Southern Baptist

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a United States-based Christian denomination that consists of numerous agencies, including six seminaries, two mission boards and a variety of other organizations such as: the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, which can act for the SBC ad interim between annual meetings; Ethics & Religious Liberties Commission, Southern Baptist Foundation, and GuideStone Financial Resources.

The name "Southern Baptist Convention" refers both to the denomination and to its annual meeting of messengers. Messengers are those who are elected by individual congregations to attend the annual meeting as representatives of the local churches. Though they are similar to delegates, they are not obligated to cast votes representing a particular stance on any issue. All messengers are free to vote according to their consciences. Churches are free to choose messengers based on their loyalty to positions held by the majority in their local church.

The SBC is the largest Baptist association in the world and the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. It is the second largest grouping of Christians in the United States, after the Roman Catholic Church.

Arrival in America
Most early Baptists in the colonies came from England in the seventeenth century when the king and the state church persecuted them for holding their distinct religious views. Baptists like Roger Williams and Dr. John Clarke immigrated to New England in the 1630s.

The oldest Baptist church in the South, First Baptist Church, Charleston, South Carolina, was organized in 1682 under the leadership of Rev. William Screven. A Baptist church was formed in the Virginia colony in 1715 through the preaching of Robert Norden, and one in North Carolina in 1727 through the ministry of Paul Palmer. By 1740, there were about eight Baptist churches in the colonies of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, with an estimated 300-400 members.

In Virginia and most southern colonies before the Revolution, the Anglican Church was the state-established church and supported by general taxes, as it was in Great 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 Henry and James Madison defended Baptist preachers prior to the American Revolution in cases considered significant to the history of religious freedom. Madison later took his ideas about the importance of religious freedom to the Constitutional Convention, where he ensured they were incorporated into the constitution. Once the Revolution began, Baptists soon became active patriots in the cause.

Birth pains
By the mid-1800s, numerous social, cultural, economic, and political differences existed among business owners of the North, farmers of the West, and planters of the South. By 1840 these differences led to three separate Baptist national societies: the Triennial Convention, the Home Mission Society, and Baptists in the South.

Slavery was the "most critical" issue among Baptists. Early Baptist and Methodist evangelicals in the South before the Revolution 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.

Baptists struggled to gain a foothold in the South, the next generation of preachers accommodated themselves to the society. Rather than challenging the gentry on slavery, they began to find that the Bible supported its practice. In the two decades after the Revolution, preachers abandoned their pleas for manumission. They even wanted to preserve the rights of ministers themselves to hold slaves. The Triennial Convention and the Home Mission Society reaffirmed their neutrality concerning slavery.

Georgia Baptists decided to test the claimed neutrality by recommending a slaveholder to the Home Mission Society as a missionary in the South. Home Mission Society's board decided that they would not appoint a slaveholder as a missionary, a decision that the Baptists in the South saw as an infringement of their rights. The SBC did not officially renounce using the Bible as a justification for slavery and white supremacy until June 20, 1995 when they issued a formal "Declaration of Repentance."

A secondary issue that disturbed the churches in the south 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 slaveholders as missionaries.

Baptists in different regions also preferred different types of denominational organization: the 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.

Formation
The increasing tensions and discontent of Baptists from the south regarding national criticism of slavery led to their withdrawal from the national Baptist organizations. Meeting at the First Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia in May 1845, they formed a new convention, naming it the Southern Baptist Convention. They elected William Bullein Johnson (1782-1862) as its first president. He had served as president of the Triennial Convention in 1841.

The consequences of the decision to separate from other Baptists in defense of white supremacy and the institution of slavery have been long lived. A survey by SBC's Home Mission Board in 1968 showed that only eleven percent of Southern Baptist churches would admit Americans of African descent. African Americans gathered to develop their own churches early on to practice their distinct form of American Christianity away from attempts by whites at control. Within the Baptist denomination, African Americans established separate associations. During the conservative resurgence, the Southern Baptist Convention of 1995 voted to adopt a resolution renouncing its racist roots and apologizing for its past defense of slavery. The resolution repenting racism marked the denomination's first formal acknowledgment that racism played a role in its early history. Today there are many diverse and even self-consciously ethnic churches within the convention.

Historical controversies
During its history, the Southern Baptist Convention has had several periods of major internal controversy. The denomination's lack of a hierarchical form of government (polity) lends itself toward public displays of disagreement, including:


 * Landmarkism, which led to the formation of Gospel Missions and the American Baptist Association, as well as many unaffiliated independent churches.


 * The "Whitsitt controversy" (1896–1899), in which Dr. William H. Whitsitt, professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, set forth his theory that the English Baptists did not begin to baptize by immersion until 1641, when a part of the Anabaptists, as they were then called, began to practice immersion.


 * The "SBC Conservative Resurgence/Fundamentalist Takeover"— In 1979 the most notable recent disagreement captured national attention. The resurgence has been described by one Baptist leader as having fragmented Southern Baptist fellowship and as being "far more serious than a controversy." This leader wrote that "it was a self-destructive, contentious, one-sided feud that at times took on combative characteristics." Southern Baptists have become polarized into two major groups — moderates and conservatives. After 1979, all of the leaders of Southern Baptist agencies were replaced with fundamentalist leaders- as the majority of messengers in the convention voted that way.

Today


The SBC has grown from its regional, sectionalist roots to 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 Annual Meeting of the Convention, 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.

Statistics
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% of the membership (6,138,776 members, guests and non-member children) attend their church's primary worship meeting.

It has 1,200 local associations, 41 state conventions and fellowships covering all 50 states and territories of the United States. Through their "Cooperative Program," Southern Baptists support thousands of missionaries in the United States and worldwide. They fielded over 10,000 missionaries in 2005.

Data from church sources and independent surveys indicate that since 1990, membership of SBC churches has declined as a proportion of the American population. Historically, though, the Convention has grown throughout its history.

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). 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 "Statement of 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.

Position statements
The official Web site of the Southern Baptist Convention lists ten "Position Statements" on various contemporary issues.


 * Priesthood of all believers—Laypersons have the same right as ordained ministers to communicate with God, interpret Scripture, and minister in Christ's name
 * Soul competency—the accountability of each person before God
 * Creeds and confessions—Statements of belief are revisable in light of Scripture. The Bible is the final word.
 * Women in ministry—Women are an integral part of Southern Baptist boards, faculties, mission teams, writer pools, and professional staffs. Pastoral leadership is assigned exclusively to men.
 * Church and state—a free church in a free state. Neither one should control the affairs of the other.
 * Missions—We honor the indigenous principle in missions. We cannot, however, compromise doctrine or give up who we are to win the favor of those we try to reach or those with whom we desire to work.
 * Autonomy of local church—We affirm the autonomy of the local church.
 * Cooperation—The Cooperative Program of missions is integral to the Southern Baptist genius.
 * Sexuality—We affirm God's plan for marriage and sexual intimacy—one man and one woman, for life. Homosexuality is not a valid alternative lifestyle.
 * Sanctity of life—At the moment of conception, a new being enters the universe, a human being, a being created in God's image.

Ordinances and sacraments
Southern Baptists, as the Baptist Faith and Message outlines, observe two ordinances: the Lord's Supper and Believer's baptism.

Lord's Supper
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 instead of 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.

Baptism
Southern Baptists maintain the historic Baptist practice of administering baptism only to persons who have reached the "age of accountability" or "age of reason" (6 or 7), and who have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (believers). They hold to 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 as being valid, provided that they were performed after the individual accepted Christ for salvation.

Gender-based roles
As noted above, the SBC voted to revise its statement of faith in 2000. Among the notable changes are two statements concerning gender roles in both ministry and marriage. Although similar views have influenced Baptist groups in the past, these additions to the Baptist Faith and Message represent the first time such statements have been integrated into the statement of faith of a major American body of Baptists.

Pastorate
By explicitly defining the pastoral office as the exclusive domain of males, the 2000 BF&M provision becomes the SBC's first-ever official position against women pastors.

Since 1961, Progressive African American Baptists have developed a different tradition and practice in which women may serve as pastors.

Autonomous local congregations are not required to adopt male-only pastors as their theological position. Neither the BF&M nor the SBC provides any mechanism to trigger automatic expulsion of congregations that adopt practices or theology contrary to the BF&M. However, going against the SBC's official gender protocol that SBC defends on biblical grounds, opens a local Baptist congregation to severe criticism and even further penalties. Some SBC churches that have hired a woman as pastor have been excluded from fellowship and membership in their local associations of Baptist churches. Fewer such expulsions have taken place within annual meetings of state conventions.

While this "male-only pastors" language is indeed new to BF&M, it does not represent an innovation in Southern Baptist thought. At the time the Baptist Faith and Message was revised in 2000, only .08% of all SBC churches were pastored by women. (By contrast, 6.2% of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) churches and 9.1% of American Baptist Churches, USA (ABC-USA) churches are pastored by women.)

Marriage
The 2000 BF&M describes the family as:

Worship services
Most Southern Baptists observe a low church form of worship that is less formal and uses no stated liturgy. Worship services usually follow a "Revivalistic" liturgy including: 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 begin Christian discipleship, to enter into vocational ministry, to join the church, or make some other public decision.

Polity and organization
As is true of most Baptists, Southern Baptists' typical form of government is congregationalist: each local church is autonomous, without formal lines of responsibility to organizational levels of higher authority. Deacons of each church are elected by the congregation. In some Baptist congregations, deacons function much like a board of directors or executive committee authorized to make important decisions, although these 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, many congregations have shifted the role of deacons from being a governing board to pastoral and nurturing responsibilities. One such model is the Deacon Family Ministry Plan in which 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 nurture for the families assigned.

Because Baptist churches believe strongly in the autonomy of the local church; the Convention is conceived as a cooperative association by which churches can pool resources, rather than as a body with any administrative control over local churches. It maintains a central administrative organization in Nashville, Tennessee. The Executive Committee, as it is called, has no authority over its affiliated state conventions, local associations, individual churches or members. It does exercise authority and control over seminaries and other institutions owned by the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Convention's confession of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message, is not binding on churches or members.

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

Pastor and deacon
Generally, Baptists recognize only two Scriptural offices: pastor-teacher and deacon. In most SBC churches, these offices are reserved for men based on interpretation of certain New Testament scriptures (1Tim 2:11-14, 1 Tim 3:1-13, and Titus 1:6-9.)

Local congregation
Each congregation is independent and autonomous, except for certain "mission churches." 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

Certain smaller congregations, called "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.

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 Baptist associations have existed within the same county. While some believe the conservative takeover of the SBC in the 1980s served as a catalyst to multiple associations, the paradigm in the SBC had existed prior to 1980.

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 membership. For example, an association may initiate the "disfellowshipping" (or expulsion) of any church with which it 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 in any manner); or acceptance of "alien immersion" (the acceptance of members from Christian denominations who have been baptized 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 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.

State conventions
Individual congregations and associations may choose to affiliate into state conventions.

With the exception of Texas and Virginia, which have two conventions, each state has only one convention. Some smaller states, in terms of number of SBC congregations, are affiliated into a larger multi-state convention.

As with associations, the primary goal is evangelism and church planting. The state conventions support educational institutions, often institutions of higher education, and may support retirement and children's homes.

As with associations, the state convention cannot direct individual church affairs but can set requirements for affiliation. It can "disfellowship" churches at its discretion. The state convention generally meets annually, sets the time and place, and determines the number of messengers allowed per church.

State conventions associated with the SBC include:


 * California Southern Baptist Convention
 * Florida Baptist Convention
 * Illinois Baptist State Association
 * Kentucky Baptist Convention
 * Louisiana Baptist Convention
 * Missouri Baptist Convention
 * Mississippi Baptist Convention
 * State Convention of Baptists in Ohio
 * Tennessee Baptist Convention
 * Baptist General Convention of Texas (dually aligned with both the SBC and the CBF)
 * Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC) (convention formed as a conservative response to the more moderate Baptist General Convention of Texas)
 * Baptist General Association of Virginia (dually aligned with both the SBC and the CBF)
 * Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (convention formed as a conservative response to the more moderate Baptist General Association of Virginia)
 * State Convention of Baptists in Indiana
 * Georgia Baptist Convention
 * Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma

National convention
The "highest" level of organization is the national convention (usually called the "Convention") made up of individual churches, associations, and state conventions, which meets annually in early June. The following quotation from the SBC Constitution explains the membership and description of "messengers" to each annual meeting:

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 of Hurricane 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. 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 provide more than 80% of the food distributed by the Red Cross in major disasters. SBC DR volunteers are easily recognizable in their bright yellow shirt and hats, and are often among the first to arrive at a disaster event.

National educational institutions
The national Convention supports six educational institutions devoted to religious instruction and ministry preparation:


 * Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Mill Valley, California
 * Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri
 * New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, New Orleans, Louisiana (founded in 1916, first seminary created as a direct act of the SBC)
 * Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, North Carolina
 * Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky (founded in 1859 in Greenville, South Carolina, and the oldest of the six institutions)
 * Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas

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 (founded in 1920 as the Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention) exists to provide insurance, retirement, and investment services to ministers and employees of Southern Baptist churches and agencies. 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.
 * Women'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.
 * Alliance of Baptists, founded in 1987, is an association of Baptist congregations favoring more liberal policies.

Prominent Southern Baptists
This list does not assume that all are active in the SBC or living their lives according to Southern Baptist principles. The following well-known individuals identified themselves as Southern Baptists at some time: