations. A 2009 study by Lifeway Christian Resources, the Convention’s research and publishing arm, revealed that one in eight background checks for potential volunteers or workers in SBC churches revealed a history of crime that could have prevented them from working.^[65]

The Convention’s confession of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message,^[28] technically is not binding on churches or members due to the autonomy of the local church. Politically and culturally, Southern Baptists tend to be conservative. Most oppose the use of alcohol as a beverage, homosexual activity and abortion with few exceptions.^[5]

There are four levels of SBC organization: the local congregation, the local association, the state convention, and the national convention.

[edit]Local congregation

Each congregation is independent and autonomous. Thus, each local congregation is free to:

• Associate with or disassociate from the SBC (and/or any of its affiliates) at any time
• Determine the level of support which it provides to SBC-affiliated programs and/or other groups, though in order to affiliate with a local association or a state or the national convention some minimum level of giving is required
• Conduct its own internal affairs, such as hiring and firing, determining its doctrinal statement and membership qualifications, order and format of services, and other matters, without approval from any higher level entity

An exception to the above are certain smaller congregations called mission churches. Mission churches are sponsored by one or more larger congregations or by Baptist associations. The ordinary goal is for each mission church to become self-supporting and thus become an independent and autonomous church. A mission church is often created to reach a particular demographic group, such as residents of a new real estate development, a particular ethnic group, or young families.

[edit]Pastor and deacon

Generally, Baptists recognize only two scriptural offices: pastor-teacher and deacon. According to the Baptist Faith and Message, the office of pastor is limited to men based on certain New Testamentscriptures.^[66] The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution in the early 1980s recognizing that offices requiring ordination (pastor and deacon) are restricted to men.^[67]

Deacons of each church are elected by the congregation. In some congregations, deacons function much like a board of directors or an executive committee authorized to make important decisions. Such congregations typically retain the right to vote on major decisions, such as purchasing or selling property, large spending, and the hiring or firing of pastors and other paid ministers.

In recent decades, some SBC congregations have shifted the role of deacons to less governance and more ministering and nurturing responsibilities.^{[citation needed]} One such model is the Deacon Family Ministry Plan. In this model, the number of families in a local church is divided roughly among the active deacons. Each deacon is assigned responsibility for providing pastoral care and other spiritual guidance and assistance for the families assigned.^[68][69][70]

[edit]Local association

Most individual congregations choose to affiliate with Baptist associations which are generally organized within certain defined geographic areas within a state, such as a county. The prior general rule was that only one association existed in a specific geographical area, did not cross state lines (unless a state convention consisted of multiple states), and did not accept churches from outside that area. For many years, particularly within metropolitan areas, numerous associations have existed within the same county.

The primary goal of many associations is evangelism and church planting (i.e., assisting churches in starting mission churches). Even with related ministries, such as food pantries or crisis pregnancy centers, associational volunteers and staff who conduct the ministries often share an evangelistic message along with material and practical assistance.

An association cannot direct the affairs of member churches but can set requirements for continued fellowship. For example, an association may initiate the “dis-fellowshipping” (expulsion) from the association of any church with which the association disagrees, generally in areas of contentious practice or doctrine, such as: charismatic doctrine; a local church’s ordination of women or sanctioning homosexuality (such as through ordination or blessing of same-sex unions); or acceptance of “alien immersion” (baptism with a method, such as sprinkling, not consistent with the typical Baptist requirement of immersion).

Association meetings are generally held annually. The association is free to set the time and place, as well as determining the number of messengers, or delegates, each church may send. Each church is allowed a minimum number; the general practice—at the association level and at the higher levels as well—is that larger churches that provide more financial support are allowed more messengers.

[edit]State conventions

Individual congregations and associations may choose to affiliate with state conventions or fellowships which in turn can affiliate with the SBC. There are 41 affiliated state conventions or fellowships.^[4]

[edit]Annual Meeting

The Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting consists of messengers from cooperating churches. In the month of June, they gather to confer and determine the programs, policies, and budget of the SBC. Each church may be represented by up to 10 messengers, the exact number being determined by the church’s number of members and contributions to the national SBC organization.^[71]

The following quotation from the SBC Constitution explains the membership and description of messengers to each annual meeting:

Article III. Membership: The Convention shall consist of messengers who are members of missionary Baptist churches cooperating with the Convention as follows:

1. One messenger from each church which (1) Is in friendly cooperation with the Convention and sympathetic with its purposes and work. Among churches not in cooperation with the Convention are churches which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior; and (2) Has been a bona fide contributor to the Convention’s work during the fiscal year preceding.
2. One additional messenger from each such church for every two hundred and fifty members; or for each $250.00 paid to the work of the Convention during the fiscal year preceding the annual meeting.
3. The messengers shall be appointed and certified by the churches to the Convention, but no church may appoint more than ten.
4. Each messenger shall be a member of the church by which he is appointed.

Article IV. Authority: While independent and sovereign in its own sphere, the Convention does not claim and will never attempt to exercise any authority over any other Baptist body, whether church, auxiliary organizations, associations, or convention.– SBC Constitution^[72]

[edit]Missions and affiliated organizations

[edit]Cooperative Program

The Cooperative Program (CP) is the SBC’s unified funds collection and distribution program for the support of regional, national and international ministries.^[73] The CP is funded by contributions from SBC congregations.^[73]

In the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, the local congregations of the SBC reported gift receipts of $11.1 billion.^[74] From this they sent $548 million, approximately 5 per cent, to their state Baptist conventions through the CP.^[74] Of this amount, the state Baptist conventions retained $344 million for their work. $204 million was sent on to the national CP budget for the support of denomination-wide ministries.^[74]

[edit]Missions agencies

The Southern Baptist Convention was organized in 1845 primarily for the purpose of creating a mission board to support the sending of Baptist missionaries. The North American Mission Board, or NAMB, (founded as the Domestic Mission Board, and later the Home Mission Board) in Alpharetta, Georgia serves missionaries involved in evangelism and church planting in the U.S. and Canada, while the International Mission Board, or IMB, (originally the Foreign Mission Board) in Richmond, Virginia sponsors missionaries to the rest of the world.

Among the more visible organizations within the North American Mission Board is Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. In 1967, a small group of Texas Southern Baptist volunteers helped victims ofHurricane Beulah by serving hot food cooked on small “buddy burners.” In 2005, volunteers responded to 166 named disasters, prepared 17,124,738 meals, repaired 7,246 homes, and removed debris from 13,986 yards.^[75] Southern Baptist Disaster Relief provides many different types: food, water, child care, communication, showers, laundry, repairs, rebuilding, or other essential tangible items that contribute to the resumption of life following the crisis – and the message of the Gospel. All assistance is provided to individuals and communities free of charge. SBC DR volunteer kitchens prepare much of the food distributed by the Red Cross in major disasters.^[76]

[edit]Seminaries and colleges

There are six SBC theological seminaries devoted to religious instruction and ministry preparation.

• Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky (1859, originally in Greenville, South Carolina)
• Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas (1908, originally part of Baylor University in Waco, Texas).
• New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, New Orleans, Louisiana (1916, originally New Orleans Baptist Bible Institute)
• Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Mill Valley, California (1944, originally in Oakland, California)
• Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, North Carolina (1950)
• Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri (1957)

There are multiple Baptist universities and colleges throughout the United states. See Southern Baptist-related Schools, Colleges, and Universities for further information.

[edit]Other organizations

• Baptist Men on Mission, formally known as Brotherhood, BMEN is the mission organization for men in Southern Baptist Churches.
• Baptist Press, the largest Christian news service in the country, was established by the SBC in 1946.
• Guidestone Financial Resources (formerly called the Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, and founded in 1918 as the Relief Board of the Southern Baptist Convention) exists to provide insurance, retirement, and investment services to ministers and employees of Southern Baptist churches and agencies. Like many financial institutions during that time period, it underwent a severe financial crisis in the 1930s.
• LifeWay Christian Resources, founded as the Baptist Sunday School Board in 1891, which is one of the largest Christian publishing houses in America and operates the “LifeWay Christian Stores” chain of bookstores.
• Woman’s Missionary Union, founded in 1888, is an auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention, and helps facilitate two large annual missions offerings: the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
• Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, is an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention that is dedicated to addressing social and moral concerns and their implications on public policy issues from City Hall to Congress. Its mission is “To awaken, inform, energize, equip, and mobilize Christians to be the catalysts for the Biblically-based transformation of their families, churches, communities, and the nation.” The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission was formerly known as the Christian Life Commission of the SBC.

[edit]See also

• List of Southern Baptist Convention affiliated people
• Southern Baptist Convention Presidents

[edit]References

[edit]Further reading